Archives of Neuroscience
Volume:7 Issue: 2, Apr 2020

In my close attachments with Dr. Abbas Norouzi Javidan as the Executive Manager of Archives of Neuroscience, I have been marveled at his sense of devotion, correct judgments, and punctuality. He proved himself as a conscientious and dependable faculty. His love for our journal, Archives of Neuroscience, and his endeavors to enable it to be on a par with other renowned journals had been unparalleled. He supported the fledgling journal with all his efforts ever since it was launched. He maintained close and friendly relationships with the staff who worked at the Brain and Spinal Injury Research Center. He was very kind-hearted and soft-spoken for which everybody loved him. He never nurtured ill-will toward anyone. Death was inevitable but it shuddered my heart. He passed away on March 10, 2020. During the meetings, he would try to look at the problem from all angles until he had either fathomed it or else convinced himself that his data were insufficient. He was liked for his availability and affability, the qualities that very few people possess. Furthermore, he also possessed a sterling quality of adaptability to almost all the things that cropped up. As the Editor-in-Chief of the Archives of Neuroscience, I would take this opportunity to express my gratitude for his dedication, labor, and friendship. I think he believed in the French proverb, “Tout comprendee, e’est tout pardoner”. He was a man of iron nerve and battled hard and courageously with his colon cancer for which he was operated upon and later on received multiple courses of chemo- and radiotherapy. The last time I saw him a couple of days before his admission to the hospital, it appeared as if he was sinking into an abyss. It did not take him long after his last admission to succumb to the cancer he had been battling all these years. We would always remember him for his extremely polite manners and his adorable behavior with his colleagues and staff.

Serum bilirubin is considered as a natural antioxidant that may affect the prognosis of stroke.

This systematic review aimed at determining the predictive value of serum bilirubin levels in stroke.

We systematically reviewed the literature published in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Embase, ProQuest, and the Cochrane Library with no time limit until October 2018. The search strategy included a combination of Mesh and free keywords, such as Bilirubin, Stroke, Cerebral Ischemia, Brain Ischemia, and Brain Vascular Accident.

OF A total of 2013 studies, 13 studies were included in this systematic review. The results revealed that, based on the majority of studies, increased bilirubin leads to increased severity of ischemic stroke.

This systematic review showed that there was an association between the increased serum level of bilirubin and increased severity of ischemic stroke.

Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are one of the most accessible adult multipotent stem cells that can be harvested from various tissues. The tissue regeneration field uses MSCs because of their therapeutic potential in tissue damage repair, inflammation suppression, and anti-tumor therapies, relying on their targeted homing and differentiation capability into specialized cells. It is proposed that the paracrine activities of MSCs, including secretory trophic factors, survival signals, and extracellular vesicle release, are the principal mechanism to mediate MSCs function. Current studies show that exosomes secreted by MSCs may also contribute to MSCs’ physiological function. Indeed, they can be introduced as hopeful novel candidates for drug delivery due to their nanoscale naturally-occurring structure, more stability, less immunogenicity, and the ability to pass through biological barriers without rejection to deliver their cargos to recipient cells and tissues. Moreover, exosomes may anticipate beneficial nanocarrier vehicles in targeted drug delivery systems.

The Alzheimer disease (AD) induces the central and peripheral nervous system disruption by increasing oxidative stress; therefore, it induces disruption of the physical condition as well as occurrence of chronic pain.

The present study aimed at investigating the interactive effects of endurance training (ET) on positive and negative slope and royal jelly (RJ) consumption on motor balance and pain threshold in animal model of AD.

The current experimental study was conducted on 49 male Wister rats with AD divided equally into seven groups including AD control (ADC), ET on positive slope (ETPS), ET on negative slope (ETNS), sham (RJ solvent) (SH), ETPS + RJ, ETNS + RJ, and RJ. In order to investigate the effect of AD induction on motor balance and pain threshold, seven rats were assigned into the healthy control (HC) group. The rats in the ET groups performed ET for four weeks and five 60-minute sessions weekly, and the RJ groups received 100 mg/kg RJ daily for four weeks. One-way ANOVA and two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post-hoc tests were employed to analyze the data (P ≤ 0.05).

ETPS, ETNS, and RJ consumption significantly increased motor balance in rats with AD (P ≤ 0.05). Also, ET and RJ consumption had interactive effects on increasing the motor balance in rats with AD (P ≤ 0.05). ETPS significantly reduced pain threshold in rats with AD (P ≤ 0.05); nevertheless, ET and RJ consumption had no interactive effects on reduction of the pain threshold in rats with AD (P ≥ 0.05).

