Modestly increasing systemic interleukin-6 perinatally disturbs secondary germinal zone neurogenesis and gliogenesis and produces sociability deficits

Maternal-driven immune education in offspring

Maternal environmental exposures, particularly during gestation and lactation, significantly influence the immunological development and long-term immunity of offspring. Mammalian immune systems develop through crucial inputs from the environment, beginning in utero and continuing after birth. These critical developmental windows are essential for proper immune system development and, once closed, may not be reopened. This review focuses on the mechanisms by which maternal exposures, particularly to pathogens, diet, and microbiota, impact offspring immunity. Mechanisms driving maternal-offspring immune crosstalk include transfer of maternal antibodies, changes in the maternal microbiome and microbiota-derived metabolites, and transfer of immune cells and cytokines via the placenta and breastfeeding. We further discuss the role of transient maternal infections, which are common during pregnancy, in providing tissue-specific immune education to offspring. We propose a "maternal-driven immune education" hypothesis, which suggests that offspring can use maternal encounters that occur during a critical developmental window to develop optimal immune fitness against infection and inflammation.

Immune-Inflammatory Response And Compensatory Immune-Regulatory Reflex Systems And White Matter Integrity in Schizophrenia

BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS

Low-grade neural and peripheral inflammation are among the proposed pathophysiological mechanisms of schizophrenia. White matter impairment is one of the more consistent findings in schizophrenia but the underlying mechanism remains obscure. Many cerebral white matter components are sensitive to neuroinflammatory conditions that can result in demyelination, altered oligodendrocyte differentiation, and other changes. We tested the hypothesis that altered immune-inflammatory response system (IRS) and compensatory immune-regulatory reflex system (IRS/CIRS) dynamics are associated with reduced white matter integrity in patients with schizophrenia.

STUDY DESIGN

Patients with schizophrenia (SCZ, 70M/50F, age = 40.76 ± 13.10) and healthy controls (HCs, 38M/27F, age = 37.48 ± 12.31) underwent neuroimaging and plasma collection. A panel of cytokines were assessed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. White matter integrity was measured by fractional anisotropy (FA) from diffusion tensor imaging using a 3-T Prisma MRI scanner. The cytokines were used to generate 3 composite scores: IRS, CIRS, and IRS/CIRS ratio.

STUDY RESULTS

The IRS/CIRS ratio in SCZ was significantly higher than that in HCs (P = .009). SCZ had a significantly lower whole-brain white matter average FA (P < .001), and genu of corpus callosum (GCC) was the most affected white matter tract and its FA was significantly associated with IRS/CIRS (r = 0.29, P = .002). FA of GCC was negatively associated with negative symptom scores in SCZ (r = -0.23, P = .016). There was no mediation effect taking FA of GCC as mediator, for that IRS/CIRS was not associated with negative symptom score significantly (P = .217) in SCZ.

CONCLUSIONS

Elevated IRS/CIRS might partly account for the severity of negative symptoms through targeting the integrity of GCC.

Exercise Intervention for Alzheimer's Disease: Unraveling Neurobiological Mechanisms and Assessing Effects

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease and a major cause of age-related dementia, characterized by cognitive dysfunction and memory impairment. The underlying causes include the accumulation of beta-amyloid protein (Aβ) in the brain, abnormal phosphorylation, and aggregation of tau protein within nerve cells, as well as neuronal damage and death. Currently, there is no cure for AD with drug therapy. Non-pharmacological interventions such as exercise have been widely used to treat AD, but the specific molecular and biological mechanisms are not well understood. In this narrative review, we integrate the biology of AD and summarize the knowledge of the molecular, neural, and physiological mechanisms underlying exercise-induced improvements in AD progression. We discuss various exercise interventions used in AD and show that exercise directly or indirectly affects the brain by regulating crosstalk mechanisms between peripheral organs and the brain, including "bone-brain crosstalk", "muscle-brain crosstalk", and "gut-brain crosstalk". We also summarize the potential role of artificial intelligence and neuroimaging technologies in exercise interventions for AD. We emphasize that moderate-intensity, regular, long-term exercise may improve the progression of Alzheimer's disease through various molecular and biological pathways, with multimodal exercise providing greater benefits. Through in-depth exploration of the molecular and biological mechanisms and effects of exercise interventions in improving AD progression, this review aims to contribute to the existing knowledge base and provide insights into new therapeutic strategies for managing AD.

Inflammation and Mental Health Disorders: Immunomodulation as a Potential Therapy for Psychiatric Conditions

Mood disorders are the leading cause of disability worldwide and their incidence has significantly increased after the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the continuous surge in the number of people diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, the treatment methods for these conditions remain limited. A significant number of people either do not respond to therapy or discontinue the drugs due to their severe side effects. Therefore, alternative therapeutic interventions are needed. Previous studies have shown a correlation between immunological alterations and the occurrence of mental health disorders, yet immunomodulatory therapies have been barely investigated for combating psychiatric conditions. In this article, we have reviewed the immunological alterations that occur during the onset of mental health disorders, including microglial activation, an increased number of circulating innate immune cells, reduced activity of natural killer cells, altered T cell morphology and functionality, and an increased secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines. This article also examines key studies that demonstrate the therapeutic efficacy of anti-inflammatory medications in mental health disorders. These studies suggest that immunomodulation can potentially be used as a complementary therapy for controlling psychiatric conditions after careful screening of candidate drugs and consideration of their efficacy and side effects in clinical trials.

miR-92a-2-5p Regulates the Proliferation and Differentiation of ASD-Derived Neural Progenitor Cells

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a group of complex neurodevelopmental disorders with abnormal behavior. However, the pathogenesis of ASD remains to be clarified. It has been demonstrated that miRNAs are essential regulators of ASD. However, it is still unclear how miR-92a-2-5p acts on the developing brain and the cell types directly. In this study, we used neural progenitor cells (NPCs) derived from ASD-hiPSCs as well as from neurotypical controls to examine the effects of miR-92a-2-5p on ASD-NPCs proliferation and neuronal differentiation, and whether miR-92a-2-5p could interact with genetic risk factor, DLG3 for ASD. We observed that miR-92a-2-5p upregulated in ASD-NPCs results in decreased proliferation and neuronal differentiation. Inhibition of miR-92a-2-5p could promote proliferation and neuronal differentiation of ASD-NPCs. DLG3 was negatively regulated by miR-92a-2-5p in NPCs. Our results suggest that miR-92a-2-5p is a strong risk factor for ASD and potentially contributes to neuropsychiatric disorders.