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Introduction: Cognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia. The effects of atypical antipsychotics on the cognitive functions of patients with first-episode schizophrenia have not been c...

Objective: To explore the effect of long-term antipsychotics use on the strength of functional connectivity (FC) in the brains of patients with chronic schizophrenia. Method: We collected resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging from 15 patients with continuously treated chronic schizophrenia (TCS), 19 patients with minimally TCS (MTCS), and 20 healthy controls (HCs). Then, we evaluated and compared the whole-brain FC strength (FCS; including full-range, short-range, and long-range FCS) among patients with TCS, MTCS, and HCs. Results: Patients with TCS and MTCS showed reduced full-/short-range FC compared with the HCs. No significant differences in the whole-brain FCS (including full-range, short-range, and long-range FCS) or clinical characteristics were identified between patients with TCS and MTCS. Additionally, the FCS in the right fusiform gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus, and right inferior occipital gyrus negatively correlated with the duration of illness and positively correlated with onset age across all patients with chronic schizophrenia. Conclusions: Regardless of the long-term use of antipsychotics, patients with chronic schizophrenia show decreased FC compared with healthy individuals. For some patients with chronic schizophrenia, the influence of long-term and minimal/short-term antipsychotic exposure on resting-state FC was similar. The decreased full- and short-range FCS in the right fusiform gyrus, right inferior temporal gyrus, and right inferior occipital gyrus may be an ongoing pathological process that is not altered by antipsychotic interventions in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Large-sample, long-term follow-up studies are still needed for further exploration.

Antibacterial activity of zinc oxide (ZnO) or strengthening of hydroxylapatite whisker (HAPw) had been studied and applied widely. However, antibacterial property of ZnO-HAPw was scarcely researched nowadays. The aim of this study was to further investigate several kinds of morphologies of ZnO-HAPw prepared by sol-gel technology at different pondus hydrogenii (pH) value and temperature. Four kinds of morphologies of ZnO-HAPw were granule, triangle, short rod and gongs nail at 70°C and pH=6.4, 37°C and pH=6.6, 70°C and pH=6.6, 70°C and pH=6.6. The SEM images of HAPw and ZnO-HAPw samples showed that the HAPw surface was smooth and no difference after annealing treatment. In addition, different shapes of nanoZnO fused uniformly on the HAPw surface. The EDS indicates nanoZnO fuses on HAPw surface.

This study aimed to compare three different methods for the modification of aluminium borate whiskers and investigate the effect of aluminium borate whiskers composites on flexural properties of dental resin composites. Method A was to mix aluminium borate whiskers and silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanoparticles directly. Method B was to modify the mixture of aluminium borate whiskers and SiO2nanoparticles with sol-gel process of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS). Method C was to modify the aluminium borate whiskers with SiO2nanoparticles which were repaired by sol-gel method of TEOS. The effects of the three methods were characterized by the TEM and SEM. There was a significant difference (p

Let μ R,D be a self-affine measure associated with an expanding integer matrix R∈M n (ℤ) and a finite subset D⊆ℤ n . In the present paper we study the μ R,D -orthogonality and compatible pair conditions. We also show that any set of μ R,D -orthogonal exponentials contains at most 3 elements on the generalized plane Sierpinski gasket and the number 3 is the best.

