Archives of Neuroscience
Volume:11 Issue: 1, Jan 2024

 Sleep apnea is a prevalent sleep disorder, especially in males and older ages. The common diagnostic methods, including polysomnography (PSG), are expensive, difficult to perform, and time-consuming. Numerous studies are focusing on developing easy-to-perform methods based on artificial intelligence (AI) for the early diagnosis of sleep apnea. This systematic review aimed to gather current methods based on the convolutional neural network (CNN) for the diagnosis of sleep apnea.

 Three international electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science [WoS], and Scopus) were searched from 2010 to October 2023. All studies that have developed CNN-based methods for the diagnosis of sleep apnea and have accomplished the performance tests were included. Finally, the characteristics of the studies were extracted and summarized.

 A total of 36 studies were included in this systematic review. Various physiological signals have been proposed to detect sleep apnea, including electrocardiogram (ECG), blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), sound signals, respiratory signals, electroencephalogram (EEG), and nasal airflow. Electrocardiogram was the most frequently used signal in the studies, followed by SpO2. The highest reported accuracy was achieved by SpO2 or ECG-based methods and with a one-dimensional CNN (1D-CNN) classifier. Using multiple signals did not necessarily increase the performance of test results.

 Diagnostic methods based on CNN can be used only as screening tools or home diagnosis of sleep apnea. These methods are easy to perform and can only reduce the diagnostic costs and waiting time for a sleep study in special scenarios. Nevertheless, PSG is still the gold standard for the diagnosis of sleep disorders.

 Cholemic nephropathy (CN), a renal dysfunction caused by bile acids, is a severe complication of chronic liver damage and bile duct ligation (BDL), which may lead to complete kidney failure.

 This study investigated the protective effect of ellagic acid on CN in cholestatic rats.

 Sixty male Wistar rats weighing about 180 - 200 g were randomly divided into 6 groups for in vivo investigation. The rats were randomly divided into 5 groups of 10. Cholestasis was induced in rats by closing the bile ducts; then, the animals were treated with different doses of ellagic acid (10, 25, and 50 mg/kg). Then, the induction effect of cholestasis and the protective effects of ellagic acid on serum and urinary factors, oxidative stress indices, and histopathological changes in liver and kidney tissue were investigated.

 Bile duct ligation in rats led to an increase in serum and urinary factors. It was also associated with increased reactive oxygen species (ROS), lipid peroxidation, glutathione (GSH) oxide form, decrease in antioxidant systems, GSH and severe histopathological changes, and fibrosis of the liver and kidney tissues. Another finding of this research was the beneficial effect of ellagic acid in improving serum and urinary factors, oxidative stress indices, and histopathological changes.

 Due to its antioxidant properties, ellagic acid can potentially serve as a novel therapeutic approach for treating kidney damage caused by increased serum levels of bile acids.

 Endovascular embolization of intracranial meningiomas is commonly performed as an adjunct to surgical resection and may reduce intraoperative blood loss and surgical time. However, it remains unclear whether preoperative embolization improves the surgical outcomes of meningioma patients.

 This study aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of preoperative embolization in patients with giant intracranial meningiomas.

 This retrospective cohort study included patients diagnosed with cranial meningiomas who underwent surgical treatment. The population group was subdivided into 2 categories: surgery alone and preoperative meningioma embolization. Outcome variables included the degree of devascularization, intraprocedural complications, intraoperative complications, intraoperative blood loss, surgical time, postoperative complications, and the necessity of blood transfusions.

 In this study, a total of 189 patients with meningiomas were enrolled. Among them, 22 patients underwent preoperative tumor embolization. The tumor volume was significantly larger in the combined treatment group compared to the surgery-alone group (P = 0.002). Additionally, there was a significant difference in tumor location between the groups (P < 0.001), with more meningiomas being situated deeper in the combined group. In the subgroup analysis of giant meningiomas, intraoperative blood loss was significantly lower in embolized patients compared to non-embolized patients (P = 0.034), while no difference in surgical time was observed (P = 0.570).

