Glutamatergic and central cholinergic dysfunction in the CA1, CA2 and CA3 fields on spatial learning and memory in chronic cerebral ischemia-Induced vascular dementia of rats.

Chronic cerebral ischemia (CCI) is associated with cognitive decline in aging, vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Substantial evidence has shown that chronic cerebral ischemia may cause cognitive impairment, but the underlying neurobiological mechanism is poorly understood so far. In the present study, we used a rat model of chronic cerebral ischemia by permanent bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) to investigate the alterations of glutamatergic and central cholinergic dysfunction, and their causal relationship with the cognitive deficits induced by chronic cerebral ischemia. We found that BCCAO rats exhibited spatial learning and memory impairments dysfunction 3 month after BCCAO. Meanwhile, vGluT levels as well as glutamatergic and central cholinergic positive neurons in the hippocampus CA1-3 field significantly decreased. The protection of glutamergic and cholinergic neurons or regulating glutamate and central cholinergic levels in hippocampal subregion may have beneficial effects on cognitive impairments associated with the possible mechanism in CCI-induced vascular dementia.

Serum miRNAs as predictive and preventive biomarker for pre-clinical hepatocellular carcinoma.

The extremely poor prognosis of patients with symptomatic hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) diagnosed clinically at advanced stages suggests an urgent need for biomarkers that can be used for prospective surveillance and pre-clinical screening for early presence of pre-malignant lesions and tumors. In a retrospective longitudinal phase 3 biomarker study in seven medical centers of China, time-series and 6 months interval-serum samples were collected from chronic hepatitis B virus infected (CHB) patient cohorts at the pre-malignant or pre-clinical stages (average 6 months prior to clinical diagnosis) and CHB patients that did not develop cancer, and circulating miRNAs measured. A set of serum miRNAs including miR-193a-3p, miR-369-5p, miR-672, miR-429 and let-7i* were identified in pre-clinical HCC patients and have the potential to screen for CHB patients at high risk to develop HCC 6-12 months after miRNAs measurement. These circulating miRNAs combined with the conventional screening tools using α-fetoprotein and ultrasound, may have great promise for the prediction and prevention of HCC in high-risk populations.