Cholesterol hydrophobically modified chitosan (CS-CH) containing 1.7–4.7 cholesterol groups per 100 anhydroglucosamine units of chitosan were synthesized by an EDC-mediated coupling reaction. The physicochemical properties of the self-aggregated nanoparticles in physiological saline were studied using transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and fluorescence spectroscopy. The mean diameters of all samples were less than 230 nm, and the critical aggregation concentration (CAC) of all self-aggregated nanoparticles in physiological saline less than 4.0 × 10 −2 mg/ml. Both the mean diameters and the CAC decreased slightly with the increasing degree of substitution (DS) by hydrophobic groups. The self-aggregated CS-CH nanoparticles were radiolabeled by 99m Tc, their ocular distribution was investigated using single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) and scintillation counter. The CS-CH nanoparticles retained at the procorneal area, and no radioactivity was found in the posterior segment. The drug-loading and release behavior of the nanoparticles were investigated using Cyclosporine A (CyA) as the model drug. CyA was physically entrapped in the nanoparticles during the dialysis process, and the drug-loading ratio was 6.2%. A sustained release of CyA from CS-CH nanoparticles was observed. The results showed that CS-CH nanoparticles might represent an interesting vehicle to enhance the therapeutic index of clinically challenging drugs with potential application at extraocular level.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) control gene expression by destabilizing target transcripts and inhibiting their translation. Aberrant expression of miRNAs has been described in many human diseases, including schizophrenia. However, the effects on miRNA expression in response to antipsychotic treatment in peripheral circulation have not been thoroughly examined.Using quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR), We quantified the expression of seven candidate miRNAs in plasma samples of 40 first-episode schizophrenics before and after antipsychotic treatment. The patients were all treated with risperidone and achieved remission in 1 year.Compared with the baseline, the expression levels of miR-365 and miR-520c-3p were significantly down-regulated after 1 year of risperidone treatment (P0.001). There were no significant correlations between the clinical symptoms and the expression levels of these two miRNAs (P0.05).This study analyzed possible circulating miRNAs in response to antipsychotic monotherapy for schizophrenia, the further mechanism need to be confirmed.

To evaluate neurocognitive performance in first-episode schizophrenic patients and unaffected first-degree relatives of different patients samples.A total of 42 patients with first-episode schizophrenia, 24 unaffected first-degree relatives and 40 healthy individuals, matched with age, gender and years of education, were recruited from both outpatients and inpatients after being diagnosed with structured tool (SCID-I/P). Subjects' cognitive performance was evaluated by a set of neuropsychological test battery, which assessed four cognitive domains including learning and memory, motor skills, speed of processing and executive function.Healthy individuals performed better than first-episode schizophrenic patients in nearly all cognitive domains (ES=0.63-1.54) with exception of inhibition sub-domain. first-degree relatives showed moderate impairment in verbal learning (ES=0.62), digital symbol (ES=1.05), symbol search (ES=1.18), animal category (ES=0.80) and WCST perseverate errors (ES=0.68). Degree of impairment in first-degree relatives was less than that in the patients.Patients with first-episode schizophrenia have global neurocognitive deficits. Independent first-degree relatives also have deficits in some neurocognitive domains, with a moderate degree between patients and normal controls. Our results indicate that neurocognitive performance may be viewed as a biomarker for candidates reflecting genetic liability for schizophrenia.

Rapamycin-loaded chitosan/polylactic acid nanoparticles with size of about 300 nm in diameter were prepared through nanoprecipitation method using cholesterol-modified chitosan as a stabilizer. The surface coating of chitosan, which was demonstrated by zeta potential measurement, endowed the nanoparticles good retention ability at the procorneal area, facilitating the sustained release of rapamycin on the corneal. The immunosuppression in corneal transplantation of the nanoparticles was investigated using rabbit as animal model, the median survival time of the corneal allografts treated with nanoparticles was 27.2+/-1.03 days and 50% grafts still remained surviving by the end of the observation, while the group treated with 0.5% rapamycin suspension was 23.7+/-3.20 days. The median survival time of drug-free nanoparticles group and untreated groups were 10.9+/-1.45 and 10.6+/-1.26 days, respectively. The results demonstrated the excellent immunosuppression of rapamycin-loaded chitosan/polylactic acid nanoparticles in corneal transplantation.

The self-affine measure μM,D corresponding to an expanding integer matrixM=[abcd]andD={(00),(10),(01)} is supported on the attractor (or invariant set) of the iterated function system {ϕd(x)=M−1(x+d)}d∈D. In the present paper we show that if (a+d)2=4(ad−bc) and ad−bc is not a multiple of 3, then there exist at most 3 mutually orthogonal exponential functions in L2(μM,D), and the number 3 is the best. This extends several known results on the non-spectral self-affine measure problem. The proof of such result depends on the characterization of the zero set of the Fourier transform μˆM,D, and provides a way of dealing with the non-spectral problem.