 Preoperative embolization in appropriately selected patients with giant intracranial meningiomas, especially those in deeper locations, was safe and feasible, showing a substantial degree of tumor devascularization with an acceptably low rate of complications. This may have had a positive effect on intraoperative blood loss and the duration of surgery.

The diversity of the portfolio of pharmaceutical and non-pharmacological services is an undeniable necessity; however, we must remember that the thinking of harm reduction should govern this process. If we only pay attention to the variety of drugs and their different forms, eventually the noble goal of harm reduction will suffer. In an article that Pedersen et al. prepared about the slow-release form of buprenorphine, there are structural and content problems that will be addressed in this article. This article criticizes the rapid change in the provision of harm reduction services and discusses the impact of structural changes in the provision of services and the location of service provision.

 Maajoune is a dough prepared using hemp resin and certain plants known for their aphrodisiac effects. This drug is manufactured in North African countries.

 The goal of this study was to seek the neurocognitive effects of the Maâjoune among children and young individuals.

 This randomized case-control study was conducted in three addiction centers and four schools in Morocco’s central region. The neurocognitive evaluation was performed by the Bells Test (visual attention deficits, unilateral spatial neglect, memory, and executive functions). SPSS software (version 20) was used to perform statistical analysis consisting of descriptive and qualitative analyses.

 This study was conducted on 115 participants aged between 10 and 18 years. The subjects were divided into two groups, namely 55 subjects (48%) (G1) addicted to Maajoune and 60 subjects (52%) (G2) as non-consumers (control group). The results showed the omission of 6 items for 73% and 42% in G1 and G2, respectively (P < 0.05). Hemianopsia was detected as bilateral visuospatial neglect (BVN) for 36% (G1) and 17% (G2) (P < 0.05) and right visuospatial neglect for 24% (G1) and 13% (G2) (P < 0.05). The addicted group score was significant regarding attention disorder (P = 0.001‡) and memory troubles (P < 0.000001‡).

 The study results confirmed that Maajoune consumption significantly affected attention, executive function, and memory in young individuals. These findings highlight the urgent need for research that elucidates the neurobiological changes caused by Maajoune consumption in human health.

 Depression is one of the most common psychiatric disorders worldwide and causes disability. There is a need to produce new agents for the treatment of depression with the maximum efficiency and the lowest side effects. The positive effects of Pistacia lentiscus have been reported in the central nervous system and different disorders.

 This study evaluated the antidepressant-like effect of the ethanolic extract of P. lentiscus (EEPL) in a mouse model and its possible mechanisms.

 The male NMRI mice (20 - 25 g) intraperitoneally (i.p.) received vehicle (10 mL/kg), imipramine (30 mg/kg), fluoxetine (20 mg/kg, i.p.), and EEPL (50 - 400 mg/kg). After 45 minutes, the animals were subjected to a tail suspension test (TST). The open-filed test (OFT) was used to assess the animal’s locomotion. To elucidate possible monoaminergic mechanisms, the mice were pre-treated with various receptor antagonists 1 hour before the most effective dose of EEPL.

 The administration of EEPL (100 - 400 mg/kg) induced an antidepressant-like effect (37.5%, 49.3%, and 63.9% reduction, respectively) in the TST (P < 0.001) without considerable effects on animal locomotion in OFT (P > 0.05). The antidepressant-like effect of EEPL (200 mg/kg) was blocked by the pre-treatment of animals with SCH23390, sulpiride, haloperidol, ketanserin, WAY100135, and p-chlorophenylalanine (pCPA) (P < 0.001), but not with prazosin, yohimbine, or propranolol (P > 0.05).

 The results show that the antidepressant-like effect of EEPL is mediated by the modulation of dopaminergic and serotonergic systems. Overall, the results suggested that EEPL exerted an antidepressant-like activity in the mouse model of depression, which might be considered a useful drug in the management of depression.