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Amino acid formula (AAF) is increasingly consumed in infants with cow's milk protein allergy; however, the long-term influences on health are less described. In this study, we established a mouse model by subjecting neonatal mice to an amino acid diet (AAD) to mimic the feeding regimen of infants on AAF. Surprisingly, AAD-fed mice exhibited dysbiotic microbiota and increased neuronal activity in both the intestine and brain, as well as gastrointestinal peristalsis disorders and depressive-like behavior. Furthermore, fecal microbiota transplantation from AAD-fed mice or AAF-fed infants to recipient mice led to elevated neuronal activations and exacerbated depressive-like behaviors compared to that from normal chow-fed mice or cow's-milk-formula-fed infants, respectively. Our findings highlight the necessity to avoid the excessive use of AAF, which may influence the neuronal development and mental health of children. [Display omitted] • AAD feeding leads to depressive-like behavior and GI motility disorder in mice • AAD feeding leads to increased neuronal activities • AAD-feeding-induced behavioral changes are microbiota dependent • FMT from AAF-fed infants leads to depressive-like behavior in GF mice Hu et al. report amino acid diet (AAD)- and amino acid formula (AAF)-induced behavioral changes in mice with elevated neuronal activation, regulated by gut microbiota. This underscores valuable insights into potential links between AAF-fed children and mental well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parkinson's disease (PD) is a common neurodegenerative disorder. The main neuropathological features of PD are the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra striata and the extensive accumulation of α-synuclein in different brain regions. The substantia nigra and striatum are brain regions with high expression of cannabinoid receptors, and the role of the endogenous cannabinoid system (ECS) has been explored in PD. The ECS may be a promising target for the treatment of PD. The correlation between PD and serum uric acid levels has been demonstrated in a large number of studies, but a causal relationship between the two has not been proven. Xanthine and hypoxanthine are upstream metabolite of uric acid, and they have been shown to be effective in relieving PD symptoms. Therefore, we hypothesized that xanthine or hypoxanthine or both may increase the inhibitory properties of GABAergic neurons by increasing the sensitivity of cannabinoid receptors on GABAergic neurons in the striatum, thereby activating the direct nigrostriatal pathway to ameliorate Parkinson's disease symptoms. The proposed hypothesis can be tested in animal and cellular intervention experiments. If this approach is found to be effective in improving PD symptoms with minimal adverse events, exogenous supplementation of xanthine/ hypoxanthine or the use of xanthine oxidase to block its metabolism to elevate hypoxanthine levels could potentially be an effective addition to PD therapy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurate preoperative path planning plays an essential role in a neurosurgical procedure of deep brain stimulation, leading to a successful procedure with significant surgical outcomes. Conventional preoperative path planning is time-consuming and uncertain, depending highly on the knowledge and experience of the clinician who has to manually plan the electrode-implant path. This work presents a new preoperative path planning strategy for neurostimulation to automatically and accurately find the optimal electrode-implant trajectory. Specifically, a coarse-to-refine neural network model is proposed to accurately segment anatomical brain structures such as the subthalamic nucleus, while the path planning is formulated as an optimization task that minimizes the surgical risk on the implantation trajectory through the segmented brain structures, as well as ensures the puncture path at the safest distance to targets of interest in the brain. We evaluate our method on retrospective neurostimulation data and compare it to the puncture path generated by experienced surgeons, with the experimental results showing that our method provides surgeons with automatic and accurate electrode implant trajectory comparable or even better than manual planning of fellow surgeons. • A coarse-to-refine deep learning segmentation method to extract the target and risk structures in 3D MRI data for the DBS planning. • A safe and optimized puncture trajectory to mimic surgeons for image guided preoperative path planning with 3D MRI data. • Evaluation of automatic puncture trajectory planning on postoperative 3D CT data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately targeting specific regions of interest in the brain is pivotal for the success of neurosurgical procedures. For example, the outcome of brain tumor resection is improved dramatically when surgeons are better able to define surgical borders. Intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) helps reduce the risk of damaging critical areas of the brain and makes it possible to confirm a successful resection or determine the need for further resection prior to closing a patient's head and finalizing the surgery. Here we present a ground-based, iMRI system with a mobile 1-T cryogen-free imager. An ex-vivo experimental test of the novel iMRI system is performed to demonstrate preoperative and intraoperative imaging. The ground-based, mobile iMRI system presented here was successfully used to obtain intraoperative MR images without moving the imaging target or compromising conventional surgical techniques. The success of this experiment constitutes a major milestone towards the installation of a ground-based, high-field, mobile iMRI system in a hospital setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cholesterol serves a vital role in the occurrence and development of glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Furthermore, cholesterol synthesis is regulated by sterol regulatory element-binding protein 2 (SREBP2), and certain glucose transporters (GLUTs) and Ras-related protein Rab11 (Rab11) small GTPase family members (Rab11s) may contribute to the process. The Cancer Genome Atlas was used to analyze the relationship between prognosis and GLUT gene expressions. To investigate the regulatory effect of Rab11s and SREBP2 on GLUTs during tumor progression, single cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), western blotting and reverse transcription-quantitative PCR were performed on glioma tissues and the T98G GBM cell line. Cell viability and migration were assessed by performing MTT and wound healing assays, respectively. Moreover, the dual-luciferase reporter gene assay was conducted to predict the sterol regulatory elements in the promoter regions of the target genes. The results demonstrated that high SREBP2, GLUT1 and GLUT6 expression was associated with poor survival of patients with GBM. ScRNA-seq distinguished glioblastoma cells by EGFR and indicated the related lipid metabolism signaling pathways. Moreover, the results indicated that GLUT1 and GLUT6 were regulated by SREBP2 and Rab11s. Rab11s and SREBP2 also contributed to T98G cell viability and migration. Additionally, the results indicated that Rab11s, GLUT1 and GLUT6 were transcriptionally regulated by SREBP2. Therefore, the present study suggested that the SREBP2/Rab11/GLUT network promoted T98G cell growth, thus, identifying potential therapeutic targets for GBM. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]