A notably higher prevalence of dementia and AD was found in rural areas than in urban ones, and education might be an important reason for the urban-rural differences.

The prevalence of MCI in elderly Chinese is higher in rural than in urban areas. Vascular-related MCI (MCI-CVD and MCI-VRF) was most common.

MiR-424 is a member of the miR-16 family. The genomic organization of miR-424 and miR-503 suggested that they are part of the same transcriptional unit .2 Increasing evidence indicates the crucial role of miR-424 in regulation of cell differentiation. A study in human cord blood CD34+ cells showed that miR-424 is highly expressed during monocyte/ macrophage differentiation , 3 and miR-424 overexpression promotes the maturation of monoblastic cell . 4 Two transcriptional start sites for the pri-miR-424 have been identified at upstream of the pre-miRNA 5′end. The PU.1 factor was shown to interact with the miR-424 promoter and to be responsible for its activation . 3,5,6 In addition, miR-322/424 is induced during muscle differentiation through cdk2 inhibition . 7 MiR-424 expression in human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells was reported to be higher than in osteoblasts and chondrocytes.8 However, miR-424 was found to negatively regulate the adipogenic differentiation of human adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cells, 9 suggestingBackground and Purpose-We observed that microRNA-424 (miR-424) significantly decreased in an miRNA profile of circulating lymphocytes of patients with ischemic stroke. The present study focused on the potential and mechanism of miR-424 in protecting ischemic brain injury in mice. Methods-Cerebral ischemia was induced by middle cerebral artery occlusion in C57/BL6 mice. Cerebral infarction volume, neuronal apoptosis, and microglia activation were determined by 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining, immunofluorescence, and Western blot. BV2 microglial cell activity, cell cycle, mRNA, and protein levels of miR-424 targets were accessed by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, flow cytometry, real-time polymerase chain reaction, and Western blot, respectively. Results-MiR-424 levels were decreased in the plasma of patients with acute ischemic stroke, as well as in mouse plasma and ipsilateral brain tissue at 4, 8, and 24 hours after ischemia, likewise, in the cortex, hippocampus, and basal ganglia, respectively, after 8-hour ischemia. Interestingly, pre-and post-treatment with overexpression of miR-424 both decreased cerebral infarction size and brain edema after middle cerebral artery occlusion. Meanwhile, lentiviral overexpression of miR-424 inhibited neuronal apoptosis and microglia activation, including suppressing ionized calcium binding adaptor molecule-1 immunoreactivity and protein level, and reduced tumor necrosis factor-α production. In vitro study demonstrated that miR-424 mimics caused G1 phase cell-cycle arrest, inhibited BV2 microglia activity, and reduced the mRNA and protein levels of CDC25A, cyclin D1, and CDK6 in BV2 microglial cells, which were upregulated in brain of middle cerebral artery occlusion mice. Conclusions-MiR-424 overexpression lessened the ischemic brain injury through suppressing microglia activation by translational depression of key activators of G1/S transition, suggesting a novel miR-based intervention strategy for stroke. (Stroke. 2013;44...

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has recorded knowledge of diabetes for over 2000 years. Because a considerable number of TCM studies exhibit design defects, such as limited intervention duration, small sample sizes and inconsistent efficacy evaluations, the role of TCM in the treatment of diabetes cannot be fully elucidated. In this review, we evaluate randomized controlled trials of prediabetes, diabetes and diabetic complications published in the past decade. We found that TCM could significantly improve glucose control and clinical indices in patients with diabetes and effectively delay the progression of diabetes. We also summarize potential pharmacological mechanisms underlying the efficacy of TCM medication/herbs and their active ingredients for treating diabetes. More rigorously designed experiments and long-term evaluation of TCM for diabetes will allow for more effective diabetes management. K E Y W O R D S diabetes, diabetic complications, pharmacological mechanisms, prediabetes, randomized controlled trials, traditional Chinese medicine 1 | INTRODUCTION The overall population of patients with diabetes has reached approximately 415 million and is estimated to rise further to nearly 642 million by 2040. 1 Vast amounts of medical resources are spent on diabetes, and the total global health expenditure because of diabetes was estimated to be $673 billion in 2015; however, a decrease in the incidence of diabetes has not been observed. 1,2 About 5 million deaths are attributed to diabetes each year, and patients with an extended duration of complications lose their ability to work, thereby causing heavy social and economic burdens. Therefore, it is urgent to develop effective strategies to prevent the global health threat of diabetes. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has focused on the treatment of diabetes for thousands of years. The "whole view" and "multi-targets" approaches of TCM provide unique advantages in controlling complex diseases such as diabetes. 3 TCM focuses on individualized treatments that are based on the differentiation of syndromes, control of balance and various routes of administration. 4,5 In recent years, large-scale clinical trials have confirmed that TCM has made progress in controlling blood glucose levels. Additionally, the application of modern science and technology has helped to uncover some of the therapeutic mechanisms underlying TCM's potency. Studies have been conducted to *Jiaxing Tian, De Jin and Fengmei Lian contributed equally to this study. Fengmei Lian and Xiaolin Tong are co-corresponding authors.

