Background: Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD) are two major neurodegenerative diseases worldwide. Demographic aging is in rapid progress in China. Up-to-date estimates of AD and PD prevalence have not been provided.Methods: Studies that reported the prevalence of AD and PD in China were identified via a systematic database search from 1985 to 2018. Meta-analysis, local polynomial regression and autoregressive integrated moving average model were used for analyses.Results: A total of 99 studies were included in the study with populations of 385,312 and 227,228, respectively for AD and PD. The overall prevalence of AD and PD following age standardization was 3.20% [95% confidence interval (CI) = 3.17–3.23] and 1.06% (95% CI = 1.02–1.10), respectively in individuals over 60 years old. The rates increased drastically for every 10-years increment of age. The yearly prevalence of AD was predicted to increase from 3.81 to 6.17% in the next 5 years. Significant differences were observed between genders [male to female odds ratio (OR) for AD = 0.57, 95% CI = 0.51–0.64; OR for PD = 1.25, 95% CI = 1.06–1.46], and between education levels (Illiterate to non-illiterate OR for AD = 2.99, 95% CI = 2.38–3.75), but not between urban and rural settings.Conclusion: Our results provide an updated insight into the epidemiology of AD and PD in China and their associated rates and ratios. The findings may facilitate China policy makers and health professionals mitigate the related health issues.

Background: Astrocytes are the most abundant glial cells in a brain that mediate inflammatory responses and provide trophic support for neurons. We have previously disclosed that paroxetine, a common selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, ameliorates LPS-induced microglia activation. However, it remains elusive for the role of paroxetine in astrocytic responses. Methods: Isolated primary astrocytes were pretreated with paroxetine and stimulated with different stimuli, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or microglia conditioned medium pre-activated with LPS (M/Lps). Inflammatory and neurotrophic responses, underlying mechanisms and the impact on neuronal survival were assessed. Results: Paroxetine had no impact on LPS-stimulated iNOS, TNF-α, and IL-1β expression, but inhibited M/Lpsinduced TNF-α and IL-1β expression in primary astrocytes. Paroxetine suppressed M/Lps-but not LPS-induced activation of NF-κB and had no impact on the activation of MAPKs and STAT3. Incubation with the resulted astrocyte conditioned media caused no change in the viability of SH-SY5Y cells. BDNF and MANF mRNA expressions were upregulated by M/Lps and paroxetine, respectively. However, M/Lps-or LPS-induced extracellular releases of NO, TNF-α, and/or BDNF in astrocytes were in minor amount compared to those by microglia. Conclusions: Paroxetine ameliorates the reactive microglia-mediated inflammatory responses in astrocytes partially via inhibition of the NF-κB pathway but has no impact on LPS-stimulated astrocyte activation. While the effects of paroxetine on secondary astrocytic responses are not robust compared to its effect on the innate immune responses of microglia, the results together may implicate a therapeutic potential of paroxetine against neuroinflammation-associated neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease.

Background: Astrocytes are the most abundant glial cells in a brain that mediate inflammatory responses and provide trophic support for neurons. We have previously disclosed that paroxetine, a common selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, ameliorates LPS-induced microglia activation. However, it remains elusive of the role of paroxetine in astrocytic responses. Methods: Isolated primary astrocytes were pretreated with paroxetine and stimulated with different stimuli, lipopolysaccharide (LPS) or microglia conditioned medium pre-activated with LPS (M/Lps). Inflammatory and neurotrophic responses, underlying mechanisms and the impact on neuronal survival were assessed. Results: Paroxetine had no impact on LPS-stimulated iNOS, TNF-α and IL-1β expression, but inhibited M/Lps-induced TNF-α and IL-1β expression in primary astrocytes. Paroxetine suppressed M/Lps- but not LPS-induced activation of NF-κB and had no impact on activation of MAPKs and STAT3. Incubation with the resulted astrocyte conditioned media caused no change in viability of SH-SY5Y cells. BDNF and MANF mRNA expressions were upregulated by M/Lps and paroxetine, respectively. However, M/Lps- or LPS-induced extracellular releases of NO, TNF-α and/or BDNF in astrocytes were in minor amount compared to those by microglia. Conclusions: Paroxetine ameliorates the reactive microglia-mediated inflammatory responses in astrocytes partially via inhibition of NF-κB pathway, but has no impact on LPS-stimulated astrocyte activation. While the effect of paroxetine on secondary astrocytic responses are not robust compared to its effect on the innate immune responses of microglia, the results together may implicate a therapeutic potential of paroxetine against neuroinflammation-associated neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Keywords: paroxetine, astrocytes, microglia, neuroinflammation, Parkinson’s disease

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