BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: High-resolution MR imaging is an emerging tool for evaluating intracranial artery disease. It has an advantage of defining vessel wall characteristics of intracranial vascular diseases. We investigated high-resolution MR imaging arterial wall characteristics of CNS vasculitis and reversible cerebral vasoconstriction syndrome to determine wall pattern changes during a follow-up period.

Mutated in colorectal cancer (MCC ) was originally identified as a candidate gene for familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) but further study identified adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) as responsible for FAP and the physiologic/pathologic roles of MCC remained poorly understood. Recently, MCC promoter methylation was discovered as a frequent early event in a distinct subset of precursor lesions and colorectal cancer (CRC) associated with the serrated CRC pathway. Here we provide the first evidence of the biological significance of MCC loss in CRC and the molecular pathways involved. We show MCC expression is dramatically decreased in many CRC cell lines and the distinct subset of sporadic CRC characterized by the CpG island methylator phenotype and BRAF V600E mutation due to promoter methylation as reported previously. Importantly, we find MCC interacts with b-catenin and that reexpression of MCC in CRC cells specifically inhibits Wnt signaling, b-catenin/T-cell factor/lymphoid-enhancer factor-dependent transcription and cellular proliferation even in the presence of oncogenic mutant APC. We also show that MCC is localized in the nucleus and identify two functional nuclear localization signals. Taken together, MCC is a nuclear, b-catenininteracting protein that can act as a potential tumor suppressor in the serrated CRC pathway by inhibiting Wnt/b-catenin signal transduction.

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Various surgical techniques and pharmaceutical treatments have been developed to improve the current technologies of treating brain diseases. Focused ultrasound (FUS) is a new brain stimulation modality that can exert a therapeutic effect on diseased brain cells, with this effect ranging from permanent ablation of the pathological neural circuit to transient excitatory/inhibitory modulation of the neural activity depending on the acoustic energy of choice. With the development of intraoperative imaging technology, FUS has become a clinically available noninvasive neurosurgical option with visual feedback. Over the past 10 years, FUS has shown enormous potential. It can deliver acoustic energy through the physical barrier of the brain and eliminate abnormal brain cells to treat patients with Parkinson's disease and essential tremor. In addition, FUS can help introduce potentially beneficial therapeutics at the exact brain region where they need to be, bypassing the brain's function barrier, which can be applied for a wide range of central nervous system disorders. In this review, we introduce the current FDA-approved clinical applications of FUS, ranging from thermal ablation to blood barrier opening, as well as the emerging applications of FUS in the context of pain control, epilepsy, and neuromodulation. We also discuss the expansion of future applications and challenges. Broadening FUS technologies requires a deep understanding of the effect of ultrasound when targeting various brain structures in diverse disease conditions in the context of skull interface, anatomical structure inside the brain, and pathology.