Stroke is the leading cause of disabilities and cognitive deficits, accounting for 5.2% of all mortalities worldwide. Transient or permanent occlusion of cerebral vessels leads to ischemic strokes, which constitutes the majority of strokes. Ischemic strokes induce brain infarcts, along with cerebral tissue death and focal neuronal damage. The infarct size and neurological severity after ischemic stroke episodes depends on the time period since occurrence, the severity of ischemia, systemic blood pressure, vein systems and location of infarcts, amongst others. Ischemic stroke is a complex disease, and neuronal injuries after ischemic strokes have been the focus of current studies. The present review will provide a basic pathological background of ischemic stroke and cerebral infarcts. Moreover, the major mechanisms underlying ischemic stroke and neuronal injuries are summarized. This review will also briefly summarize some representative clinical trials and up-to-date treatments that have been applied to stroke and brain infarcts. Contents 1. Introduction 2. Pathophysiological processes of ischemia 3. Clinical management 4. Conclusion and future perspectives

BackgroundAllergic rhinitis is a common respiratory disease. Acupuncture is used to treat it in traditional Chinese medicine, and generally, the L120, ST2 and ST36 acupoints are selected in clinical practice. We report a new method of acupuncture at the sphenopalatine acupoint (SPA) for treatment of persistent allergic rhinitis (PAR). The effect of this treatment was investigated using two different needling depths. The efficacy of this treatment was associated with accurate stimulation of the sphenopalatine ganglion (SPG).Methods/DesignA total of 61 patients diagnosed with PAR were randomly allocated to either the acupuncture or the sham acupuncture group. The difference between the groups was the needle depth when acupuncture was administered, which was 50 mm and 20 mm. Alteration in total nasal symptom score (TNSS) was the primary outcome. Quality of life, medication dosages and adverse events were secondary outcomes, measured using the Rhinoconjunctivitis Quality of Life Questionnaire (RQLQ). Confidence assessment was performed to evaluate data from the treatment and follow-up periods.ResultsResults were: (1) average TNSS in the treatment group was significantly lower than in the control group at week 4 (median and 25th and 75th percentiles were 5.00 (4.00, 7.00) and 8.00 (7.00, 10.00), respectively (P < 0.001)). However, scores in the two groups were not significantly different at week 12; (2) quality of life (RQLQ) was significantly improved at week 2 in the treatment group compared to the control group (scores of 35.47 ± 8.20 and 45.48 ± 8.84; P < 0.001); (3) during the follow-up period, the medication dosage in the treatment group was much lower than in the control group (3.64 ± 1.45 and 6.14 ± 2.34; P < 0.05); and (4) no adverse events were observed in either group during treatment.ConclusionsThis pilot study revealed a profound effect of acupuncture at the SPA on prevention of PAR development. The TNSS in the treatment group (needle depth 50 mm), was significantly lower than in the control group (needle depth of only 20 mm). Our result demonstrates that performing acupuncture directly at the SPA to stimulate the SPG is an effective method to treat PAR.Trial registrationAcupuncture Clinical Trial Registry, AMCTR-OOR-16000014 and Chinese Clinical Trial Register, ChiCTR-IOR-16009211. Registered on 1 September 1 2016.

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A novel micro- and nanofluidic device stacked with magnetic beads has been developed to efficiently trap, concentrate, and retrieve Escherichia coli (E. coli) from the bacterial suspension and pig plasma. The small voids between the magnetic beads are used to physically isolate the bacteria in the device. We used computational fluid dynamics, three-dimensional (3D) tomography technology, and machine learning to probe and explain the bead stacking in a small 3D space with various flow rates. A combination of beads with different sizes is utilized to achieve a high capture efficiency (∼86%) with a flow rate of 50 μL/min. Leveraging the high deformability of this device, an E. coli sample can be retrieved from the designated bacterial suspension by applying a higher flow rate followed by rapid magnetic separation. This unique function is also utilized to concentrate E. coli cells from the original bacterial suspension. An on-chip concentration factor of ∼11× is achieved by inputting 1300 μL of the E. coli sample and then concentrating it in 100 μL of buffer. Importantly, this multiplexed, miniaturized, inexpensive, and transparent device is easy to fabricate and operate, making it ideal for pathogen separation in both laboratory and point-of-care settings.

Deformable microfluidics may be potentially used in cell manipulation, optical sensing, and imaging applications, and have drawn considerable scientific interests in the recent past. The excellent tunability of deformable microfluidic devices can provide controllable capture, deposition, and target release. We demonstrated a one-dimensional nano-sieve device to capture microparticles from suspensions. Size-selective capturing and release of micro-and nanoparticles was achieved by simply adjusting the flow rate. Almost all the microparticles were trapped in the nano-sieve device at a flow rate of 20 μl min −1 . Increasing the flow rate induces a hydrodynamic deformation of the roof of the compliant device and allows most of the microparticles to pass through the channel. We also established a theoretical model based on computational fluid dynamics to reveal the relationship of the hydrodynamically induced deformation, channel dimensions, and capture efficiency that supports and rationalizes the experimental data. We have predicted the capture efficiency of micro-and nanoparticles in a nano-sieve device with various geometries and flow rates. This study may be important to the optimization of next generation deformable microfluidics for efficient micro-and nanostructure manipulations.

PARP inhibitors have highly significant effects on BRCA mutant cells, allowing targeted therapy of triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC). However, some TBNC patients lack BRCA mutations. Recent studies have shown that EZH2 inhibitors can increase the sensitivity of wild-type BRCA cells to PARP inhibitors. We designed a series of dual PARP and EZH2 inhibitors, and the most promising compound, 5a, showed good inhibitory activity against PARP-1 and EZH2 and good inhibitory effects on MDA-MB-231 (IC 50 = 2.63 μM) and MDA-MB-468 (IC 50 = 0.41 μM) cells with wild-type BRCA. Compared with that of olaparib, the growth inhibitory activities against these two cell types increased by approximately 15-and 80-fold, respectively, which was even more effective than the combination of olaparib and tazemetostat/GSK126. 5a can induce autophagy death of tumor cells and cause less damage to normal cells. Therefore, 5a, as a first-in-class dual PARP and EZH2 inhibitor, is a potential anticancer drug candidate for the treatment of TNBC.

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Formation of rough, dendritic deposits is a critical problem in metal electrodeposition processes and could occur in next-generation, rechargeable batteries that use metallic electrodes. Electroconvection, which originates from the coupling of the imposed electric field and a charged fluid near an electrode surface, is believed to be responsible for dendrite growth. However, few studies are performed at the scale of fidelity where root causes and effective strategies for controlling electroconvection and dendrite growth can be investigated in tandem. Using microfluidics, we showed that forced convection across the electrode surface (cross-flow) during electrodeposition reduced metal dendrite growth (97.7 to 99.4%) and delayed the onset of electroconvective instabilities. Our results highlighted the roles of forced convection in reducing dendrite growth and electroconvective instabilities and provided a route toward effective strategies for managing the consequences of instability in electrokinetics-based processes where electromigration dominates ion diffusion near electrodes.