Altered mitochondrial fission proteins Drp1, SNO-Drp1, and Fis1 in PBL were relatively sensitive and specific in identifying AD patients and could be serving as a biomarker in the procedure of diagnosis.

Puerarin has neuroprotection effects in rats at doses of 200 and 400 mg/kg, administered intraperitoneally after transient middle cerebral artery occlusion which may be partly due to activation of erythropoietin activity.

Acute ischemic stroke (AIS) is a major cause of acquired adult disability and death. Our previous studies proved the efficacy and effectiveness of Tanhuo decoction (THD) on AIS. However, the therapeutic mechanism remains unclear. We recruited 49 AIS patients and 30 healthy people to explore the effects of THD+basic treatment on the poststroke gut microbiota of AIS patients using 16S rRNA sequencing, in which 23 patients received basic treatment (control group) and 26 patients received THD+basic treatment (THD group). By comparing the data before and after treatments, we found the THD group acquired better outcome than the control group on both clinical outcome indices and the characteristics of gut microbiota. In addition to the mediation on short-chain fatty acid- (SCFA-) producing bacteria in two groups, treatment in the THD group significantly decreased the lipopolysaccharide- (LPS-) producing bacteria to reduce LPS biosynthesis. Besides, the complexity of the cooccurrence of gut microbiota and the competition among LPS-producing bacteria and opportunistic pathogenetic bacteria were enhanced in the THD group. Treatment in the THD group also exhibited the potential in decreasing genes on the biosynthesis of trimethylamine (TMA), the precursor of Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO), and increasing genes on the degradation of TMA, especially increasing trimethylamine-corrinoid protein Co-methyltransferase (mttB) which catabolizes TMA to methane. These results hinted that THD+basic treatment might exert its efficacy by mediating the gut microbiota and microbial metabolites, including LPS and TMAO that aggravate the sterile inflammation and platelet aggregation. Moreover, the well-fitting regression model results in predicting the clinical outcome with the alteration of gut microbiota proved gut microbiota as a potential indicator of AIS and provided evidence of the communication between the gut and brain of AIS patients.

Objective: During the follow-up of patients recovered from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the quarantine and observation period, some of the cured patients showed positive results again. The recurrent positive RT-PCR test results drew widespread concern. We observed a certain number of cured COVID-19 patients with positive RT-PCR test results and try to analyze the factors that caused the phenomenon. Methods: We conducted an observational study in COVID-19 patients discharged from 6 rehabilitation stations in Wuhan, China. All observed subjects met the criteria for hospital discharge and were in quarantine. Data regarding age, sex, body mass index (BMI), course of disease, comorbidity, smoking status and alcohol consumption, symptoms in and out of quarantine, and intervention were collected from the subjects' medical records and descriptively analyzed. The main outcome of this study was the RT-PCR test result of the observed subjects at the end of quarantine (negative or positive). Logistic regression analysis was used to identify the influencing factors related to recurrent positive RT-PCR test results. Results: In this observational study, 420 observed subjects recovered from COVID-19 were included. The median age was 56 years, 63.6% of the subjects were above 50 years old, and 50.7% (213/420) were female. The most common comorbidities were hypertension [26.4% (111/420)], hyperlipidemia [10.7% (45/420)], and diabetes [10.5% (44/420)]. 54.8% (230/420) manifested one or more symptoms at the beginning of the observation period, the most common symptoms were cough [27.6% (116/420)], shortness of breath 23.8% (100/420)], and fatigue [16.2% (68/420)], with fever rare [2.6% (11/420)]. A total of 325 subjects were exposed to comprehensive intervention; 95