Blood-brain barrier (BBB) disruption is a pivotal pathophysiological process in ischemic stroke. Although temporal changes in BBB permeability during the acute phase have been widely studied, little is known about the chronic phase of cerebrovascular changes that may have a large impact on the long-term outcome. Therefore, this study was aimed to measure cerebral vascular abnormalities using CT perfusion in nine rhesus monkeys subjected to transient middle cerebral artery occlusion (tMCAO) for ≥1 year (MCAO-1Y+). The level of cerebral perfusion demonstrated by mean transit time was significantly higher in the ipsilateral caudate nucleus, white matter, thalamus, hippocampus, and contralateral thalamus in MCAO-1Y+ compared with the other nine age-matched control monkeys. The increase in BBB permeability measured through the permeability surface was found in the same ten regions of interest ipsilaterally and contralaterally. We also found decreased levels of Aβ 42/40 ratio in the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), suggesting a potential link between post-MCAO cognitive decline and Aβ metabolism. Overall, we demonstrated significant cerebral hypoperfusion, BBB disruption, and CSF Aβ decrease during the rehabilitation stage of ischemic stroke in a non-human primate model. Future studies are needed to elucidate the cause-effect relationship between cerebrovascular disruptions and long-term neurological deficits.

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Anxiety disorders are the most common mental disorders and, without proper treatment, may lead to severe conditions: e.g., somatic disorders or permanent damage to central nervous system. Although there are drugs in clinical trials, this study focuses on exploring the efficacy of nutrients in treating these diseases. We built different zebrafish models and screened several nutrient combinations for their antianxiety, antioxidant, neuro-protecting, and memory-improving activities. Our results showed that the combinations of nutrients (e.g., Walnut Peptides + Theanine at 14.2 + 33.3 μg/ml) have similar or better activities than the positive control drugs. In addition, we discovered that the effects of the nutrients in the above four aspects were universal and highly related. This study is noteworthy as it suggested that nutrients could be healthier and greener drug alternatives and provide similar or better universal treatments for anxiety and related conditions.

No abstract

Anxiety and depression are considered coping mechanisms organisms adopt in response to external stressors. We employed Levy statistics to investigate the movement patterns of rodent models subjected to stress and compared them to non-stressed controls. Our analysis revealed that stressed mice exhibited heavy-tailed distributions in open fields, consistent with the Levy flights utilized by animal predators in search of scarce food sources. In contrast, non-stressed mice demonstrated a normal distribution of speed. We used the two-dimensional Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to identify significant differences in the γ and μ parameters derived from Levy flight between anxiety, depression, and control mice. Additionally, we employed the support vector machine algorithm to determine the optimal separation of each group. Furthermore, our mathematical model demonstrated the therapeutic effects of fluoxetine. These findings have the potential to contribute to the development of more precise definitions of anxiety and depression, as well as facilitate the evaluation of pharmaceutical developments.