Brain functional reorganization in pediatric patients with spinal cord injury and the impact of motor imagery training on it: a preliminary study.

To study the brain functional alterations of children after spinal cord injury (SCI) and explore their changes after motor imagery training (MIT), revealing brain functional reorganizations in pediatric SCI and finding possible neural mechanisms of MIT. Thirty pediatric SCI patients and 30 age- and gender-matched healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. Brain resting-state functional MRI images of all subjects were obtained using a 3.

TEMPO Oxidative [3 + 2] Cycloaddition of -Substituted Acrylamides and α-Diazoacetates: Access to Carbamoyl-Substituted Pyrazole-5-carboxylates.

We describe a transition-metal-free TEMPO-mediated oxidative [3 + 2] cycloaddition of -substituted acrylamides and α-diazoacetates, providing access to carbamoyl-substituted pyrazole-5-carboxylates. This strategy offers several advantages, including the use of readily available starting materials, high atom economy, and excellent regioselectivity. The protocol delivers a series of carbamoyl-substituted pyrazole-5-carboxylates in good to high yields.

Differential Alterations of Supraspinal Somatosensory Pathways in Complete and Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury Patients: A Task-Based fMRI Study.

Rationale And Objectives: We aimed to investigate the different brain activation patterns and alterations in somatosensory pathways in complete spinal cord injury (CSCI) and incomplete spinal cord injury (ISCI) patients and to provide a theoretical basis for the rehabilitation of somatosensory function in SCI patients.

Materials And Methods: Fifteen CSCI patients, 15 ISCI patients and 24 healthy controls (HCs) underwent somatosensory stimulation tasks during brain functional magnetic resonance imaging. The brain activation patterns were compared.

Co-assembly of oligo-urethane nanoparticles with defined lipid additives to tailor RNA delivery into cells.

Developing safe and effective biomaterials to deliver RNA into cells has grown in importance over recent years and has enabled the clinical translation of several gene therapies. Self-assembled oligo-urethane nanoparticles (PNPs) have several advantageous properties, such as (1) mitigating immune cell response in vivo, (2) low cytotoxicity in a broad range of cells, and (3) capable of delivering oligonucleotides or proteins into cells. Here, we were interested in defining unique configurations of PNPs to assess their relative cytotoxicity to human cells, comparing them to a popular commercial lipid system MessengerMax, as some cationic lipids have been found to have associated toxicity, instigating the search for less toxic counterparts.

Using diffusion tensor imaging to assess children with spinal cord injury without fracture or dislocation.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Objectives: This study investigates changes in spinal DTI metrics above lesion in children with spinal cord injury without fracture or dislocation (SCIWOFD), aiming to assess DTI's potential as a diagnostic and evaluative tool for SCIWOFD in children.

Setting: Xuanwu Hospital, Capital Medical University, China; Beijing Key Laboratory of Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Brain Informatics, China.

Alterations in Topological Structure and Modular Interactions in Pediatric Patients with Complete Spinal Cord Injury: A Functional Brain Network Study.

Traumatic complete spinal cord injury (CSCI) leads to severe impairment of sensory-motor function, and patients often suffer from neuropsychological deficits such as anxiety, depression, and cognitive deficits, which involve different brain functional modules. However, the alterations in modular organization and the interactions between these modules in pediatric patients with CSCI remain unclear. In this study, a total of 70 participants, including 34 pediatric CSCI patients and 36 healthy controls (HCs) aged 6 to 12 years, underwent whole-brain resting-state functional MRI.

Altered Dynamic Brain Functional Network Connectivity Related to Visual Network in Spinal Cord Injury.

Visual feedback training (VFT) plays an important role in the motor rehabilitation of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI). However, the neural mechanisms are unclear. We aimed to investigate the changes in dynamic functional network connectivity (FNC) related to visual networks (VN) in patients with SCI and to reveal the neural mechanism of VFT promoting motor function rehabilitation.

Volumetric Integrated Classification Index: An Integrated Voxel-Based Morphometry and Machine Learning Interpretable Biomarker for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

PTSD is a complex mental health condition triggered by individuals' traumatic experiences, with long-term and broad impacts on sufferers' psychological health and quality of life. Despite decades of research providing partial understanding of the pathobiological aspects of PTSD, precise neurobiological markers and imaging indicators remain challenging to pinpoint. This study employed VBM analysis and machine learning algorithms to investigate structural brain changes in PTSD patients.

Distinct brain network patterns in complete and incomplete spinal cord injury patients based on graph theory analysis.

Aims: To compare the changes in brain network topological properties and structure-function coupling in patients with complete spinal cord injury (CSCI) and incomplete spinal cord injury (ICSCI), to unveil the potential neurobiological mechanisms underlying the different effects of CSCI and ICSCI on brain networks and identify objective neurobiological markers to differentiate between CSCI and ICSCI patients.

Methods: Thirty-five SCI patients (20 CSCI and 15 ICSCI) and 32 healthy controls (HCs) were included in the study. Here, networks were constructed using resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging to analyze functional connectivity (FC) and diffusion tensor imaging for structural connectivity (SC).

PTX3 promotes cementum formation and cementoblast differentiation via HA/ITGB1/FAK/YAP1 signaling pathway.

Cementum is a vital component of periodontium, yet its regeneration remains a challenge. Pentraxin 3 (PTX3) is a multifunctional glycoprotein involved in extracellular matrix remodeling and bone metabolism regulation. However, the role of PTX3 in cementum formation and cementoblast differentiation has not been elucidated.

Alterations in cortical thickness and volumes of subcortical structures in pediatric patients with complete spinal cord injury.

