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MicroRNAs are a class of conserved, 20 nt-23 nt long, noncoding small RNAs that inhibit expression of their respective target genes in different cell types. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) are a subpopulation of T cells that negatively regulate immune responses, which is essential to immune homeostasis. Recent studies have indicated that microRNAs play an important role in the proliferation, differentiation, and functions of Treg. Here, we review the recent progress in understanding the roles of microRNAs in Treg and their dysregulation in immune-related diseases. This ongoing research continues to expand the understanding of Treg regulation and the mechanisms of immune disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to illustrate the mechanism by which Shenmayizhi decoction (SMYZD) improves the learning memory of rats with vascular cognitive impairment (VCI). Fifty male and female Wistar rats of specific pathogen-free grade (SPF grade) were used to establish the model by the administration of a microsphere embolization. This was accomplished by injecting sterile, standardized, mass-produced microspheres of uniform particle size (100–200 µm in diameter) in a sodium alginate microsphere vascular embolic agent suspension to induce VCI. The VCI model was successfully established in 40 rats, including both male and female rats, and the rats were randomly divided into 4 groups of 10 rats each. The model group was administered an equal volume of distilled water. The donepezil group was administered 0.45 mg/kg/d donepezil, which is equivalent to the clinical dosage. The SMYZ-H group was administered 11.88 g/kg/d SMYZ, which is 4 times higher than the clinically equivalent dosage. The SMYZ-L group was administered 2.97 g/kg/d SMYZ, which is the clinically equivalent dosage. A sham-operated group was used as the control group and administered an equal volume of distilled water. The rats in the 4 groups were treated by gavage with equal volumes of liquid and the indicated concentration of drug diluted in distilled water for 8 consecutive weeks. Two months later, the Morris water maze (MWM) was used to evaluate the spatial memory of all the rats. Ultrastructural and ultrapathological changes in the capillaries of the cerebral cortex were observed by transmission electron microscopy. Furthermore, Western blot and RT-PCR analyses were used to assess the levels of platelet-derived growth factor receptor-β (PDGFR-β), neuron-glial antigen 2 (NG2), vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A), and angiopoietin 1 (Ang1) in the cerebral cortex of the rats. The results showed that SMYZD at concentrations of 11.88 g/kg/d and 2.97 g/kg/d (SMYZ-H and SMYZ-L) significantly shortened the escape latency (EL). In addition, SMYZ-H significantly prolonged the distance traveled and the time spent in the original platform quadrant by the rats with VCI. SMYZ-H significantly increased the NG2 and Ang1 protein expression levels and increased the PDGFR-β and Ang1 mRNA levels. These results demonstrated that Shenmayizhi decoction can improve the memory abilities of rats with VCI induced by multiple cerebral infarctions by preventing pericyte degeneration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: There have been few comprehensive scale studies on the non‐motor symptoms (NMS) of patients with essential tremor (ET) with head tremor (ETh) and those with ET without head tremor (ETol). We aimed to explore the motor symptoms and NMS of these two subgroups. Methods: We enrolled 199 patients with ET (125, ETol; 74 ETh) and 132 healthy controls. We evaluated motor symptoms using the Fahn‐Tolosa‐Marin Tremor Rating Scale (TRS) and NMS using the Non‐Motor Symptom Scale (NMSS). We compared NMSS scores and the prevalence of each NMS between the patient subgroups. Finally, we conducted a logistic regression analysis of the correlation between head tremor and NMS severity, as well as other determinants. Results: There were no significant between‐subgroup differences in demographic characteristics. Further, they presented similar tremor clinical manifestation; however, the ETh subgroup showed a higher prevalence of rest tremor, feeling of sadness, forgetting things or events, and swallowing difficulty, as well as TRS scores, compared with the ETol subgroup. Both patient subgroups showed high scores and prevalence (>50%) in difficulty falling asleep. Logistic regression analysis indicated age as a tremor severity determinant; further, head tremor and tremor severity were NMS determinants. Conclusion: Both patient subgroups presented various NMS including sleep disturbances, cognitive deficits, and affective disorders. The ETh subgroup showed a high prevalence of certain NMS aspects including memory and affective disorder; further, they had aggravated NMS. ET with both upper limb tremor and head tremor may be regarded as a more severe clinical subtype. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. To explore the proportion and characteristic of Chinese adults meeting The Systolic Blood Pressure Intervention Trial (SPRINT) eligibility criteria and assess its generalizability. Method. Our study was based on a cross-sectional, population-based survey with a sample of 26,093 participants aged over 20 years. The SPRINT eligibility criteria were age ≥ 50 years, elevated SBP of 130 to 180 mmHg depending on the number of antihypertensive medication classes being taken, and increased cardiovascular disease (CVD) but without diabetes, history of stroke and estimated glomerular filtration rate < 20 ml / min / 1.73 m 2 , or receiving dialysis. Results. Overall, we estimated that 4,036 (15.5%) participants would meet the SPRINT eligibility criteria. They were generally older, likely to be female, lower educational level, tended to be more overweight, and had higher Framingham risk score compared with overall population or subjects aged ≥ 50 years. Of participants eligible for SPRINT, most (56.2%) of them were not treated for hypertension, and 542 (13.4%) were not previously considered to have hypertension or need for antihypertension therapy. Among the 11,637 adults with hypertension, 3,494 (30.0%) would potentially benefit from treatment intensification. The most common antihypertensive medication class being taken was diuretic agents. Conclusion. A substantial percentage of Chinese subjects meet the SPRINT eligibility criteria. Further studies are needed to assess the cost-effectiveness from treatment intensification in Chinese setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Wireless multimedia sensor networks have recently emerged as one of the most important technologies to actively perceive physical world and empower a wide spectrum of potential applications in various areas. Due to the advantages of rapid deployment, flexible networking, and multimedia information perceiving, wireless multimedia sensor networks are suitable for transmitting mass multimedia data such as audio, video, and images. Two-dimensional images are among the nuclear ways to convey certain information, and there exists a large number of image data to be processed and transmitted; however, the complexity of environment and the instability of sensing component both can give rise to the insignificant information of the resulted images. Hence, image processing attracts a lot of research concerns in last several decades. Our concern in this article is filtering technology on image signal. Filtering is shown to be a key technique to ensure the validity and reliability of the wireless multimedia sensor networks images, which aims to preserve salient edges and remove low-amplitude structures. The well-known L0 gradient minimization employs L0 norm as gradient sparsity prior, and it is capable of preserving sharp edges. Similar to the total variation model, L0 gradient minimization may easily suffer from the staircase effect and even lose part of the structure. Therefore, in this article, we propose an edge-preserving filter with adaptive L0 gradient optimization. Different from original L0 gradient minimization, we introduce an adaptive L0 regularization. The newly proposed adaptive function is feature-driven and makes the utmost of the image gradient, enabling the filter to remove low-amplitude structures and preserve key edges. Furthermore, the proposed filter can effectively avoid staircase effect and is robust to noise. We develop an efficient optimization algorithm to solve the proposed model based on alternating minimization. Through extensive experiments, our method shows many attractive properties like preserving meaningful edges, avoiding staircase effect, robustness to noise, and so on. Applications including noise reduction, clip-art compression artifact removal, detail enhancement and edge extraction, image abstraction and pencil sketching, and high dynamic range tone mapping further demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]