Conjoint and dissociated structural and functional abnormalities in first-episode drug-naive patients with major depressive disorder: a multimodal meta-analysis

Published MRI evidence of structural and resting-state functional brain abnormalities in MDD has been inconsistent. To eliminate interference by repeated disease episodes and antidepressant treatment, we conducted the first multimodal voxel-wise meta-analysis of studies of voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and the amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation (ALFF) in first-episode drug-naive MDD patients, using the Seed-based d Mapping method (SDM). Fifteen VBM data sets and 11 ALFF data sets were included. SDM-based multimodal meta-analysis was used to highlight brain regions with both structural and functional abnormalities. This identified conjoint structural and functional abnormalities in left lateral orbitofrontal cortex and right supplementary motor area, and also dissociated abnormalities of structure (decreased grey matter in right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and right inferior temporal gyrus; increased grey matter in right insula, right putamen, left temporal pole, and bilateral thalamus) and function (increased brain activity in left supplementary motor area, left parahippocampal gyrus, and hippocampus; decreased brain activity in right lateral orbitofrontal cortex). This study reveals a complex pattern of conjoint and dissociated structural and functional abnormalities, supporting the involvement of basal ganglia-thalamocortical circuits, representing emotional, cognitive and psychomotor abnormalities, in the pathophysiology of early-stage MDD. Specifically, this study adds to Psychoradiology, an emerging subspecialty of radiology, which seems primed to play a major clinical role in guiding diagnostic and treatment planning decisions in patients with mental disorder

A Comparison of Molecular Biology Mechanism of Shewanella putrefaciens between Fresh and Terrestrial Sewage Wastewater

Municipal and industrial wastewater is often discharged into the environment without appropriate treatment, especially in developing countries. As a result, many rivers and oceans are contaminated. It is urgent to control and administer treatments to these contaminated rivers and oceans. However, most mechanisms of bacterial colonization in contaminated rivers and oceans were unknown, especially in sewage outlets. We found Shewanella putrefaciens to be the primary bacteria in the terrestrial sewage wastewater outlets around Ningbo City, China. Therefore, in this study, we applied a combination of differential proteomics, metabolomics, and real-time fluorescent quantitative PCR techniques to identify bacteria intracellular metabolites. We found S. putrefaciens had 12 different proteins differentially expressed in freshwater culture than when grown in wastewater, referring to the formation of biological membranes (Omp35, OmpW), energy metabolism (SOD, deoxyribose-phosphate pyrophosphokinase), fatty acid metabolism (beta-ketoacyl synthase), secondary metabolism, TCA cycle, lysine degradation (2-oxoglutarate reductase), and propionic acid metabolism (succinyl coenzyme A synthetase). The sequences of these 12 differentially expressed proteins were aligned with sequences downloaded from NCBI. There are also 27 differentially concentrated metabolites detected by NMR, including alcohols (ethanol, isopropanol), amines (dimethylamine, ethanolamine), amino acids (alanine, leucine), amine compounds (bilinerurine), nucleic acid compounds (nucleosides, inosines), organic acids (formate, acetate). Formate and ethanolamine show significant difference between the two environments and are possibly involved in energy metabolism, glycerophospholipid and ether lipids metabolism to provide energy supply and material basis for engraftment in sewage. Because understanding S. putrefaciens’s biological mechanism of colonization (protein, gene express and metabolites) in terrestrial sewage outlets is so important to administering and improving contaminated river and to predicting and steering performance, we delved into the biological mechanism that sheds light on the effect of environmental conditions on metabolic pathways

Characterization of two novel HIV-1 second-generation recombinants (CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC) identified in Hebei Province, China

IntroductionThe unique recombinant forms (URFs) of HIV-1 consist of a mixture of subtypes, and each URF has a unique breakpoint. In this study, we identified the near fulllength genome (NFLG) sequences of two novel HIV-1 URFs (Sample ID: BDD034A and BDL060) isolated during HIV-1 molecular surveillance in 2022 in Baoding city, Hebei Province, China.MethodsThe two sequences were aligned with subtype reference sequences and CRFs from China using MAFFT v7.0, and the alignments were adjusted manually using BioEdit (v7.2.5.0). Phylogenetic and subregion trees were constructed using MEGA11 with the neighbor-joining (N-J) method. Recombination breakpoints were identified by SimPlot (v3.5.1) based on Bootscan analyses.ResultsRecombinant breakpoint analysis revealed that the NFLGs of BDD034A and BDL060 were composed of CRF01_AE and CRF07_BC, containing seven segments, respectively. For BDD034A, three CRF01_AE fragments were inserted into the CRF07_BC main framework, whereas for BDL060, three CRF07_BC fragments were inserted into the CRF01_AE main framework.DiscussionThe emergence of the CRF01_AE/CRF07_BC recombinant strains indicates that HIV-1 co-infection is common. The increasing genetic complexity of the HIV-1 epidemic in China warrants continued investigation

Abnormal metabolite concentrations and amygdala volume in patients with recent-onset posttraumatic stress disorder

