Background: Globus pallidus internus (GPi) deep brain stimulation (DBS) is widely used in patients with isolated dystonia; however, its use remains controversial in patients with acquired dystonia and cerebral palsy. Case presentation: We report the first case of a cerebral palsy patient, who failed to recover 2 years after GPi DBS; DBS was administered on both superior cerebellar peduncles (SCPs) and dentate nuclei (DNs). The monopolar stimulation results suggested that DBS was better administered via the SCPs than via the DNs. At six months follow-up, the patient exhibited a significant improvement of dystonia and spasticity, as well as in her quality of life. Discussion: SCP DBS may be a potential treatment for cerebral palsy patients with dystonia and spasticity who do not respond well to GPi DBS.

BackgroundExosomes are nano-sized extracellular vesicles containing different biomolecules such as proteins and microRNAs (miRNAs) that mediate intercellular communication. Recently, numerous studies have reported the important functions of exosomal miRNAs in disease development and the potential clinical application as diagnostic biomarkers. Up to now, the most commonly used methods to extract exosomes are ultracentrifugation (UC) and precipitation-based commercial kit (e.g., ExoQuick). Generally, both UC and ExoQuick method could co-isolate contaminating proteins along with exosomes, with the UC method yielding even purer exosomes than ExoQuick. However, the comparison of these two methods on co-precipitated free miRNAs is still unknown.MethodsIn this study, we isolated exosomes from the human serum with exogenously added cel-miR-39 by UC and ExoQuick and compared the proportion of cel-miR-39 co-precipitated with exosomes extracted by these two methods.ResultsUsing exogenous cel-miR-39 as free miRNAs in serum, we concluded that ExoQuick co-isolates a small proportion of free miRNAs while UC hardly precipitates any free miRNAs. We also found that incubation at 37 °C for 1 h could decrease the proportion of free miRNAs, and exosomal miRNAs like miR-126 and miR-152 also decreased when RNase A was used. In conclusion, our findings provide essential information about the details of serum exosome isolation methods for further research on exosomal miRNAs.

BackgroundRadiation exposure of the thorax is associated with a greatly increased risk of cardiac morbidity and mortality even after several decades of advancement in the field. Although many studies have demonstrated the damaging influence of ionizing radiation on cardiac fibroblast (CF) structure and function, myocardial fibrosis, the molecular mechanism behind this damage is not well understood. miR-21, a small microRNA, promotes the activation of CFs, leading to cardiac fibrosis. miR-21 is overexpressed after irradiation; however, the relationship between increased miR-21 and myocardial fibrosis after irradiation is unclear. This study was conducted to investigate gene expression after radiation-induced CF damage and the role of miR-21 in this process in rats.MethodsWe sequenced irradiated rat CFs and performed weighted correlation network analysis (WGCNA) combined with differentially expressed gene (DEG) analysis to observe the effect on the expression profile of CF genes after radiation.ResultsDEG analysis showed that the degree of gene changes increased with the radiation dose. WGCNA revealed three module eigengenes (MEs) associated with 8.5-Gy-radiation—the Yellow, Brown, Blue modules. The three module eigengenes were related to apoptosis, G2/M phase, and cell death and S phase, respectively. By blocking with the cardiac fibrosis miRNA miR-21, we found that miR-21 was associated with G2/M blockade in the cell cycle and was mainly involved in regulating extracellular matrix-related genes, including Grem1, Clu, Gdf15, Ccl7, and Cxcl1. Stem-loop quantitative real-time PCR was performed to verify the expression of these genes. Five genes showed higher expression after 8.5 Gy-radiation in CFs. The target genes of miR-21 predicted online were Gdf15 and Rsad2, which showed much higher expression after treatment with antagomir-miR-21 in 8.5-Gy-irradiated CFs. Thus, miR-21 may play the role of fibrosis and G2/M blockade in regulating Grem1, Clu, Gdf15, Ccl7, Cxcl1, and Rsad2 post-irradiation.