Search Our Scientific Publications & Authors

Brain Stimul 2021 Apr 10. Epub 2021 Apr 10.

CAS Key Laboratory of Mental Health, Institute of Psychology, Beijing, China; Department of Psychology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China. Electronic address:

Objective: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the globus pallidus internus (GPi) has been shown to be a safe and effective alternative therapy for ameliorating medically refractory primary Meige syndrome. However, the associations between DBS target position and surrounding electrophysiological properties as well as patients' clinical outcomes remains largely unknown. In a large number of patients, we investigated electrophysiological features around stimulation targets and explored their roles in predicting clinical outcomes following bilateral GPi-DBS. Read More

Lancet 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Institute of Neurogenetics and Department of Neurology, University of Lübeck and University Hospital Schleswig-Holstein, Lübeck, Germany.

Parkinson's disease is a recognisable clinical syndrome with a range of causes and clinical presentations. Parkinson's disease represents a fast-growing neurodegenerative condition; the rising prevalence worldwide resembles the many characteristics typically observed during a pandemic, except for an infectious cause. In most populations, 3-5% of Parkinson's disease is explained by genetic causes linked to known Parkinson's disease genes, thus representing monogenic Parkinson's disease, whereas 90 genetic risk variants collectively explain 16-36% of the heritable risk of non-monogenic Parkinson's disease. Read More

Medicine (Baltimore) 2021 Apr;100(15):e25461

Department of Neuroscience, Graduate School.

Rationale: Deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the ventralis intermedius nucleus (Vim) provides a safe and effective therapy for medically refractory essential tremor (ET). However, DBS may be risky in elderly patients and those with ischemic brain lesions. Gamma Knife radiosurgery (GKS) is a minimally invasive procedure, but bilateral thalamotomy is dangerous. Read More

Mov Disord 2021 Apr 13. Epub 2021 Apr 13.

Department of Neurology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.

Background: Abnormal oscillatory neural activity in the beta-frequency band (13-35 Hz) is thought to play a role in Parkinson's disease (PD); however, increasing evidence points to alterations in high-frequency ranges (>100 Hz) also having pathophysiological relevance.

Objectives: Studies have found that power in subthalamic nucleus (STN) high-frequency oscillations is increased with dopaminergic medication and during voluntary movements, implicating these brain rhythms in normal basal ganglia function. The objective of this study was to investigate whether similar signaling occurs in the internal globus pallidus (GPi), a nucleus increasingly used as a target for deep brain stimulation (DBS) for PD. Read More

Pharm Res 2021 Apr 12. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology Unit, Centro di Riferimento Oncologico di Aviano (CRO) IRCCS, Via Franco Gallini 2, 33081, Aviano, PN, Italy.

Background: Anticancer drugs are notoriously characterized by a low therapeutic index, the introduction of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) in oncologic clinical practice could therefore be fundamental to improve treatment efficacy. In this context, an attractive technique to overcome the conventional venous sampling limits and simplify TDM application is represented by dried blood spot (DBS). Despite the significant progress made in bioanalysis exploiting DBS, there is still the need to tackle some challenges that limit the application of this technology: one of the main issues is the comparison of drug concentrations obtained from DBS with those obtained from reference matrix (e. Read More

Sci Rep 2021 Apr 12;11(1):7849. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Department of Life Sciences, Presidency University, Kolkata, India.

Bamboos, member of the family Poaceae, represent many interesting features with respect to their fast and extended vegetative growth, unusual, yet divergent flowering time across species, and impact of sudden, large scale flowering on forest ecology. However, not many studies have been conducted at the molecular level to characterize important genes that regulate vegetative and flowering habit in bamboo. In this study, two bamboo FD genes, BtFD1 and BtFD2, which are members of the florigen activation complex (FAC) have been identified by sequence and phylogenetic analyses. Read More

Sci Rep 2021 Apr 12;11(1):7973. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Department of Neurology, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.

Parkinsonian motor symptoms are linked to pathologically increased beta-oscillations in the basal ganglia. While pharmacological treatment and deep brain stimulation (DBS) reduce these pathological oscillations concomitantly with improving motor performance, we set out to explore neurofeedback as an endogenous modulatory method. We implemented real-time processing of pathological subthalamic beta oscillations through implanted DBS electrodes to provide deep brain electrical neurofeedback. Read More

Neuroimage Clin 2021 Mar 26;30:102644. Epub 2021 Mar 26.

J. Crayton Pruitt Department of Biomedical Engineering, University of Florida, Gainesville FL, United States.

Background: The centromedian-parafascicular (Cm-Pf) complex of the thalamus is a common deep brain stimulation (DBS) target for treatment of Tourette syndrome (TS). Currently, there are no standardized functional intraoperative neurosurgical targeting approaches. Collectively, these issues have led to variability in DBS lead placement. Read More

Neurochirurgie 2021 Apr 9. Epub 2021 Apr 9.

