A Perspective Roadmap for IoMT-Based Early Detection and Care of the Neural Disorder, Dementia

The Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has emerged as one of the most important key applications of IoT. IoMT makes the diagnosis and care more convenient and reliable with proven results. The paper presents the technology, open issues, and challenges of IoMT-based systems. It explores the various types of sensors and smart equipment based on IoMT and used for diagnosis and patient care. A comprehensive survey of early detection and postdetection care of the neural disorder dementia is conducted. The paper also presents a postdiagnosis dementia care model named “Demencare.” This model incorporates eight sensors capable of tracking the daily routine of dementia patient. The patients can be monitored locally by an edge computing device kept at their premises. The medical experts may also monitor the patients’ status for any deviation from normal behavior. IoMT enables better postdiagnosis care for neural disorders, like dementia and Alzheimer’s. The patient’s behavior and vital parameters are always available despite the remote location of the patients. The data of the patients may be classified, and new insights may be obtained to tackle patients in a better manner.

Controlling phase synchrony in the mean field coupled Hindmarsh–Rose neurons

The phase synchronization in a network of mean field coupled Hindmarsh–Rose neurons and the control of phase synchrony by an external input has been analyzed in this work. The analysis of interspike interval, with varying coupling strength, reveals the dynamical change induced in each neuron in the network. The bursting phase lines depict that mean field coupling induces phase synchrony in excitatory mode and desynchrony in inhibitory mode. The coefficient of variability, in spatial and temporal domain, signifies the deviations in firing times of neurons, in a collective manner. The Kuramoto order parameter quantifies the intermittent and complete phase synchrony, induced by excitatory mean field coupling. The capability of external input, in the form of spikes, to control the intermittent and complete phase synchrony has been analyzed. The coefficient of variability and Kuramoto order parameter has been studied by varying the amplitude, pulse width and frequency of the input. The studies have shown that high-frequency spike input, with optimum amplitude and pulse width, has high desynchronizing ability, which is substantiated by the parameter space analysis. The control of synchrony in the network of neurons may find application in rectifying neural disorders.

Identification of GOLPH3 Partners in Drosophila Unveils Potential Novel Roles in Tumorigenesis and Neural Disorders

Golgi phosphoprotein 3 (GOLPH3) is a highly conserved peripheral membrane protein localized to the Golgi apparatus and the cytosol. GOLPH3 binding to Golgi membranes depends on phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate [PI(4)P] and regulates Golgi architecture and vesicle trafficking. GOLPH3 overexpression has been correlated with poor prognosis in several cancers, but the molecular mechanisms that link GOLPH3 to malignant transformation are poorly understood. We recently showed that PI(4)P-GOLPH3 couples membrane trafficking with contractile ring assembly during cytokinesis in dividing Drosophila spermatocytes. Here, we use affinity purification coupled with mass spectrometry (AP-MS) to identify the protein-protein interaction network (interactome) of Drosophila GOLPH3 in testes. Analysis of the GOLPH3 interactome revealed enrichment for proteins involved in vesicle-mediated trafficking, cell proliferation and cytoskeleton dynamics. In particular, we found that dGOLPH3 interacts with the Drosophila orthologs of Fragile X mental retardation protein and Ataxin-2, suggesting a potential role in the pathophysiology of disorders of the nervous system. Our findings suggest novel molecular targets associated with GOLPH3 that might be relevant for therapeutic intervention in cancers and other human diseases.

Emergence of SGLT2 Inhibitors as Powerful Antioxidants in Human Diseases

Sodium-glucose cotransporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors are a new class of oral glucose-lowering agents. Apart from their glucose-lowering effects, large clinical trials assessing certain SGLT2 inhibitors have revealed cardiac and renal protective effects in non-diabetic patients. These excellent outcomes motivated scientists and clinical professionals to revisit their underlying mechanisms. In addition to the heart and kidney, redox homeostasis is crucial in several human diseases, including liver diseases, neural disorders, and cancers, with accumulating preclinical studies demonstrating the therapeutic benefits of SGLT2 inhibitors. In the present review, we aimed to update recent advances in the antioxidant roles of SGLT2 inhibitors in common but debilitating human diseases. We anticipate that this review will guide new research directions and novel therapeutic strategies for diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, nephropathies, liver diseases, neural disorders, and cancers in the era of SGLT2 inhibitors.

Decoding molecular and cellular heterogeneity of nucleus accumbens with high-throughput scRNA-seq and MERFISH

The nucleus accumbens (NAc) plays an important role in regulating multiple behaviors and its dysfunction has been linked to many neural disorders. However, the molecular, cellular and anatomic heterogeneity underlying its functional diversity remains incompletely understood. Here, we generate a cell census of the mouse NAc using high-throughput single cell RNA-sequencing and multiplexed error-robust FISH, revealing a high level of cell heterogeneity in this brain region. We show that the transcriptional and spatial diversity of neuron subtypes underlie NAc's anatomic and functional heterogeneity, and possibly contribute to the pathogenesis of different neurological disorders. These findings explain how the seemingly simple neuronal composition of the NAc achieves its highly heterogenous structure and diverse functions. Collectively, our study generates a spatially resolved cell taxonomy for understanding the NAc structure and function, which demonstrates the importance of combining molecular and spatial information in revealing the fundamental features of the nervous system.

