Intestinal microbiota via NLRP3 inflammasome dependent neuronal pyroptosis mediates anxiety-like behaviour in mice exposed to 3.5 GHz radiofrequency radiation.

The rapid development of 5G communication technology has increased public concern about the potential adverse effects on human health. Till now, the impacts of radiofrequency radiation (RFR) from 5G communication on the central nervous system and gut-brain axis are still unclear. Therefore, we investigated the effects of 3.5 GHz (a frequency commonly used in 5G communication) RFR on neurobehavior, gut microbiota, and gut-brain axis metabolites in mice. The results showed that exposure to 3.5 GHz RFR at 50 W/m2 for 1 h over 35 d induced anxiety-like behaviour in mice, accompanied by NLRP3-dependent neuronal pyroptosis in CA3 region of the dorsal hippocampus. In addition, the microbial composition was widely divergent between the sham and RFR groups. 3.5 GHz RFR also caused changes in metabolites of feces, serum, and brain. The differential metabolites were mainly enriched in glycerophospholipid metabolism, tryptophan metabolism, and arginine biosynthesis. Further correlation analysis showed that gut microbiota dysbiosis was associated with differential metabolites. Based on the above results, we speculate that dysfunctional intestinal flora and metabolites may be involved in RFR-induced anxiety-like behaviour in mice through neuronal pyroptosis in the brain. The findings provide novel insights into the mechanism of 5G RFR-induced neurotoxicity.

[Effects of metabolic syndrome on multi-vessel lesions of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerosis].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the effects of metabolic syndrome (MS) on multi-vessel lesions of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerosis. METHODS: During April 2009 and October 2010, a total of 139 consecutive hospitalized patients with symptomatic intracranial atherosclerosis were recruited to undergo magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) or/and CT angiography (CTA) or/and digital subtraction angiography (DSA) to measure the stenotic degree and numbers of intracranial atherosclerosis. They were divided into 2 groups according to lesion numbers: single and multi-vessel lesions. MS was defined by the criteria of the Adult Treatment Panel III to examine the incidences of MS. The risk factors were analyzed for multi-vessel lesions of symptomatic intracranial atherosclerosis to explore the relationship between MS and multi-vessel lesions. RESULTS: Among them, 210 intracranial atherosclerotic lesions were documented. Fifty-nine (42.4%) patients had two or more lesions (group with multi-vessel lesions). The incidence of MS was 70.5%. The rates of MS in groups of single and multi-vessel lesions were 56.3% and 89.8% respectively. And statistical significance existed between two groups (P < 0.001). Moreover, the number of MS components increased gradually with the number of lesions (P < 0.001). For the analysis of individual criteria for MS, only abnormal glycemia was found to be associated with multi-vessel lesions (P = 0.002). And multiple Logistic regression analysis showed that MS was associated with multi-vessel lesions of intracranial atherosclerosis (P = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: MS is an independent predictor for multi-vessel lesions of intracranial atherosclerosis. And its intervention may be an important preventive strategy for intracranial multi-vessel atherosclerosis.