Background Previous psychoradiological studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were mainly of patients at a chronic stage, focusing on brain regions outside the amygdala. The goals of this study were to investigate the early biochemical and structural changes of anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and amygdala in patients with PTSD and to explore their relationships. Methods Seventy-eight drug-naïve PTSD subjects and 71 non-PTSD age- and sex-matched control subjects were enrolled, all of whom had suffered the same earthquake about one year before. Single-voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) was performed and absolute metabolite concentrations in ACC and bilateral amygdalae were estimated with LCModel. Bilateral amygdalae were manually outlined and their volumes were calculated and corrected for the total intracranial volume. Results The PTSD group showed significantly increased N-acetylaspartate (NAA) concentration in the ACC, increased creatine (Cr) concentration in the left amygdala, and increased myo-inositol (mI) concentration in the right amygdala, compared to non-PTSD controls. The NAA concentration in ACC was negatively correlated with the time since trauma. The PTSD group showed significantly decreased volumes of bilateral amygdalae compared to non-PTSD controls, but amygdala volumes were not correlated with metabolite concentrations. Limitations Longitudinal studies are needed to explore the metabolic and structural changes of PTSD at different stages. The volume of ACC was not measured. Conclusions This concurrent increase in some metabolite concentrations and decrease of amygdala volumes may represent a pattern of biochemical and morphological changes in recent-onset PTSD which is different from that reported in chronic PTSD

Performance Improvement of Single-Frequency CW Laser Using a Temperature Controller Based on Machine Learning

The performance improvement of an all-solid-state single-frequency continuous-wave (CW) laser with high output power is presented in this paper, which is implemented by employing a temperature control system based on machine learning to control the temperature of laser elements including gain crystal, laser diode and so on. Because the developed temperature controller based on machine learning combines the back propagation (BP) neural network algorithm with the proportion-integration-differentiation (PID) control algorithm, the parameters of the PID are adaptive with the variation of the environment. As a result, the control speeds and control abilities of the temperatures of the elements are dramatically enhanced. In this case, the output characteristic and the adaptability to the environment as well as the stability of the single-frequency CW laser are also improved greatly

A Review of the High-Power All-Solid-State Single-Frequency Continuous-Wave Laser

High-power all-solid-state single-frequency continuous-wave (CW) lasers have been applied in basic research such as atomic physics, precision measurement, radar and laser guidance, as well as defense and military fields owing to their intrinsic advantages of high beam quality, low noise, narrow linewidth, and high coherence. With the rapid developments of sciences and technologies, the traditional single-frequency lasers cannot meet the development needs of emerging science and technology such as quantum technology, quantum measurement and quantum optics. After long-term efforts and technical research, a novel theory and technology was proposed and developed for improving the whole performance of high-power all-solid-state single-frequency CW lasers, which was implemented by actively introducing a nonlinear optical loss and controlling the stimulated emission rate (SER) in the laser resonator. As a result, the output power, power and frequency stabilities, tuning range and intensity noise of the single-frequency lasers were effectively enhanced

Preparation and representation of recombinant Mn-ferritin flower-like spherical aggregates from marine invertebrates.

Ferritin has important functions in the transition and storage of toxic metal ions, but its regulation and function in many invertebrate species are still largely unknown. In our previous work, the cDNA sequence of Sinonovacula constricta, Apostichopus japonicas and Acaudina leucoprocta were constructed and efficiently expressed in E. Coli BL21 under IPTG induction. In this follow-up study, the recombinant ferritins were exposed to heavy metal manganese. The manganese concentration levels in three recombinant ferritins were greater than horse spleen ferritin (HSF). Compared with HSF, the amount of manganese enrichment in the three recombinant ferritins was 1.75-fold, 3.25-fold and 2.42-fold increases in ScFER, AjFER, and AlFER, respectively. After phosphate stimulation, the concentration of manganese increased and was higher than the ordinary dialysis control groups. The ScFER was four times its baseline value. The AjFER and AlFER were 1.4- and 8-fold higher, respectively. The AlFER sample stimulated by phosphate was 22-fold that of HSF. The morphologies of the resulting Mn-Ferritin from different marine invertebrates were characterized with scanning electron microscopy. Surface morphologies were lamella flower-like and are consistent with changes in surface morphologies of the standard Mn-HSF. Invertebrate recombinant ferritin and HSF both can uptake manganese. We found that the structure of A. leucoproctarecombinant Mn-Ferritin aggregate changed over time. The surface formed lamella flower-like aggregate, but gradually merged to create a relatively uniform plate-like phase of aggregate spherically and fused without clear boundaries

Psychoradiological investigations of gray matter alterations in patients with anorexia nervosa

Abstract Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe psychiatric disorder with high mortality. The underlying neurobiological mechanisms are not well understood, and high-resolution structural magnetic resonance brain imaging studies have given inconsistent results. Here we aimed to psychoradiologically define the most prominent and replicable abnormalities of gray matter volume (GMV) in AN patients, and to examine their relationship to demographics and clinical characteristics, by means of a new coordinate-based meta-analytic technique called seed-based d mapping (SDM). In a pooled analysis of all AN patients we identified decreased GMV in the bilateral median cingulate cortices and posterior cingulate cortices extending to the bilateral precuneus, and the supplementary motor area. In subgroup analysis we found an additional decreased GMV in the right fusiform in adult AN, and a decreased GMV in the left amygdala and left anterior cingulate cortex in AN patients without comorbidity (pure AN). Thus, the most consistent GMV alterations in AN patients are in the default mode network and the sensorimotor network. These psychoradiological findings of the brain abnormalities might underpin the neuropathophysiology in AN