An Efficient Feature Extraction Scheme for Mobile Anti-Shake in Augmented Reality

In recent years, augmented reality on mobile devices has become popular. Mobile shakes are the most typical type of interference in mobile augmented reality. To negate such interference, anti-shake is an urgent requirement. To enhance anti-shake efficiency, we propose an efficient feature extraction scheme for mobile anti-shake in augmented reality. The scheme directly detects corners to avoid the non-extreme constraint such that the efficiency of feature extraction is improved. Meanwhile, the scheme only updates the added corners during mobile shakes, which improves the accuracy of feature extraction. In the experiments, the memory consumption of existing methods is almost double compared to that in our scheme. Further, the runtime of our scheme is only half of the runtime of the existing methods. The experimental results demonstrate that our scheme performs better than the existing classic methods on mobile anti-shake in terms of memory consumption, efficiency, and accuracy

Neuropathic Injury-Induced Plasticity of GABAergic System in Peripheral Sensory Ganglia

GABA is a major inhibitory neurotransmitter in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS). Inhibitory GABAA channel circuits in the dorsal spinal cord are the gatekeepers of the nociceptive input from the periphery to the CNS. Weakening of these spinal inhibitory mechanisms is a hallmark of chronic pain. Yet, recent studies have suggested the existence of an earlier GABAergic “gate” within the peripheral sensory ganglia. In this study, we performed systematic investigation of plastic changes of the GABA-related proteins in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) in the process of neuropathic pain development. We found that chronic constriction injury (CCI) induced general downregulation of most GABAA channel subunits and the GABA-producing enzyme, glutamate decarboxylase, consistent with the weakening of the GABAergic inhibition at the periphery. Strikingly, the α5 GABAA subunit was consistently upregulated. Knock-down of the α5 subunit in vivo moderately alleviated neuropathic hyperalgesia. Our findings suggest that while the development of neuropathic pain is generally accompanied by weakening of the peripheral GABAergic system, the α5 GABAA subunit may have a unique pro-algesic role and, hence, might represent a new therapeutic target

The transmembrane channel-like 6 (TMC6) in primary sensory neurons involving thermal sensation via modulating M channels

Introduction: The transmembrane channel-like (TMC) protein family contains eight members, TMC1–TMC8. Among these members, only TMC1 and TMC2 have been intensively studied. They are expressed in cochlear hair cells and are crucial for auditory sensations. TMC6 and TMC8 contribute to epidermodysplasia verruciformis, and predispose individuals to human papilloma virus. However, the impact of TMC on peripheral sensation pain has not been previously investigated.Methods: RNAscope was employed to detect the distribution of TMC6 mRNA in DRG neurons. Electrophysiological recordings were conducted to investigate the effects of TMC6 on neuronal characteristics and M channel activity. Zn2+ indicators were utilized to detect the zinc concentration in DRG tissues and dissociated neurons. A series of behavioural tests were performed to assess thermal and mechanical sensation in mice under both physiological and pathological conditions.Results and Discussion: We demonstrated that TMC6 is mainly expressed in small and medium dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons and is involved in peripheral heat nociception. Deletion of TMC6 in DRG neurons hyperpolarizes the resting membrane potential and inhibits neuronal excitability. Additionally, the function of the M channel is enhanced in TMC6 deletion DRG neurons owing to the increased quantity of free zinc in neurons. Indeed, heat and mechanical hyperalgesia in chronic pain are alleviated in TMC6 knockout mice, particularly in the case of heat hyperalgesia. This suggests that TMC6 in the small and medium DRG neurons may be a potential target for chronic pain treatment

Local GABAergic signaling within sensory ganglia controls peripheral nociceptive transmission

The integration of somatosensory information is generally assumed to be a function of the central nervous system (CNS). Here we describe fully functional GABAergic communication within rodent peripheral sensory ganglia and show that it can modulate transmission of pain-related signals from the peripheral sensory nerves to the CNS. We found that sensory neurons express major proteins necessary for GABA synthesis and release and that sensory neurons released GABA in response to depolarization. In vivo focal infusion of GABA or GABA reuptake inhibitor to sensory ganglia dramatically reduced acute peripherally induced nociception and alleviated neuropathic and inflammatory pain. In addition, focal application of GABA receptor antagonists to sensory ganglia triggered or exacerbated peripherally induced nociception. We also demonstrated that chemogenetic or optogenetic depolarization of GABAergic dorsal root ganglion neurons in vivo reduced acute and chronic peripherally induced nociception. Mechanistically, GABA depolarized the majority of sensory neuron somata, yet produced a net inhibitory effect on the nociceptive transmission due to the filtering effect at nociceptive fiber T-junctions. Our findings indicate that peripheral somatosensory ganglia represent a hitherto underappreciated site of somatosensory signal integration and offer a potential target for therapeutic intervention