“Nanomaterials of curcumin-hyaluronic acid”: their various methods of formulations, clinical and therapeutic applications, present gap, and future directions

Background Nanomaterials of curcumin with hyaluronic acid have gained a lot of attention for potential therapeutic applications of curcumin and hyaluronic acid with or without other additional drugs. Overall studies of curcumin and hyaluronic acid show that nanomaterials of curcumin with hyaluronic acid accelerate the efficacy of curcumin in the treatment of various disorders like arthritis, cancer, hepatic fibrosis, neural disorders, wound healing, and skin regeneration, it is largely due to the combined effect of hyaluronic acid and curcumin. However, due to limited clinical trials and experiments on humans and animals, there is a substantial gap in research for the safety and efficacy of nanomaterials of curcumin-hyaluronic acid in the treatment of curcumin and hyaluronic acid targeted diseases and disorders. Main body of the abstract In this current review, we have first described various reported synthetic nanomaterials of curcumin-hyaluronic acid, then in the next section, we have described various fields, disorders, and diseases where these are being applied and in the final section of this review, we discussed the research gap, and future research directions needed to propose the fabricated nanocurcumin-hyaluronic acid biomaterials. Short conclusion There are substantial gaps in research for the safety and efficacy of nanomaterials of curcumin with hyaluronic acid due to limited available data of clinical trials and experiments of nanocurcumin-hyaluronic acid biomaterials on humans and animals. So, it entirely requires serious and committed efforts through the well-organized system of practical and clinical trials which provide results, data, and detections that lead to the formulation of the best drug from curcumin with hyaluronic acid for the treatment of curcumin and hyaluronic acid targeted diseases and disorders.

A brief review of non-invasive brain imaging technologies and the near-infrared optical bioimaging

Brain disorders seriously affect life quality. Therefore, non-invasive neuroimaging has received attention to monitoring and early diagnosing neural disorders to prevent their progress to a severe level. This short review briefly describes the current MRI and PET/CT techniques developed for non-invasive neuroimaging and the future direction of optical imaging techniques to achieve higher resolution and specificity using the second near-infrared (NIR-II) region of wavelength with organic molecules.

Human pluripotent stem cell-derived brain organoids as in vitro models for studying neural disorders and cancer

The sheer complexities of brain and resource limitation of human brain tissue greatly hamper our understanding of the brain disorders and cancers. Recently developed three-dimensional (3D) brain organoids (BOs) are self-organized and spontaneously differentiated from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) in vitro, which exhibit similar features with cell type diversity, structural organization, and functional connectivity as the developing human brain. Based on these characteristics, hPSC-derived BOs (hPDBOs) provide new opportunities to recapitulate the complicated processes during brain development, neurodegenerative disorders, and brain cancers in vitro. In this review, we will provide an overview of existing BO models and summarize the applications of this technology in modeling the neural disorders and cancers. Furthermore, we will discuss the challenges associated with their use as in vitro models for disease modeling and the potential future direction.

Neurological pathogenesis of SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19): from virological features to clinical symptoms

Since the worldwide outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in 2020, various research reports and case reports have been published. It has been found that COVID-19 causes not only respiratory disorders but also thrombosis and gastrointestinal disorders, central nervous system (CNS) disorders, and peripheral neuropathy. Compared to other disorders, there are low number of research reports and low number of summaries on COVID-19-related neural disorders. Therefore, focusing on neural disorders, we outline both basic research and clinical manifestations of COVID-19-related neural disorders.

Sleep contributes to preference for novel food odours in Drosophila melanogaster

The importance of sleep in maintaining cognitive functions such as learning and memory has been reported in both vertebrates and invertebrates. Previous studies demonstrated that sleep deprivation impaired the olfactory memory retention of fruit flies as described in the classical conditioning paradigm. Here, we show that sleep deprivation leads to a preference for the odours of the rearing environment in Drosophila melanogaster. Flies whose sleep had been disturbed with periodic rotation stimuli during night-time preferred apple cider vinegar (ACV) to broth, while this preference was lower in flies without sleep deprivation and those rotated during daytime. Experiments using single odours showed an increase in responses to ACV due to sleep deprivation. These results suggest that sleep functions in food odour preference. Flies grown on medium supplemented with ACV showed greater preference for ACV, and those grown with broth supplementation showed a greater preference for broth under sleep-deprived conditions. These results suggest that flies with night-time sleep deprivation become attached to the environment on which they have developed, and that sleep contributes to preference for novel food odours. This study offers an approach to investigating the interaction between sleep and neural disorders concerning cognitive deficits towards novel stimuli.