It seems that to improve the motor balance in AD, ETPS and ETNS can be employed with RJ consumption.

Drooling or Sialorrhoea is considered as a common non-motor symptom in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD), however the mechanism of drooling in PD is unknown.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the impacts of dysphagia and cognitive function on drooling in PD.

Eighty-five patients with PD participated in this cross-sectional study. After diagnosis of PD, its severity was determined by the Hoehn and Yahr (HY) scale, which is consisted of five stages and explains the progression symptoms of PD. Evaluation of drooling was done by the Drooling Severity and Frequency scale (DSFS). Dysphagia was diagnosed using the Persian version of Northwestern dysphagia patient check sheet (NDPCS) and cognitive function was assessed through the Persian version of Mini-Mental State examination (MMSE). Data analysis was done with SPSS 22. All analyses were two-tailed tests and a P value of less than 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

The mean total DSFS score was 3.96 ± 1.65, and using a cut-off point of two, the prevalence of drooling was 70.6% (n = 60) in PD patients. In adjusted analysis, the low MMSE score, high HY score, and dysphagia were all associated with drooling.

Although concurrence of dysphagia and drooling is possible in PD, we should also consider cognitive impairments as an important factor in the occurrence of drooling. In addition, further studies are needed to investigate the impact of cognitive domains on drooling in Parkinson’s patients.

In the hand mental rotation task, images and line drawings of hand at different angles are shown to the subjects, and they are asked to choose which hand (left or right) it is. Tactile stimulation is an appropriate technique to improve sensory and motor functions.

The present study aimed to investigate the impact of tactile stimulation on the hand mental rotation task.

To meet the study objectives, 91 right-handed university students were selected to participate in this study. They were randomly divided into control (n = 41) and tactile stimulation (n = 50) groups. Participants were asked to perform a hand mental rotation task before and after tactile stimulation. The task required participants to judge the laterality (left or right) of hands as quickly and accurately as possible. The tactile stimulation was applied to the right index fingertip (16 Hz for 30 min).

In the tactile stimulation group, all angles for both right- and left-hand participants were analyzed, demonstrating significant decreases in the reaction time (P = 0.004) after tactile stimulation (mean: 1,908.24 ± 375.42 to 1,721.21 ± 428.99 milliseconds). In this group, the response accuracy rate increased considerably (P < 0.001) after tactile stimulation (mean: 78.43% ± 16.58 to 84.38% ± 18.15). In the control group, no significant differences were found between the measured parameters before and after sham stimulation.

The current study demonstrated that tactile stimulation could improve hand mental rotation in healthy young adults, probably due to increased brain excitability and plasticity.

Herpes simplex encephalitis (HSE) is the most common cause of encephalitis worldwide and is a potentially fatal infection of the central nervous system. Therefore, early and accurate treatment of this disease is vital. Clinical manifestations and paraclinical findings can help physicians in precious diagnosis and treatment.

The present study aimed to assess the clinical/paraclinical findings and outcomes of patients suspected to HSE.

In a descriptive-analytical study, 70 patients suspected to HSE were prospectively enrolled and divided into three groups: confirmed HSE, other-diagnosis, and without-diagnosis groups. The clinical/paraclinical findings and outcomes of the three groups were gathered using demographic and HSE checklists. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis and ANOVA tests.

There was a significant difference in the mean age (P = 0.016), sex (P = 0.027), and seizure (P = 0.001) between the three groups so that the HSE group patients were younger, mostly female, with seizure observed in more than half of these patients. The treatment period was significantly longer in the HSE group (P < 0.001). The mean of ESR was lower in the HSE group (P = 0.034), and CRP was higher in the other-diagnosis group (P = 0.0231); they were significantly different lab tests between the three groups. The diagnostic results of HSE in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) showed a significant difference between the three groups (P < 0.001). Neurological sequels were significantly higher in the HSE group (P = 0.029). Differences in other findings were not statistically significant.

Seizure as a clinical finding and brain MRI as a paraclinical investigation is helpful for the differentiation of HSE from other similar diseases. The early use of acyclovir for suspected patients plays a pivotal role in the improvement of the clinical prognosis of HSE. We suggest that physicians prescribe acyclovir as soon as HSE is clinically suspected.

