Background Dihydromyricetin (DHM) exerts protective effects in various brain diseases. The aim of this research was to investigate the biological role of DHM in cerebral ischemia reperfusion (I/R) injury. Methods We generated a rat model of cerebral I/R injury by performing middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R). The neurological score and brain water content of the experimental rats was then evaluated. The infarct volume and extent of apoptosis in brain tissues was then assessed by 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium (TTC) and TdT-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) staining. Hippocampal neuronal cells (HT22) were subjected to oxygen-glucose deprivation/reperfusion (OGD/R) and cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) assays and flow cytometry were performed to detect cell viability and apoptosis. The levels of lipid reactive oxygen species (ROS) and iron were detected and the expression levels of key proteins were assessed by Western blotting. Results DHM obviously reduced neurological deficits, brain water content, infarct volume and cell apoptosis in the brain tissues of MCAO/R rats. DHM repressed ferroptosis and inhibited the sphingosine kinase 1 (SPHK1)/mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway in MCAO/R rats. In addition, DHM promoted cell viability and repressed apoptosis in OGD/R-treated HT22 cells. DHM also suppressed the levels of lipid ROS and intracellular iron in OGD/R-treated HT22 cells. The expression levels of glutathione peroxidase 4 (GPX4) was enhanced while the levels of acyl-CoA synthetase long-chain family member 4 (ACSL4) and phosphatidylethanolamine binding protein 1 (PEBP1) were reduced in OGD/R-treated HT22 cells in the presence of DHM. Moreover, the influence conferred by DHM was abrogated by the overexpression of SPHK1 or treatment with MHY1485 (an activator of mTOR). Conclusion This research demonstrated that DHM repressed ferroptosis by inhibiting the SPHK1/mTOR signaling pathway, thereby alleviating cerebral I/R injury. Our findings suggest that DHM may be a candidate drug for cerebral I/R injury treatment.

Background Diseases caused by nontyphoid Salmonella can range from mild, to self-limiting gastroenteritis and severe invasive infection. Relatively rarely, Salmonella may cause severe encephalopathy. Case presentation We report a suspected case of Bickerstaff’s brainstem encephalitis caused by Salmonella Dublin. A young man presented with impaired consciousness, ataxia, dysarthria, limb weakness, and restricted eyeball abduction. His clinical symptoms were consistent with Bickerstaff’s brainstem encephalitis. Conclusions This is the first case report of Bickerstaff’s brainstem encephalitis caused by Salmonella Dublin in the literature. After treatment, he recovered and was discharged. Early antibiotic treatment of sepsis may control the disease and avoid serious encephalopathy.

Background: Despite a series of reported prognostic markers, there is no prediction score for clinical outcome of Chinese patients with cerebral venous thrombosis (CVT). This study is aimed to develop a CVT outcome score for Chinese. Methods: The study sample came from CCC cohort, which is a multicenter study participated by 26 top tertiary hospitals in China Mainland. 170 CVT patients were prospectively recruited from January 2021 to May 2022. The potential prognostic markers were extracted from CCC database and analyzed. Results: Age, diastolic blood pressure (DBP), neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and neuron specific enolase (NSE) were identified as prognostic markers for CVT after multivariate logistic analysis. Age > 27.5 years, DBP > 79.5mmHg, NLR > 6.6 and NSE >16.5 ng/ml were identified as cutoff values. One point was assigned to age and NSE, two points were assigned to DBP and three points were assigned to NLR based on adjusted odds ratio. CVT outcome score at baseline was positively correlated with mRS at 6 months of follow-up. CVT outcome score effectively predicted the clinical outcome of CVT with a cutoff value of 3.5. Further analysis showed that patients with CVT outcome score > 3 had significantly higher mRS than those with CVT outcome score ≤3. Conclusions: CVT outcome score consists of age, DBP, NLR, and NSE for Chinese CVT patients was developed in this study. CVT outcome score at baseline positively correlated with mRS at 6 months of follow-up. CVT outcome score > 3 helps to identify CVT patients with high risk of poor clinical outcome and take early interventions to prevent deteriorations.