Stroke lesions induce not only loss of local neural function, but disruptions in spatially distributed areas. However, it is unknown whether they affect the synchrony of electrical oscillations in neural networks and if changes in network coherence are associated with neurological deficits. This study assessed these questions in a population of patients with subacute, unilateral, ischemic stroke.Spontaneous cortical oscillations were reconstructed from high-resolution electroencephalograms (EEG) with adaptive spatial filters. Maps of functional connectivity (FC) between brain areas were created and correlated with patient performance in motor and cognitive scores.In comparison to age-matched healthy controls, stroke patients showed a selective disruption of FC in the alpha frequency range. The spatial distribution of alpha band FC reflected the pattern of motor and cognitive deficits of the individual patient: network nodes that participate normally in the affected functions showed local decreases in FC with the rest of the brain. Interregional FC in the alpha band, but not in delta, theta, or beta frequencies, was highly correlated with motor and cognitive performance. In contrast, FC between contralesional areas and the rest of the brain was negatively associated with patient performance.Alpha oscillation synchrony at rest is a unique and specific marker of network function and linearly associated with behavioral performance. Maps of alpha synchrony computed from a single restingstate EEG recording provide a robust and convenient window into the functionality and organization of cortical networks with numerous potential applications.

Functional brain networks are known to be affected by focal brain lesions. However, the clinical relevance of these changes remains unclear. This study assesses resting-state functional connectivity (FC) with electroencephalography (EEG) and relates observed topography of FC to cognitive and motor deficits in patients three months after ischemic stroke. Twenty patients (mean age 61.3 years, range 37–80, 9 females) and nineteen age-matched healthy participants (mean age 66.7 years, range 36–88, 13 females) underwent a ten-minute EEG-resting state examination. The neural oscillations at each grey matter voxel were reconstructed using an adaptive spatial filter and imaginary component of coherence (IC) was calculated as an index of FC. Maps representing mean connectivity value at each voxel were correlated with the clinical data. Compared to healthy controls, alpha band IC of stroke patients was locally reduced in brain regions critical to observed behavioral deficits. A voxel-wise Pearson correlation of clinical performances with FC yielded maps of the neural structures implicated in motor, language, and executive function. This correlation was again specific to alpha band coherence. Ischemic lesions decrease the synchrony of alpha band oscillations between affected brain regions and the rest of the brain. This decrease is linearly related to cognitive and motor deficits observed in the patients.

BACKGROUND: The analysis of coherent networks from continuous recordings of neural activity with functional MRI or magnetoencephalography has provided important new insights into brain physiology and pathology. Here we assess whether valid localizations of coherent cortical networks can also be obtained from high-resolution electroencephalography (EEG) recordings. METHODS: EEG was recorded from healthy subjects and from patients with ischemic brain lesions during a tonic hand muscle contraction task and during continuous visual stimulation with an alternating checkerboard. These tasks induce oscillations in the primary hand motor area or in the primary visual cortex, respectively, which are coherent with extracerebral signals (hand muscle electromyogram or visual stimulation frequency). Cortical oscillations were reconstructed with different inverse solutions and the coherence between oscillations at each cortical voxel and the extracerebral signals was calculated. Moreover, simulations of coherent point sources were performed. RESULTS: Cortico-muscular coherence was correctly localized to the primary hand motor area and the steady-state visual evoked potentials to the primary visual cortex in all subjects and patients. Sophisticated head models tended to yield better localization accuracy than a single sphere model. A Minimum Variance Beamformer (MVBF) provided more accurate and focal localizations of simulated point sources than an L 2 Minimum Norm (MN) inverse solution. In the real datasets, the MN maps had less localization error but were less focal than MVBF maps. CONCLUSIONS: EEG can localize coherent cortical networks with sufficient accuracy.

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Acquired drug resistance constitutes a serious obstacle to the successful therapy of cancer. In the process of therapy resistance, microRNAs can play important roles. In order to combat resistance formation and to improve the efficacy of chemotherapeutics, the mechanisms of the multifaceted hsa-miR−200c on drug resistance were elucidated. Upon knockout of hsa-miR−200c in breast carcinoma cells, a proteomic approach identified altered expression of glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) when cells were treated with the chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin. In different hsa-miR−200c expression systems, such as knockout, inducible sponge and inducible overexpression, the differential expression of all members of the GST family was evaluated. Expression of hsa-miR−200c in cancer cells led to the repression of a multitude of these GSTs and as consequence, enhanced drug-induced tumor cell death which was evaluated for two chemotherapeutic drugs. Additionally, the influence of hsa-miR−200c on the glutathione pathway, which is part of the phase II detoxification mechanism, was investigated. Finally, the long-term effects of hsa-miR−200c on drug efficacy were studied in vitro and in vivo. Upon doxycycline induction of hsa-miR−200c, MDA-MB 231 xenograft mouse models revealed a strongly reduced tumor growth and an enhanced treatment response to doxorubicin. A combined treatment of these tumors with hsa-miR−200c and doxorubicin resulted in complete regression of the tumor in 60% of the animals. These results identify hsa-miR−200c as an important player regulating the cellular phase II detoxification, thus sensitizing cancer cells not expressing this microRNA to chemotherapeutics and reversing drug resistance through suppression of GSTs.

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