Andrographolide improves PCP-induced schizophrenia-like behaviors through blocking interaction between NRF2 and KEAP1.

Schizophrenia is one of the foremost psychological illness around the world, and recent evidence shows that inflammation and oxidative stress may play a critical role in the etiology of schizophrenia. Andrographolide is a diterpenoid lactone from Andrographis paniculate, which has shown anti-inflammation and anti-oxidative effects. In this study, we explored whether andrographolide can improve schizophrenia-like behaviors through its inhibition of inflammation and oxidative stress in Phencyclidine (PCP)-induced mouse model of schizophrenia. We found that abnormal behavioral including locomotor activity, forced swimming and novel object recognition were ameliorated following andrographolide administration (5 mg/kg and 10 mg/kg). Andrographolide inhibited PCP-induced production of inflammatory cytokines, decreased p-p65, p-IκBα, p-p38 and p-ERK1/2 in the prefrontal cortex. Andrographolide significantly declined the level of MDA and GSH, as well as elevated the activity of SOD, CAT and GCH-px. In addition, andrographolide increased expression of NRF-2, HO-1 and NQO-1, promoted nuclear translocation of NRF-2 through blocking the interaction between NRF-2 and KEAP1, which may be associated with directly binding to NRF-2. Furthermore, antioxidative effects and anti-schizophrenia-like behaviors of andrographolide were compromised by the application of NRF-2 inhibitor ML385. In conclusion, these results suggested that andrographolide improved oxidative stress and schizophrenia-like behaviors induced by PCP through increasing NRF-2 pathway.

The role of tunable nonlinear dark resonances on vacuum Rabi splitting and optical bistability in an atom-cavity system.

The phenomenon of "dark resonances" is a well-known concept in quantum optics and laser spectroscopy. As a general rule, interactions involving in such a "dark state" lead to multiple quantum superposition states that interact coherently and are undesirable. In this paper, two types nonlinear interaction in an atomic cavity, namely the nested and cascaded interactions, are theoretically analyzed how the dark resonances form the dark state peak to modulate the vacuum Rabi splitting (VRS) and optical bistability (OB) behavior. In both the zero- and high order modes, there are four VRS peaks generated in the nested interaction and three in the cascade interaction. Dark resonance can modulate not only the peak number of VRS, but also the OB thresholds. It is found that dark state can determine the asymmetric OB distribution of nested type and symmetric OB distribution of cascade type. Besides that, the distinctive OB thresholds in two kinds of interaction also be studied. The observations not only conceptually extend the conventional "dark resonances" phenomenon, but also opens the door for a variety of new applications in tunable all-optical switch and quantum communication.

ω-3 Polyunsaturated Fatty Acids Facilitate the Repair of Peripheral Nerve Defects with Chemically Extracted Acellular Allograft in Rats.

Acellular allograft (ACA) improves the repair and reconstruction of long peripheral nerve defects. ω-3 Polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) carry a neuroprotective potential, and their effects on ACA bridging were elucidated. Thirty rats with long gap sciatic nerve defects (15 mm long) were randomly divided into three groups (n = 10): ACA, ACA + PUFAs, and autograft (AU). Limb condition, wet weight of tibialis anterior muscle (TAM), nerve electrophysiology, S-100, horseradish peroxidase (HRP), and percentage of splenic CD4+ and CD8 + T-lymphocytes were evaluated for 12 weeks after the operation. Rats in the AU and ACA + PUFA groups showed superior condition in affected limbs compared to the ACA group. At 12 wk after surgery, the wet weight of TAM in the ACA + PUFA group was higher than that in the ACA group (0.4519 ± 0.1185 vs. 0.3049 ± 0.1272; P < 0.01) but lower than that in the AU group (0.4519 ± 0.1185, 0.5628 ± 0.0092; P < 0.05). In all the three groups, sole irritation elicited withdrawal reflex, and S-100 staining was detected in plantar skin. Moreover, horseradish peroxidase staining was overt in both the ventral horn and dorsal root ganglion of the spinal cord. Nerve conduction velocity (m/s), amplitude of action potential (mV), or somatosensory evoked potentials in ACA + PUFAs (28.81 ± 1.04, 2.20 ± 0.27, 6.98 ± 0.29) were significantly different from that in the AU (35.71 ± 1.28, 1.81 ± 0.19, 8.15 ± 0.52; P < 0.05) and ACA (20.03 ± 1.94, 2.95 ± 0.36, 5.22 ± 0.53; P < 0.01) groups. The percentages of splenic CD4+ and CD8+ cells were similar among the three groups. Omega-3 PUFAs improve the bridging effect of ACA on long gap peripheral nerve defects by promoting neuroprotection without arousing an immune response.

Nonlinear optical induced lattice in atomic configurations.

