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BackgroundStroke is a common cause of acquired disability on a global scale. Patients with motor dysfunction after a stroke have a reduced quality of life and suffer from an economic burden. Scalp acupuncture has been proven to be an effective treatment for motor recovery after a stroke. However, the neural mechanism of scalp acupuncture for motor function recovery remains to be researched. This study aimed to investigate functional connectivity (FC) changes in region of interest (ROI) and other brain regions to interpret the neural mechanism of scalp acupuncture.MethodsTwenty-one patients were included and randomly divided into patient control (PCs) and scalp acupuncture (SAs) groups with left hemiplegia due to ischemic stroke, and we also selected 20 matched healthy controls (HCs). The PCs were treated with conventional Western medicine, while the SAs were treated with scalp acupuncture (acupuncture at the right anterior oblique line of vertex temporal). All subjects received whole-brain resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI) scan before treatment, and the patients received a second scan after 14 days of treatment. We use the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) scores and the analyses of resting-state functional connectivity (RSFC) as the observational indicators.ResultsThe contralateral and ipsilateral cortex of hemiplegic patients with cerebral infarction were associated with an abnormal increase and decrease in basal internode function. An abnormal increase in functional connectivity mainly exists in the ipsilateral hemisphere between the cortex and basal ganglia and reduces the abnormal functional connectivity in the cortex and contralateral basal ganglia. Increased RSFC was observed in the bilateral BA6 area and bilateral basal ganglia and the connectivity between bilateral basal ganglia nuclei improved. However, the RSFC of the conventional treatment group only improved in the unilateral basal ganglia and contralateral BA6 area. The RSFC in the left middle frontal gyrus, superior temporal gyrus, precuneus, and other healthy brain regions were enhanced in SAs after treatment.ConclusionThe changes in functional connectivity between the cerebral cortex and basal ganglia in patients with cerebral infarction showed a weakening of the bilateral hemispheres and the enhancement of the connections between the hemispheres. Scalp acupuncture has the function of bidirectional regulation, which makes the unbalanced abnormal brain function state restore balance.

ObjectiveMotor recovery is crucial in stroke rehabilitation, and acupuncture can influence recovery. Neuroimaging and machine learning approaches provide new research directions to explore the brain functional reorganization and acupuncture mechanisms after stroke. We applied machine learning to predict the classification of the minimal clinically important differences (MCID) for motor improvement and identify the neuroimaging features, in order to explore brain functional reorganization and acupuncture mechanisms for motor recovery after stroke.MethodsIn this study, 49 patients with unilateral motor pathway injury (basal ganglia and/or corona radiata) after ischemic stroke were included and evaluated the motor function by Fugl–Meyer Assessment scores (FMA) at baseline and at 2-week follow-up sessions. Patients were divided by the difference between the twice FMA scores into one group showing minimal clinically important difference (MCID group, n = 28) and the other group with no minimal clinically important difference (N-MCID, n = 21). Machine learning was performed by PRoNTo software to predict the classification of the patients and identify the feature brain regions of interest (ROIs). In addition, a matched group of healthy controls (HC, n = 26) was enrolled. Patients and HC underwent magnetic resonance imaging examination in the resting state and in the acupuncture state (acupuncture at the Yanglingquan point on one side) to compare the differences in brain functional connectivity (FC) and acupuncture effects.ResultsThrough machine learning, we obtained a balance accuracy rate of 75.51% and eight feature ROIs. Compared to HC, we found that the stroke patients with lower FC between these feature ROIs with other brain regions, while patients in the MCID group exhibited a wider range of lower FC. When acupuncture was applied to Yanglingquan (GB 34), the abnormal FC of patients was decreased, with different targets of effects in different groups.ConclusionFeature ROIs identified by machine learning can predict the classification of stroke patients with different motor improvements, and the FC between these ROIs with other brain regions is decreased. Acupuncture can modulate the bilateral cerebral hemispheres to restore abnormal FC via different targets, thereby promoting motor recovery after stroke.Clinical trial registrationhttps://www.chictr.org.cn/showproj.html?proj=37359, ChiCTR1900022220.

Motor dysfunction is common in patients with stroke. Acupuncture has become an acceptable alternative method for stroke rehabilitation. Previous studies have shown various functional connectivity changes activated by acupuncture. We introduced intersubject correlation (ISC) and intersubject functional correlation (ISFC) analyses into the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) for ischemic stroke to seek a common activation and suppression pattern triggered by acupuncture. In this study, 63 ischemic stroke patients with motor dysfunction and 42 normal controls were analyzed. Three functional scans were conducted during the resting state, motor task, and acupuncture at Yanglingquan (GB34) task. Twenty-two sensory, motor, and movement-imagination cortices in the bilateral hemispheres were selected as the region of interest (ROI). We performed ISC and ISFC analyses among these ROIs in three fMRI runs on patients and controls. Subgroup analyses by course or severity were also conducted. The results showed that acupuncture at GB34 triggered ISFC among upper limb motor, upper limb/hand/face, lower limb, tongue/larynx sensory, and movement imagination regions in the patient group. Subgroup ISC and ISFC analyses showed that patients tended to have increasing responses in the early stage of stroke (within 1 month) and decreasing responses afterward (1–3 months). Patients with mild clinical functional damage (NIHSS 2–4) tended to generate more responses via acupuncture than those with moderate damage (NIHSS 5–15). Our findings may help understand the clinical effects and modulatory features of acupuncture based on the group-level post-stroke neuroplasticity.

Breast cancer is one of the most common malignancies among females, and its prognosis is affected by a complex network of gene interactions. In this study, we constructed free-scale gene co-expression networks using weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA). The gene expression profiles of {"type":"entrez-geo","attrs":{"text":"GSE25055","term_id":"25055","extlink":"1"}}GSE25055 were downloaded from the Gene Expression Omnibus (GEO) database to identify potential biomarkers associated with breast cancer progression. {"type":"entrez-geo","attrs":{"text":"GSE42568","term_id":"42568"}}GSE42568 was downloaded for validation. A total of 9 modules were established via the average linkage hierarchical clustering. We identified 3 hub genes (ASPM, CDC20, and TTK) in the significant module (R2 = 0.52), which were significantly correlated with poor prognosis both in test and validation datasets. In the datasets {"type":"entrez-geo","attrs":{"text":"GSE25055","term_id":"25055"}}GSE25055 and {"type":"entrez-geo","attrs":{"text":"GSE42568","term_id":"42568"}}GSE42568, higher expression levels of ASPM, CDC20, and TTK correlated with advanced tumor grades. Immunohistochemistry data from the Human Protein Atlas also demonstrated that their protein levels were higher in tumor samples. According to gene set enrichment analysis, 4 commonly enriched pathways were identified: cell cycle pathway, DNA replication pathway, homologous recombination pathway, and P53 signaling pathway. In addition, strong correlations were found among their expression levels. In conclusion, our WGCNA analysis identified candidate prognostic biomarkers for further basic and clinical researches.