Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease with progressive cognitive impairment. It is the most common type of senile dementia, accounting for 65%–70% of senile dementia [Alzheimer’s Association (2016). 2016 Alzheimer’s disease facts and figures. Alzheimers Dement. 12, 459–509]. At present, the pathogenesis of AD is still unclear. It is considered that β-amyloid deposition, abnormal phosphorylation of tau protein, and neurofibrillary tangles are the basic pathological changes of AD. However, the role of neurovascular unit damage in the pathogenesis of AD has been attracting more and more attention in recent years. The composition of neurovascular unit and the role of neurovascular unit damage in the occurrence and development of AD were reviewed in this paper.

BackgroundGlioma is a common primary brain tumor with extremely poor prognosis outcomes. Increasing evidences have proved the relation between lncRNAs and glioma onset and progression. LncRNA SNHG5 involves in the biological activities of tumor cells, such as proliferation, migration and metastasis. Nevertheless, it is still necessary to explain the molecular mechanism and biofunction of SNHG5 in glioma.Materials and methodsQuantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) was performed to analyze expressions of SNHG5, miR-205-5p and ZEB2 in tumor tissues and cell lines. The cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assay, plate and soft agar colony formation assays were performed to evaluate cell proliferation ability. RNA immunoprecipitation assay and dual-luciferase reporter assay were used to confirm the interaction among SNHG5, miR-205-5p and ZEB2. The protein level of ZEB2 was measured by Western blot.ResultsBased on our findings, compared with normal tissues, the elevated expression of SNHG5 and decreased expression of miR-205-5p were observed in glioma tissues. The downregulation of SNHG5 exerted an obvious inhibitory effect on glioma cells in terms of their proliferation. With regard to the underlying mechanism, SNHG5 presented a direct inhibitory influence on miR-205-5p which targeted to the 3′-UTR region of zinc finger E-box binding homeobox 2 (ZEB2) mRNA. As a competing endogenous RNA (ceRNA), SNHG5 sponged miR-205-5p, regulating the expression of ZEB2 thereby.ConclusionThese discoveries indicate that SNHG5 promotes proliferation of glioma by regulating miR-205-5p/ZEB2 axis.

Craniopharyngiomas (CPs) are benign tumors arising from the sellar region. However, little is known about their clinical features and long-term recurrence due to low morbidity and the lack of large cohort studies. Thus, we aimed to develop nomograms to accurately predict the extent of resection and tumor recurrence using clinical parameters. A total of 545 patients diagnosed with CP between 2009 and 2019 were examined: 381 in the development cohort and 164 in the validation cohort. Least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO) and Cox regression analyses were performed to establish two nomograms. Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, calibration curves, decision curve analysis (DCA) and Kaplan-Meier (KM) curves were used to evaluate their predictive performance and discriminative power, respectively, in the two cohorts. In addition, the EORTC QLQ-BN20 questionnaire was used to assess neuropsychological status in the follow-up. In the development cohort, the area under the curve (AUC) and C-index were 0.760 and 0.758, respectively, for predicting the extent of resection and 0.78 and 0.75, respectively, for predicting 3-year progression-free survival (PFS) and 5-year PFS. Additionally, the model had a predictive accuracy of 0.785. Both nomograms showed acceptable discrimination in the two cohorts. Moreover, DCA demonstrated excellent clinical benefits from the two nomograms. Finally, participants were classified into two distinct risk groups according to the risk score, and an online calculator was created for convenient clinical use. During long term follow-up, hypothyroidism (77.61%) and hypocortisolism (76.70%) were the most common endocrine dysfunction after surgery and significant deficits were observed concerning visual disorder, motor dysfunction and seizures in the recurrent groups. In particular, better quality of life was associated with gross total resection (GTR), postoperative radiation, anterior interhemispheric (AI) approach and transsphenoidal approach. To our knowledge, these are the first nomograms based on a very large cohort of patients with CP that show potential benefits for guiding treatment decisions and long-term surveillance. The current study demonstrated the online calculator serve as the practical tool for individual strategies based on the patient’s baseline characteristics to achieve a better prognosis.

AbstractThe ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter superfamily is a large family of proteins that transport specific molecules across membranes. These proteins are associated with both cholesterol metabolism and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Cholesterol homeostasis has a key role in AD, and ABC transporters are important mediators of lipid transportation. Emerging evidence suggests that decreased expression and hypofunction of ABC transporters are crucial to the occurrence and development of AD. In the present article, we review the current knowledge regarding ABC transporters and speculate on their role in the pathogenesis of AD.