Traditional artificial lattice with untunable refractive index have been restricted to flexible applied to kinds of micro medium imaging. This study proposes a novel approach to quantifying lattice using nonlinear optically induced periodic lattice, which possesses a striking feature of tunable refractive index, to further broaden current knowledge of optical imaging equipment. We conduct self-dressed and dual-dressed nonlinear four-wave mixing (FWM) signal modulation in the atoms by using the dressing effect of standing waves, and then investigate the space amplitude modulation and synthetization (amplitude and phase) modulation of the electromagnetic induced lattice (EIL) of FWM signal at the atom surface. The EIL presented in the far-field diffraction region confirms that diffraction intensity of the FWM signal can be easily transformed from zero-order to higher-order based on the dispersion effects. The tunable EIL with ultra-fast diffraction energy change can contribute to a better understanding of nonlinear process and provides a further step toward developing two-dimensional nonlinear atomic higher-resolution.

Spiraling elliptic solitons in lossy nonlocal nonlinear media.

We address the propagation dynamics of the spiraling elliptic beams in nonlocal nonlinear media with losses based on the variational approach. It is found that the spiraling elliptic beams exhibit complicated behaviors, which result from the combined effects of the losses and orbital angular momentum (OAM). The OAM brings in an effective anisotropic diffraction and rotation for the spiraling elliptic beams. However, due to the losses, the rotation of the spiraling beams slows down. Besides, the ellipticity of the spiraling elliptic beams is greatly affected by the lossesand the OAM. When the OAM is not equal to its critical value, a periodic oscillation of the ellipticity is found in the presence of losses. However, when the OAM is equal to the critical one, the ellipticity of the spiraling elliptic beam remains unchanged during propagation regardless of the loss factor. The comparisons between our approximate analytic solutions and numerical simulations confirm our results.

Spiraling elliptic Hermite-Gaussian solitons in nonlocal nonlinear media without anisotropy.

We introduce a kind of the spiraling elliptic Hermite-Gaussian solitons in nonlocal nonlinear media without anisotropy, which carries the orbital angular momentum and can rotate in the transverse. The n-th mode of the spiraling elliptic Hermite-Gaussian solitons has n holes nested in the elliptic profile. The analytical spiraling elliptic Hermite-Gaussian solitons solutions are obtained based on the variational approach, which agree well with the numerical simulations. It is found that the critical power and the critical angular velocity for the spiraling elliptic Hermite-Gaussian solitons are the same as the counterpart of the ground mode.

Tripole-mode and quadrupole-mode solitons in (1 + 1)-dimensional nonlinear media with a spatial exponential-decay nonlocality.

The approximate analytical expressions of tripole-mode and quadrupole-mode solitons in (1 + 1)-dimensional nematic liquid crystals are obtained by applying the variational approach. It is found that the soliton powers for the two types of solitons are not equal with the same parameters, which is much different from their counterparts in the Snyder-Mitchell model (an ideal and typical strongly nolocal nonlinear model). The numerical simulations show that for the strongly nonlocal case, by expanding the response function to the second order, the approximate soliton solutions are in good agreement with the numerical results. Furthermore, by expanding the respond function to the higher orders, the accuracy and the validity range of the approximate soliton solutions increase. If the response function is expanded to the tenth order, the approximate solutions are still valid for the general nonlocal case.

A comparative study of anhedonia components between major depression and schizophrenia in Chinese populations.

BACKGROUND: Anhedonia is a prominent symptom of major depressive disorder (MDD) and schizophrenia. At present, it is believed that hedonic processing rather consists of the anticipatory and consummatory phase. The aim of this research is to explore the different anhedonia components in MDD and schizophrenia in Chinese populations. METHODS: A Chinese version of the Temporal Experience of Pleasure Scale (TEPS) was used to evaluate 176 MDD patients, 346 schizophrenia patients, and 268 healthy controls. Additionally, the 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAMD-17) was used for MDD patients, while the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) was applied for schizophrenia. RESULTS: The scores of consummatory (TEPS-CON) and anticipatory pleasure (TEPS-ANT) in MDD and schizophrenia were both significantly lower than healthy controls (both P < 0.001). TEPS-CON and TEPS-ANT were negatively correlated with the score of HAMD-17, the duration of illness and admission times in MDD (P < 0.05 or 0.01). TEPS-CON was negatively related to PANSS total scores and negative symptoms (P < 0.05 or 0.01), but no significant correlation was found with duration of illness and admission times in schizophrenia (P > 0.05). There was no significant correlation between TEPS-ANT and any clinical variables (P > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The consummatory and anticipatory pleasures were both impaired in MDD and schizophrenia. Consummatory and anticipatory anhedonia can be considered as a "state" in MDD, but as a "trait" in schizophrenia.