Despite inducing autonomic benefits similar to exercise, playing wind instruments is a physical, and cognitive task of high attentional requirements, which demands musicians maximal efforts, leading to sympathetic hyperarousal and autonomic worsening. In this context of controversy, it remains unknown the autonomic response to playing highly demanding music performances, as compared to an easier one, which might be of interest in wind musicians' cardiovascular health.

This study aimed to investigate differences in the autonomic control of the heart with regard to task demands (TD), avoiding emotional influences (rehearsal performance).

Eight healthy male professionals (29.13 ± 7.33 years) ranked a list of well-known musical scores according to their perception of the task demands. Later on, in 2 two normal rehearsals with no audience, musicians performed one mild performance (M), and another one ranked as hardest (H) on two alternative days. After 10 minutes of warm-up, they performed two laps of 20 minutes interspersed with 5 minutes of rest. Heart rate variability (HRV) was recorded in both laps, 20 minutes at baseline (before warming-up), and 20 minutes after cessation. Owing to non-stationarity of the cardiac signal, the root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD) and Poincare-Plot indexes (SD1, SD2) were analyzed in the last 500 beats of each 20 minutes (Kubios software V. 2.1).

Musicians showed larger parasympathetic responses in H (lnRMSSD, lnSD1, SD2), mostly after 30 minutes playing, without RRi differences. Vagal control diminished in the first lap, where musicians might be coupling heart rate to changes in breathing. Later on, this initial discomfort disappeared, followed by autonomic reactivation in H. Sympathetic arousal due to neuromuscular and cognitive demands while playing demanding music seems to be vagally counteracted, suggesting that the more the difficulty, the more coupled the respiratory sinus arrhythmia (i.e., cardiovascular adjustments).

Playing wind instruments seems healthy in terms of autonomic modulation, and the psychophysiological wellness of wind musicians might benefit from HRV monitoring in the long-term.

Cell culture is an important technique in cellular and molecular biology. There are two basic systems for culturing cells, adherent (monolayer) culture and suspension culture. In adherent cell culture, cellular adhesion molecules play a vital role in many physiological processes. Many cells, especially primary-obtained cells, hardly attach to plates, so coating agents are used for cell attachment and growth. There is no striking report on whether all cells need coated plates.

We investigated whether a coating plate is essential for primary spinal cord-obtained neuron culture.

Cells were separated and seeded in tissue culture plates coated with either Poly(L-lysine) or Poly(D-lysine), as well as without coating containing DMEM-F12 media with 10% FBS.

Interestingly, we found that neuron cells more potently attached to coating free plates.

These results provide strong evidence helping the researchers to optimize primary spinal cord cultures.

In the present study, we aimed to compare the number of brain stroke cases presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) of a major referral hospital in Tehran during summer and winter.

A cross-sectional retrospective hospital-based study was carried out in 2016 - 2017 in Tehran, Iran. The study population consisted of all patients admitted with a diagnosis of brain stroke. The data of all patients were extracted from their medical profiles and analyzed via SPSS V.16 software using descriptive statistics (mean and percentage).

In this study, we enrolled 179 patients with a mean age of 68.0 ± 14.5 years (62.0% males). The rate of brain stroke was 63% in summer, and 37% in winter (62% vs. 38%; P = 0.014), and this difference did not correlate with sex or age of the patients (P > 0.05).

Comparing the prevalence of brain stroke in summer and winter in this study showed that the frequency of brain stroke was significantly higher in the three months of summer (warm season) than winter (cold season).

Kinesio taping (KT) is recently used as a therapeutic tool for the treatment of chronic low back pain (CLBP). However, the effectiveness of different types of lumbar KT is still unclear when not combing with other therapeutic methods. This review aimed to summarize the results of studies investigating the effect of various methods of lumbar KT alone on pain and functional disability in patients with CLBP.

A search was performed on the electronic databases PubMed, ProQuest, Science Direct, Thomson, OVID, Google Scholar, Scopus, MEDLINE, and PEDro, from 1990 to January 31, 2020, using the following keywords: Kinesiology Taping, Kinesio Taping, chronic low back pain. In total, seven studies met the inclusion criteria using three different methods of KT and corresponded to the aim of this review.

The methods consisted of I shape, Y shape, and star shape of KT. The studies suggested that all three KT methods can reduce pain and disability in CLBP patients. Based on the included studies, it seems that KT might reduce pain and disability.

Three methods of lumbar KT, including I shape, Y shape, and star shape, may reduce pain and disability in patients with CLBP, possibly by improving pain, circulation, muscle tone, and proprioception. However, owing to limited studies, they cannot be compared, and the best method is unclear, which should be investigated by future high-quality studies.