Fecal Microbiota Underlying the Coexistence of Schizophrenia and Multiple Sclerosis in Chinese Patients.

Both schizophrenia (SZ) and multiple sclerosis (MS) affect millions of people worldwide and impose a great burden on society. Recent studies indicated that MS elevated the risk of SZ and vice versa, whereas the underlying pathological mechanisms are still obscure. Considering that fecal microbiota played a vital role in regulating brain functions, the fecal microbiota and serum cytokines from 90 SZ patients and 71 age-, gender-, and BMI-matched cognitively normal subjects (referred as SZC), 22 MS patients and 33 age-, gender-, and BMI-matched healthy subjects (referred as MSC) were analyzed. We found that both diseases demonstrated similar microbial diversity and shared three differential genera, including the down-regulated Faecalibacterium, Roseburia, and the up-regulated Streptococcus. Functional analysis indicated that the three genera were involved in pathways such as "carbohydrate metabolism" and "amino acid metabolism." Moreover, the variation patterns of serum cytokines associated with MS and SZ patients were a bit different. Among the six cytokines perturbed in both diseases, TNF-α increased, while IL-8 and MIP-1α decreased in both diseases. IL-1ra, PDGF-bb, and RANTES were downregulated in MS patients but upregulated in SZ patients. Association analyses showed that Faecalibacterium demonstrated extensive correlations with cytokines in both diseases. Most notably, Faecalibacterium correlated negatively with TNF-α. In other words, fecal microbiota such as Faecalibacterium may contribute to the coexistence of MS and SZ by regulating serum cytokines. Our study revealed the potential roles of fecal microbiota in linking MS and SZ, which paves the way for developing gut microbiota-targeted therapies that can manage two diseases with a single treat.

A misdiagnosed case of osteoid osteoma of L5.

Clinically, it is difficult to differentiate osteoid osteoma, more than 50% of which occur in the fibia or tibia, from other diseases, i.e. spinal degenerative diseases, inflammatory and noninflammatory arthritis. In this case report, we presented an unusual case of lumbar osteoid osteoma in a 38-year-old male, who experienced low back pain and sciatica as initial symptoms. The patient was initially misdiagnosed as lumbar disc herniation for more than 10 years. With the usage of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the patient was finally diagnosed as osteoid osteoma in L5. To our knowledge, spinal osteoid osteoma with sciatica as initial symptoms has never been reported. Although lumbar vertebra osteoid osteoma is clinically uncommon, it should be taken into consideration especially when patients experience long duration of pain in lumbar.

Common Variants in OPG Confer Risk to Bone Mineral Density Variation and Osteoporosis Fractures.

Although many common variants have been identified for bone mineral density (BMD) and osteoporosis fractures, all the identified risk variants could only explain a small portion of heritability of BMD and osteoporosis fractures. OPG belongs to the tumor necrosis factor receptor superfamily, which plays a crucial role in bone remodeling and is thus a promising candidate gene of osteoporosis. Several studies have explored the association of OPG variants with BMD or osteoporosis fractures, however, the results remain inconsistent among different populations. In the study, we first assessed the relationship between OPG variants and BMD or osteoporosis fractures in our sample size (227 subjects with postmenopausal osteoporosis and 189 controls), and then performed a systematic meta-analysis. Among the nine SNPs genotyped, rs6469804 and rs2073618 showed significant associations with both BMD and osteoporotic fractures, while rs3102735 was only associated with BMD in our samples (P < 0.05). For meta-analyses, data for a total of 12 SNPs were pooled (4725 patients and 37804 controls), and five SNPs, including rs6993813, rs6469804, rs3134070, rs2073618 and rs3102734, showed association with osteoporosis fractures (P < 0.05). On light of the above analysis, we believe that OPG is one promising susceptibility gene of BMD or osteoporotic fractures.