Purpose This study aimed to examine the effects of treadmill training on anxious–depressive-like behaviors of transgenic Alzheimer rats in the early stage of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and provided evidence of exercise in alleviating fear-avoidance behavior deficits. Methods Male 2-month-old TgF344-AD and wild-type rats were divided into wild-type (n = 9), AD (n = 8), and AD + treadmill exercise (Exe) groups (n = 12). After 8 months of exercise, the passive avoidance test, Barnes maze task, novel object recognition test, and object location test were used to measure learning and memory function. The open-field test, elevated plus maze, sucrose preference test, and forced swim test were conducted to determine the anxious–depressive-like behavior of AD rats. Immunofluorescence staining, Western blot analysis, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay analysis, and related assay kits were used to measure inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress, amyloid-β production, and tau hyperphosphorylation. Results Behavioral tests revealed that 12-month-old animals did not show any spatial learning and memory deficits but did display anxious–depressive-like behavior (open field, center time: P = 0.008; center entries: P = 0.009; line crossings: P = 0.001). However, long-term exercise significantly inhibited anxious–depressive-like behavior in AD rats (center time: P = 0.016; center entries: P = 0.004; line crossings: P = 0.033). In addition, these animals displayed increased amyloid-β deposition, tau hyperphosphorylation, microgliosis, inflammatory cytokines release, and oxidative damage, which were attenuated significantly by long-term exercise training. Conclusion Long-term exercise training alleviated anxious–depressive-like behavior and improved fear-avoidance behavior in transgenic AD rats, supporting exercise training as an effective approach to prevent anxiety, depression, and fear-avoidance behavior deficits in the early stages of AD pathogenesis.

Exercise pretraining exerts multifactorial benefits on AD that support its use as a promising new therapeutic option for prevention of neurodegeneration in the elderly and/or AD population.

Recent work has indicated that photobiomodulation (PBM) may beneficially alter the pathological status of several neurological disorders, although the mechanism currently remains unclear. The current study was designed to investigate the beneficial effect of PBM on behavioral deficits and neurogenesis in a photothrombotic (PT) model of ischemic stroke in rats. From day 1 to day 7 after the establishment of PT model, 2-minute daily PBM (CW, 808nm, 350mW/cm, total 294J at scalp level) was applied on the infarct injury area (1.8mm anterior to the bregma and 2.5mm lateral from the midline). Rats received intraperitoneal injections of 5-bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) twice daily (50mg/kg) from day 2 to 8 post-stoke, and samples were collected at day 14. We demonstrated that PBM significantly attenuated behavioral deficits and infarct volume induced by PT stroke. Further investigation displayed that PBM remarkably enhanced neurogenesis and synaptogenesis, as evidenced by immunostaining of BrdU, Ki67, DCX, MAP2, spinophilin, and synaptophysin. Mechanistic studies suggested beneficial effects of PBM were accompanied by robust suppression of reactive gliosis and the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines. On the contrary, the release of anti-inflammatory cytokines, cytochrome c oxidase activity and ATP production in peri-infarct regions were elevated following PBM treatment. Intriguingly, PBM could effectively switch an M1 microglial phenotype to an anti-inflammatory M2 phenotype. Our novel findings indicated that PBM is capable of promoting neurogenesis after ischemic stroke. The underlying mechanisms may rely on: 1) promotion of proliferation and differentiation of internal neuroprogenitor cells in the peri-infarct zone; 2) improvement of the neuronal microenvironment by altering inflammatory status and promoting mitochondrial function. These findings provide strong support for the promising therapeutic effect of PBM on neuronal repair following ischemic stroke.

Background: The global mortality rate for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is 3.68%, but the mortality rate for critically ill patients is as high as 50%. Therefore, the exploration of prognostic predictors for patients with COVID-19 is vital for prompt clinical intervention. Our study aims to explore the predictive value of hematological parameters in the prognosis of patients with severe COVID-19.Methods: Ninety-eight patients who were diagnosed with COVID-19 at Jingzhou Central Hospital and Central Hospital of Wuhan, Hubei Province, were included in this study. Results:The median age of the patients was 59 years; the median age of patients with a good prognosis was 56 [28-79] years, and the median age of patients with a poor outcome was 67 years.The patients in the poor outcome group were older than the patients in the good outcome group (P<0.05).The comparison of hematological parameters showed that lymphocyte count (Lym#), red blood cells (RBCs), hemoglobin (HGB), hematocrit (HCT), mean corpuscular volume (MCV), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin (MCH) were significantly lower in the poor outcome group than in the good outcome group (P<0.05). Further, the red cell volume distribution width-CV (RDW-CV) and red cell volume distribution width-SD (RDW-SD) were significantly higher in the poor outcome group than in the good outcome group (P<0.0001). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves showed RDW-SD, with an area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.870 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.796-0.943], was the most significant single parameter for predicting the prognosis of severe patients. When the cut-off value was 42.15, the sensitivity and specificity of RDW-SD for predicting the prognosis of severe patients were 73.1% and 80.2%, respectively. Reticulocyte (RET) channel results showed the RET level was significantly higher in critical patients than in moderate patients and severe patients (P<0.05), which may be one cause of the elevated RDW in patients with a poor outcome. Conclusions:In this study, the hematological parameters of COVID-19 patients were statistically analyzed. RDW was found to be a prognostic predictor for patients with severe COVID-19, and the increase in RET may contribute to elevated RDW.