Aims: To study the changes in cortical thickness and subcortical gray matter structures in children with complete spinal cord injury (CSCI), reveal the possible causes of dysfunction beyond sensory motor dysfunction after CSCI, and provide a possible neural basis for corresponding functional intervention training.

Methods: Thirty-seven pediatric CSCI patients and 34 age-, gender-matched healthy children as healthy controls (HCs) were recruited. The 3D high-resolution T1-weighted structural images of all subjects were obtained using a 3.

DDIT3/CHOP promotes LPS/ATP-induced pyroptosis in osteoblasts via mitophagy inhibition.

Inflammatory environments can trigger endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and lead to pyroptosis in various tissues and cells, including liver, brain, and immune cells. As a key factor of ER stress, DNA damage-inducible transcript 3 (DDIT3)/CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP) homologous protein (CHOP) is upregulated in osteoblasts during inflammatory stimulation. DDIT3/CHOP may therefore regulate osteoblast pyroptosis in inflammatory conditions.

Palladium-Copper-Catalyzed Oxidative Intermolecular [2 + 2 + 2] Coupling-Annulation: Regioselective Synthesis of Multiaryl-Substituted Benzenes.

A palladium-catalyzed intermolecular [2 + 2 + 2] oxidative coupling-annulation of terminal alkenes and alkynes using copper(II) as the oxidant has been developed through direct C-C bond formation. These reactions provide effective access to multiaryl-substituted benzenes with high regioselectivity in the absence of any ligands. The features of this protocol are broad substrate scope, and high atom and step economy.

Copper-Catalyzed Domino-Double Annulation of -Aminobenzamides with 2-Iodoisothiocyanates for the Synthesis of 12-Benzo[4,5]thiazolo[2,3-]quinazolin-12-ones.

A facile and efficient copper-catalyzed domino-double annulation strategy was developed from easily accessible -aminobenzamides and 2-iodoisothiocyanates, which affords a direct pathway for the synthesis of tetracyclic fused 12-benzo[4,5]thiazolo[2,3-]quinazolin-12-ones in moderate to good yields without the addition of ligands, bases, and external oxidants. The reaction involves a C-N bond cleavage and the formation of a C-N/C-S bond in one step with the advantages of using an inexpensive copper catalyst and easy operation. Mechanistic studies suggest that this transformation proceeds via intermolecular condensation of -aminobenzamides with 2-iodoisothiocyanates, followed by an intramolecular Ullmann-type cross-coupling cyclization reaction.

DDIT3 deficiency accelerates bone remodeling during bone healing by enhancing osteoblast and osteoclast differentiation through ULK1-mediated autophagy.

The coordination of osteoblasts and osteoclasts is essential for bone remodeling. DNA damage inducible script 3 (DDIT3) is an important regulator of bone and participates in cell differentiation, proliferation, autophagy, and apoptosis. However, its role in bone remodeling remains unexplored.

Study on antimicrobial activity of sturgeon skin mucus polypeptides (Rational Design, Self-Assembly and Application).

Despite the favorable biocompatibility of natural antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), their scarcity limits their practical application. Through rational design, the activity of AMPs can be enhanced to expand their application. In this study, we selected a natural sturgeon epidermal mucus peptide, AP-16 (APATPAAPALLPLWLL), as the model molecule and studied its conformational regulation and antimicrobial activity through amino acid substitutions and -terminal lipidation.

The possible neural mechanism of neuropathic pain evoked by motor imagery in pediatric patients with complete spinal cord injury: A preliminary brain structure study based on VBM.

In this study, we observed pediatric complete spinal cord injury (CSCI) patients receiving MI training and divided them into different groups according to the effect of motor imagery (MI) training on neuropathic pain (NP). Then, we retrospectively analysed the differences in brain structure of these groups before the MI training, identifying brain regions that may predict the effect of MI on NP. Thirty pediatric CSCI patients were included, including 12 patients who experienced NP during MI and 18 patients who did not experience NP during MI according to the MI training follow-up.

Specific Alterations in Brain White Matter Networks and Their Impact on Clinical Function in Pediatric Patients With Thoracolumbar Spinal Cord Injury.

Background: The alternation of brain white matter (WM) network has been studied in adult spinal cord injury (SCI) patients. However, the WM network alterations in pediatric SCI patients remain unclear.

Purpose: To evaluate WM network changes and their functional impact in children with thoracolumbar SCI (TSCI).

Meta-structure-based graph attention networks.

Due to the ubiquity of graph-structured data, Graph Neural Network (GNN) have been widely used in different tasks and domains and good results have been achieved in tasks such as node classification and link prediction. However, there are still many challenges in representation learning of heterogeneous networks. Existing graph neural network models are partly based on homogeneous graphs, which do not take into account the rich semantic information of nodes and edges due to their different types; And partly based on heterogeneous graphs, which require predefined meta-structures (include meta-paths and meta-graphs) and do not take into account the different effects of different meta-structures on node representation.

The gray matter atrophy and related network changes occur in the higher cognitive region rather than the primary sensorimotor cortex after spinal cord injury.

Objective: This study used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore brain structural and related network changes in patients with spinal cord injury (SCI).

Methods: Thirty-one right-handed SCI patients and 31 gender- and age-matched healthy controls (HC) were included. The gray matter volume (GMV) changes in SCI patients were observed using voxel-based morphometry (VBM).

Altered Brain Function in Pediatric Patients With Complete Spinal Cord Injury: A Resting-State Functional MRI Study.

Background: Injury to the spinal cord of children may cause potential brain reorganizations, affecting their rehabilitation. However, the specific functional alterations of children after complete spinal cord injury (CSCI) remain unclear.

Purpose: To explore the specific functional changes in local brain and the relationship with clinical characteristics in pediatric CSCI patients, clarifying the impact of CSCI on brain function in developing children.