Recent advance in early diagnosis biomarkers of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease / 中华神经医学杂志

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a type of fatal central nervous system degeneration caused by infectious pathogenic prion protein. The early clinical manifestations of the disease are diverse and lack of specificity, so it is difficult to distinguish it from other neurological diseases. Researchers have made long-term exploration and clinical applications in imaging, electroencephalography, and detection of special proteins in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. In recent years, the development of new methods for the detection of pathogenic prion protein has provided great help for the early diagnosis of the disease, and it has great clinical application prospects. This article reviews the current research on the epidemiology, etiology and pathological mechanism and early diagnosis biomarkers of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, in order to help clinical colleagues to further enhance the understanding of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Expression of clock genes Bmall and Bmal2 in total leukocytes in health and Parkinson's disease / 中华行为医学与脑科学杂志

Objective To study the expression of clock genes in Parkinson's disease(PD) and also the molecular clock machinery of PD.Methods Seventeen PD patients(nine men,eight women)and sixteen agematched controls(nine men,seven women) were investigated in this study.Bload samples were collected over a 12h span at 21:00,00:00,06:00 and 09:00.Using a real-time PCR assay,the peripheral molecular clock was examined by measuring Bmall and Bmal2 expression in total leukocytes during the dark span(from 21:00 to 09:00)in PD patients and age-matched healthy controls.Results At PD,the relative abundance of Bmall was significantly lower at 21:00,00:00 and 06:00(21:00:(22.17±4.09)vs(51.14±8.31),P=0.003,00:00:(30.30±5.45)vs(100.00±24.71),P=0.008,06:00:(19.02±3.33)vs(65.61±14.11),P=0.002).The relative Bmal2 levels in PD patients were significantly less abundant than controls at 21:00 and 00:00(21:00:(48.09±7.40)vs(84.96±9.34),P=0.005;00:00:((65.85±7.88)vs(100.00±11.78),P=0.025).Conclusion These results suggest that a peripheral molecular clock is altered in PD patients.In addition,the relative abundance of Bmall and Bmal2 was significantly lower in PD patients versus control subjects,which can provide a molecular basis to help monitor disease progression and response to investigational drugs.