Many animal experiments and clinical trials showed that probiotics are effective for the treatment of alcoholic liver disease. Alcohol disrupts the composition of intestinal flora; probiotics modulate the gut microbiota and reverse alcohol-associated intestinal barrier dysfunction by decreasing intestinal mucosal permeability and preventing intestinal bacteria from translocating. Probiotics enhance immune responses and reduce the levels of alcohol-induced inflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production in the liver and intestine. Probiotics also increase fatty acid β-oxidation and reduce lipogenesis, combating alcohol-induced hepatic steatosis. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge regarding the mechanism of action of probiotics for reducing the effects of alcoholic liver disease.

BackgroundBrain invasion in meningioma has independent associations with increased risks of tumor progression, lesion recurrence, and poor prognosis. Therefore, this study aimed to construct a model for predicting brain invasion in WHO grade II meningioma by using preoperative MRI.MethodsOne hundred seventy-three patients with brain invasion and 111 patients without brain invasion were included. Three mainstream features, namely, traditional semantic features and radiomics features from tumor and tumor-to-brain interface regions, were acquired. Predictive models correspondingly constructed on each feature set or joint feature set were constructed.ResultsTraditional semantic findings, e.g., peritumoral edema and other four features, had comparable performance in predicting brain invasion with each radiomics feature set. By taking advantage of semantic features and radiomics features from tumoral and tumor-to-brain interface regions, an integrated nomogram that quantifies the risk factor of each selected feature was constructed and had the best performance in predicting brain invasion (area under the curve values were 0.905 in the training set and 0.895 in the test set).ConclusionsThis study provided a clinically available and promising approach to predict brain invasion in WHO grade II meningiomas by using preoperative MRI.

No abstract

This study aimed to investigate the cortical microstructural/macrostructural degenerative patterns in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Overall, 38 PD patients with normal cognition (PD-NC), 38 PD-MCI, and 32 healthy controls (HC) were included. PD-MCI was diagnosed according to the MDS Task Force level II criteria. Cortical microstructural alterations were evaluated with Neurite Orientation Dispersion and Density Imaging. Cortical thickness analyses were derived from T1-weighted imaging using the FreeSurfer software. For cortical microstructural analyses, compared with HC, PD-NC showed lower orientation dispersion index (ODI) in bilateral cingulate and paracingulate gyri, supplementary motor area, right paracentral lobule, and precuneus (PFWE < 0.05); while PD-MCI showed lower ODI in widespread regions covering bilateral frontal, parietal, occipital, and right temporal areas and lower neurite density index in left frontal area, left cingulate, and paracingulate gyri (PFWE < 0.05). Furthermore, compared with PD-NC, PD-MCI showed reduced ODI in right frontal area and bilateral caudate nuclei (voxel P < 0.01 and cluster >100 voxels) and the ODI values were associated with the Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores (r = 0.440, P < 0.001) and the memory performance (r = 0.333, P = 0.004) in the PD patients. However, for cortical thickness analyses, there was no difference in the between-group comparisons. In conclusion, cortical microstructural alterations may precede macrostructural changes in PD-MCI. This study provides insightful evidence for the degenerative patterns in PD-MCI and contributes to our understanding of the latent biological basis of cortical neurite changes for early cognitive impairment in PD.

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is highly heterogeneous reflected by different affected side of body and type of motor symptom. We aim to explore clinical characteristics and underlying brain structure alterations in PD with different predominant sides and motor types. Methods: We recruited 161 PD patients and 50 healthy controls (HC). Patients were classified into four subtypes according to their predominant side and motor type: left akinetic/rigid-dominant (LAR), left tremor-dominant (LTD), right akinetic/rigiddominant (RAR), and right tremor-dominant (RTD). All participants assessed motor and cognitive performances, then underwent T1-weighted and diffusion tensor imaging scanning. A general linear model was used to compare neuroimaging parameters among five groups.Results: Among four PD subtypes, patients of LAR subtype experienced the worst motor impairment, and only this subtype showed worse cognitive performance compared with HC. Compared with HC and other subtypes, LAR subtype showed a significant reduction in cortical thickness of the right caudal-anterior-cingulate gyrus and fractional anisotropy of the right cingulum bundle. Conclusions:We demonstrated that LAR subtype had the worst clinical performance, which the severer damage in the right cingulate region might be the underlying mechanism. This study underscores the importance of classifying PD subtypes based on both the side and type of motor symptom for clinical intervention and research to optimize behavioral outcomes in the future.