“Dual-Key-and-Lock” dual drug carrier for dual mode imaging guided chemo-photothermal therapy

Drug resistance and side effects are the two main problems of chemotherapy. In order to address these big challenges, p-PB@d-SiO2, which has the ability to co-deliver both the hydrophobic drug doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) and the hydrophilic drug ibuprofen (IBU), is constructed to achieve synergistic treatment. The drug-loaded nanoparticle consists of porous Prussian blue (p-PB) as the core and dendrimer-like SiO2 (d-SiO2) as the shell, which is further thiolated and coated with polyethylene glycol thiol (HS-PEG) to form the "Dual-Key-and-Lock" drug carrier p-PB@d-SiO2-SS-PEG. The locked drugs can only be released in the presence of cooperative triggers, i.e., a high glutathione concentration (the first key) and an acidic environment (the second key). The "dual key"-triggered release is much more significant in cancer lesions than in normal tissues, reducing side effects. Furthermore, cell viability experiments highlight the superior therapeutic efficacy of the dual-drug-loaded nanoparticles compared with the single-drug systems (60%, 73% and 86% vs. 56%, 68%, and 76% at 100, 200 and 500 μg mL-1, respectively). In vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate the potential application of p-PB@d-SiO2-SS-PEG for dual-mode fluorescence and magnetic-resonance-imaging-guided chemo-photothermal therapy. The "Dual-Key-and-Lock" drug carrier system exhibits the "1 + 1 > 2" effect, demonstrating its excellent performance in synergy therapy for improved therapeutic efficiency and thereby reducing conventional drug resistance and side effects

Carbon dots embedded metal organic framework @ chitosan core-shell nanoparticles for vitro dual mode imaging and pH-responsive drug delivery

In this study, a novel core-shell MOFs/CDs@OCMC nanoparticles were synthesized and validated for in vitro diagnosis and treatment of cancer. MIL-100 (Fe-BTC) is a potential drug platform because of its large specific surface area. Importantly it can be used for magnetic resonance imaging as it contains large amount of Fe. To demonstrate the optical imaging properties, carbon dots (CDs) were encapsulated into the synthesized MOFs, thereby endowing fluorescence features to the nanoparticles. The composite was further coated with O-carboxymethyl chitosan (OCMC) to form MOFs/CDs@OCMC to improve biocompability and endow pH responsive property. The structure and morphology of the composite were characterized by XRD, IR, SEM and TEM. Moreover, the composite exhibited excellent performance in fluorescence imaging (FOI) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which proved that MOFs/CDs@OCMC could be used for FOI/MRI dual mode imaging. Cytotoxicity assays indicated that MOFs/CDs@OCMC particles were highly biocompatible and suitable to be used to transport drugs in human bodies. Doxorubicin (DOX) was selected as a model drug and the drug delivery was discussed. The drug loading was 50 mg/g. It was found that the DOX was released rapidly at pH 3.8 but at pH 7.4, the rate and extent of release were greatly attenuated. The particles therefore demonstrated an excellent pH-triggered drug release performance

Multifunctional drug carrier on the basis of 3d–4f Fe/La-MOFs for drug delivery and dual-mode imaging

Multifunctional drug carriers for simultaneous imaging and drug delivery have emerged as an important new direction for the treatment of cancer. In this study, 3d-4f heterometallic Fe/La-MOFs, with excellent fluorescence and superior positive magnetic resonance imaging with high resolution, were synthesized successfully. The feasibility of Fe/La-MOFs for use in multifunctional drug delivery was demonstrated using doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) as the drug model. After modification with tunable amino modified silica layers, the drug loading increased to 150.2 mg g-1 from 23.9 mg g-1, and the pH responsive drug release climbed 80% from 10% upon regulating the pH from 5.8 to 7.4. T2-Weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluorescence optical imaging (FOI) both showed a clear concentration-dependent contrast enhancement, indicating potential application as a MRI/FOI dual mode imaging agent. In addition, the FOI of 4T1 cells loaded with Fe/La-MOFs demonstrated their capacity for imaging living cells. The particles were tracked by MRI, and the transverse relativity (r2) ranks among the highest reported for Fe3+complexes (100.49 mM-1 s-1). In summary, this is the first report on 3d-4f MOF particles displaying pH-responsive delivery and MRI/FOI dual mode imaging