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Role of WHO.

From a Novel

Psychological health problems, especially emotional disorders, are common among adolescents. The epidemiology of emotional disorders is greatly influenced by stressful events. This study sought to assess the prevalence rate and socio-demographic correlates of depressive and anxiety symptoms among Chinese adolescents affected by the outbreak of COVID-19. We conducted a cross-sectional study among Chinese students aged 12-18 years during the COVID-19 epidemic period. An online survey was used to conduct rapid assessment. A total of 8079 participants were involved in the study. An online survey was used to collect demographic data, assess students' awareness of COVID-19, and assess depressive and anxiety symptoms with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) questionnaire, respectively. The prevalence of depressive symptoms, anxiety symptoms, and a combination of depressive and anxiety symptoms was 43.7%, 37.4%, and 31.3%, respectively, among Chinese high school students during the COVID-19 outbreak. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that female gender was the higher risk factor for depressive and anxiety symptoms. In terms of grades, senior high school was a risk factor for depressive and anxiety symptoms; the higher the grade, the greater the prevalence of depressive and anxiety symptoms. Our findings show there is a high prevalence of psychological health problems among adolescents, which are negatively associated with the level of awareness of COVID-19. These findings suggest that the government needs to pay more attention to psychological health among adolescents while combating COVID-19.

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Prevalence and socio-demographic correlates of psychological health problems in Chinese adolescents during the outbreak of COVID-19.

Major depression is characterized by diverse debilitating symptoms that include hopelessness and anhedonia. Dopamine neurons involved in reward and motivation are among many neural populations that have been hypothesized to be relevant, and certain antidepressant treatments, including medications and brain stimulation therapies, can influence the complex dopamine system. Until now it has not been possible to test this hypothesis directly, even in animal models, as existing therapeutic interventions are unable to specifically target dopamine neurons. Here we investigated directly the causal contributions of defined dopamine neurons to multidimensional depression-like phenotypes induced by chronic mild stress, by integrating behavioural, pharmacological, optogenetic and electrophysiological methods in freely moving rodents. We found that bidirectional control (inhibition or excitation) of specified midbrain dopamine neurons immediately and bidirectionally modulates (induces or relieves) multiple independent depression symptoms caused by chronic stress. By probing the circuit implementation of these effects, we observed that optogenetic recruitment of these dopamine neurons potently alters the neural encoding of depression-related behaviours in the downstream nucleus accumbens of freely moving rodents, suggesting that processes affecting depression symptoms may involve alterations in the neural encoding of action in limbic circuitry.

Dopamine neurons modulate neural encoding and expression of depression-related behaviour

Reactive oxygen species and cancer paradox: To promote or to suppress?

Neural plasticity, a fundamental mechanism of neuronal adaptation, is disrupted in depression. The changes in neural plasticity induced by stress and other negative stimuli play a significant role in the onset and development of depression. Antidepressant treatments have also been found to exert their antidepressant effects through regulatory effects on neural plasticity. However, the detailed mechanisms of neural plasticity in depression still remain unclear. Therefore, in this review, we summarize the recent literature to elaborate the possible mechanistic role of neural plasticity in depression. Taken together, these findings may pave the way for future progress in neural plasticity studies.

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The Role of Neural Plasticity in Depression: From Hippocampus to Prefrontal Cortex.

Chronic pain, as a stress state, is one of the critical factors for determining depression, and their coexistence tends to further aggravate the severity of both disorders. Unfortunately, their association remains unclear, which creates a bottleneck problem for managing chronic pain-induced depression. In recent years, studies have found considerable overlaps between pain- and depression-induced neuroplasticity changes and neurobiological mechanism changes. Such overlaps are vital to facilitating the occurrence and development of chronic pain and chronic pain-induced depression. In this review, we summarized the role of neuroplasticity in the occurrence and development of the two disorders in question and explored individualized application strategies of analgesic drugs and antidepressants that have different pharmacological effects in the treatment of chronic pain-induced depression. Therefore, this review may provide new insights into the understanding of association between chronic pain and depression.

/pdf/the-link-between-depression-and-chronic-pain-neural-1v70wbeko3.pdf

The Link between Depression and Chronic Pain: Neural Mechanisms in the Brain

Major depressive disorder is a serious mental disorder that profoundly affects an individual's quality of life. Although the aetiologies underlying this disorder remain unclear, an increasing attention has been focused on the influence imposed by psychological stress over depression. Despite limited animal models of psychological stress, significant progress has been made as to be explicated in this review to elucidate the physiopathology underlying depression and to treat depressive symptoms. Therefore, we will review classical models along with new methods that will enrich our knowledge of this disorder.

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The Effects of Psychological Stress on Depression

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are endogenous non-coding small RNA molecules that can be secreted into the circulation and exist in remarkably stable forms. Like intercellular miRNAs, circulating miRNAs participate in numerous regulations of biological process and expressed aberrantly under abnormal or pathological status. The quality and quantity changes of circulating miRNAs are associated with the initiation and progression of cancer and can be easily detected by basic molecular biology techniques. Consequently, considerable effort has been devoted to identify suitable extracellular miRNAs for noninvasive biomarkers in cancer. However, several challenges need to be overcome before the practical application. In this review, we discuss several issues of circulating miRNAs: biological function and basic transport carriers; extracellular cell communication process; roles as reliable cancer biomarkers and usage in targeted cancer therapy; and challenges for clinical application.

/pdf/circulating-micrornas-in-cancer-potential-and-challenge-14bnf0kwph.pdf

Circulating MicroRNAs in Cancer: Potential and Challenge

Cytotoxic T lymphocyte-associated antigen-4 (CTLA-4) is a membrane glycoprotein expressed by activated effector T cells (Teffs) and participates in the repression of T cell proliferation, cell cycle progression and cytokine production. Currently, antibodies targeting CTLA-4, ipilimumab and tremelimumab are widely used as a therapeutic approach in a variety of human malignancies. However, their detailed mechanism remains unclear. Therefore, in this review, we focused specifically on recent findings concerning the role of CTLA-4 in immune response and also discussed clinical studies of targeting CTLA-4, alone or in combination with other therapies for the treatment of cancers. CTLA-4 blockade is used as a therapeutic approach for the treatment of cancer through competing with CD28-positive costimulation for binding to their shared B7 ligands or exhibiting direct inhibitory effect on signaling molecules in the cytoplasmic tail. At present, antibodies for targeting CTLA-4 or in combination with other therapies significantly reinforced the anti-tumor effect and improved the prognosis of malignant disease. In addition, severe adverse events of targeting CTLA-4 therapy could be a challenge for the development of this therapeutic strategy. This review may provide some new insights for clinical studies of targeting CTLA-4.

/pdf/evolving-roles-for-targeting-ctla-4-in-cancer-immunotherapy-bl02tmq0lk.pdf

Ranji Cui

Papers

The Role of Neural Plasticity in Depression: From Hippocampus to Prefrontal Cortex.

The Link between Depression and Chronic Pain: Neural Mechanisms in the Brain

The Effects of Psychological Stress on Depression

Circulating MicroRNAs in Cancer: Potential and Challenge

Evolving Roles for Targeting CTLA-4 in Cancer Immunotherapy.