Application of the Chinese Version of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Basic for Assessing Mild Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease

Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is a common and pivotal non-motor symptom in Parkinson’s disease (PD). It is necessary to use the appropriate tools to characterize the cognitive profiles and identify the subjects at risk of MCI in clinical practice. A cohort of 207 non-demented patients with PD and 52 age- and gender-matched cognitively normal controls (NCs) underwent the Chinese Version of Montreal Cognitive Assessment-Basic (MoCA-BC) evaluation. Patients with PD also received detailed motor and non-motor evaluation by serial scales. Cognitive profiles were investigated in patients with PD-MCI, relative to patients with normal cognition (PD-NC) and cognitively NCs. In addition, differences in demography, major motor and non-motor symptoms were compared between patients with PD-MCI and PD-NC. There were 70 patients with PD-MCI, occupying 33.8% of the total patients. Patients with PD-MCI had impairment in multiple cognitive domains, especially in executive function, memory and visuospatial function on MoCA-BC, relative to cognitively NCs or PD-NC. Compared with PD-NC patients, PD-MCI patients were older (p = 0.002) and had a later onset age (p = 0.007) and higher score of the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS) part III (p = 0.001). The positive rate of clinical possible rapid eye movement sleep behavior disorder (cpRBD) in the PD-MCI group was significantly increased relative to the PD-NC group (p = 0.003). Multivariate logistic analysis showed that older age (OR = 1.06; p = 0.012), higher score of UPDRS-III (OR = 1.03; p = 0.018) and the presence of cpRBD (OR = 2.10; p = 0.037) were independently associated factors of MCI in patients with PD. In conclusion, executive function, memory and visuospatial function are the main impaired cognitive profiles in PD-MCI via MoCA-BC. Aging, motor severity and RBD may be independently related factors of MCI in PD

Immunotherapeutic effects of Mycobacterium tuberculosis rv3407 DNA vaccine in mice

Tuberculosis (TB) is a major global public health problem. Latent TB infection (LTBI) is a major source of active TB. New vaccines to treat LTBI are urgently demanded. In this study, the gene encoding latency-associated antigen Rv3407 of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) rv3407 DNA vaccine was used to prepare and the immunogenicity and therapeutic effects were evaluated. Normal mice were immunized intramuscularly three times at two-week intervals with sterile water for injection, plasmid vector pVAX1, M. vaccae vaccine, ag85a DNA or rv3407 DNA. TB-infected mice were immunized intramuscularly three times at two-week intervals with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) and rv3407 DNA. The normal mice immunized with rv3407 DNA or ag85a DNA showed higher levels of interferon-gamma (IFN-γ) in stimulated spleen lymphocyte culture supernatants, and had more Th1 cells and an elevated ratio of Th1/Th2 immune cells in whole blood, indicating that a Th1-type immune response was predominant. The levels of anti-Ag85A or anti-Rv3407 IgG antibody were significantly increased in the ag85a DNA and rv3407 DNA groups compared to the sterile water for injection, vector, and M. vaccae groups (p < .0001). Compared with the PBS group, the rv3407 DNA group had pulmonary bacterial loads that were lower by 0.56 log10 (p < .01). The mice vaccinated with rv3407 DNA developed antigen-specific cellular and humoral responses. The rv3407 DNA is a potential DNA vaccine candidate against TB

PMS1T, producing phased small-interfering RNAs, regulates photoperiod-sensitive male sterility in rice.

Phased small-interfering RNAs (phasiRNAs) are a special class of small RNAs, which are generated in 21- or 24-nt intervals from transcripts of precursor RNAs. Although phasiRNAs have been found in a range of organisms, their biological functions in plants have yet to be uncovered. Here we show that phasiRNAs generated by the photopheriod-sensetive genic male sterility 1 (Pms1) locus were associated with photoperiod-sensitive male sterility (PSMS) in rice, a germplasm that started the two-line hybrid rice breeding. The Pms1 locus encodes a long-noncoding RNA PMS1T that was preferentially expressed in young panicles. PMS1T was targeted by miR2118 to produce 21-nt phasiRNAs that preferentially accumulated in the PSMS line under long-day conditions. A single nucleotide polymorphism in PMS1T nearby the miR2118 recognition site was critical for fertility change, likely leading to differential accumulation of the phasiRNAs. This result suggested possible roles of phasiRNAs in reproductive development of rice, demonstrating the potential importance of this RNA class as regulators in biological processes