Université Côte d'Azur, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Nice, Department of Neurosurgery, Nice, France.

Objectives: We investigated changes of impulsivity after deep brain stimulation (DBS) of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) in Parkinson's disease (PD) patients, distinguishing functional from dysfunctional impulsivity and their contributing factors.

Methods: Data of 33 PD patients treated by STN-DBS were studied before and 6 months after surgery: motor impairment, medication (dose and dopaminergic agonists), cognition, mood and occurrence of impulse control disorders. Impulsivity was assessed by the Dickman Impulsivity Inventory, which distinguishes functional impulsivity (FI), reflecting the potential for reasoning and rapid action when the situation requires it, and dysfunctional impulsivity (DI), reflecting the lack of prior reasoning, even when the situation demands it. Read More

Brain 2021 Apr;144(3):702-705

UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology, WC1N 3BG, London, UK.

J Phys Chem B 2021 Apr 12. Epub 2021 Apr 12.

Bioinformatics Institute (BII), Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 30 Biopolis Street, #07-01, Matrix, 138671, Singapore.

While the pervasiveness of allostery in proteins is commonly accepted, we further show the generic nature of allosteric mechanisms by analyzing here transmembrane ion-channel viroporin 3a and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) from SARS-CoV-2 along with metabolic enzymes isocitrate dehydrogenase 1 (IDH1) and fumarate hydratase (FH) implicated in cancers. Using the previously developed structure-based statistical mechanical model of allostery (SBSMMA), we share our experience in analyzing the allosteric signaling, predicting latent allosteric sites, inducing and tuning targeted allosteric response, and exploring the allosteric effects of mutations. This, yet incomplete list of phenomenology, forms a complex and unique allosteric territory of protein function, which should be thoroughly explored. Read More

J Parkinsons Dis 2021 Apr 2. Epub 2021 Apr 2.

Department of Neuroscience, Graduate School, College of Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, Republic of Korea.

Background: Scalp erosion is not an uncommon complication of deep brain stimulation (DBS) surgery. Although various methods have been proposed to prevent and manage complications, there are still challenges. We introduce a case of recurrent scalp erosion after DBS surgery treated with vacuum-assisted closure. Read More

Int J Drug Policy 2021 Apr 6;94:103235. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Liver Unit, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain; Instituto Universitario de Tecnologías Biomédicas CIBICAN, Departamento de Medicina Interna, Psiquiatría y Dermatología, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain. Electronic address:

Background: People attending drug treatment centres have a high burden of hepatitis C virus (HCV) and face barriers to diagnosis and treatment. Dried blood spot (DBS) testing has been proposed to simplify diagnosis, but many patients remain untreated. In this retrospective study, we evaluated the reasons for non-retention in care in an intervention using on-site DBS testing and the effect of telemedicine and decentralized care compared to standard of care among people attending drug treatment centres who were lost to follow-up. Read More

Epilepsy Behav 2021 Apr 6:107930. Epub 2021 Apr 6.

Departamento de Psicologia, Universidade Federal de Sergipe, Brazil. Electronic address:

In this review, we will discuss in four scenarios our challenges to offer possible solutions for the puzzle associated with the epilepsies and neuropsychiatric comorbidities. We need to recognize that (1) since quite old times, human wisdom was linked to the plural (distinct global places/cultures) perception of the Universe we are in, with deep respect for earth and nature. Plural ancestral knowledge was added with the scientific methods; however, their joint efforts are the ideal scenario; (2) human behavior is not different than animal behavior, in essence the product of Darwinian natural selection; knowledge of animal and human behavior are complementary; (3) the expression of human behavior follows the same rules that complex systems with emergent properties, therefore, we can measure events in human, clinical, neurobiological situations with complexity systems' tools; (4) we can use the semiology of epilepsies and comorbidities, their neural substrates, and potential treatments (including experimental/computational modeling, neurosurgical interventions), as a source and collection of integrated big data to predict with them (e. Read More

Epilepsia 2021 Apr 8. Epub 2021 Apr 8.

Department of Neurology, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.

Objective: We evaluated the efficacy and safety of deep brain anterior thalamus stimulation after 7 and 10 years, and report the incidence of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) and overall mortality in adults in the Stimulation of the Anterior Nucleus of the Thalamus for Epilepsy (SANTÉ) study.

Methods: After the 3-month blinded and 9-month unblinded phases, subjects continued to be assessed during long-term follow-up (LTFU) and later a continued therapy access phase (CAP), to further characterize adverse events and the incidence of SUDEP. Stimulus parameter and medication changes were allowed. Read More