by Berta Monleón López  , Valentina Della Torre  , Federico Bilotta  and Rafael Badenes

Received: 11 June 2019;  Published: 22 August 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.1903037

Purpose of review: The purpose of this review is to describe recent evidence regarding the use of Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) as rescue therapy for refractory cardiac or respiratory failure in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) when conventional treatments have failed. The characteristics of these patients, including the risk of bleeding and developing malignant intracranial hypertension, are generally considered as relative contraindications to ECMO treatment; however, recent evidence sugges [...]

by Alina Khan  , Tengfei Wan  , Catherine Hunter  , Pavel Schweizer  , Abbas Ishaq  , Shobha Nagarathanam  , Julia Morris  , Minyu Chan  and Gabriele Saretzki

Received: 13 March 2019;  Published: 01 August 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.1903036

Background: Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease and is a synucleinopathy due to the critical role of α-synuclein (α-Syn) in its pathology. α-Syn is able to translocate from the cytoplasm to the nucleus and cause DNA damage. Methods: SH-SY5Y cells were stably transfected with plasmids containing wild type (WT) α-Syn and A53T mutant α-Syn as fusion proteins with EGFP and an EGFP only control vector. The cells were differentiated using retinoi [...]

by Hideki Kanamaru  , Fumihiro Kawakita  , Reona Asada  and Hidenori Suzuki

Received: 07 May 2019;  Published: 29 July 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.1903035

Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) causes serious brain injury, and its mechanisms have not been completely unraveled so far. The causative factors for the brain injury initiated by an aneurysm rupture, which is referred to as the early brain injury (EBI), include elevated intracranial pressure, cerebral hypoperfusion, and blood contents that are directly exposed to the brain surface. At Day 4–14 post aSAH, delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI) often develops, which may worsen the neurological outcomes critically. [...]

by Jun Kohyama

Received: 21 February 2019;  Published: 22 July 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.1903034

Background: Several recommendations on optimum sleep duration have been published for adolescents to secure a healthy life. This study aimed to compare the sleep duration of middle and high school pupils in Japan with the recommended values and determined the factors associated with the duration of sleep among them. Methods: A total of 1766 completed questionnaires were obtained from grades 7 to 12 pupils in Japan. The questionnaire addressed the following points: sleeping, eating, defecation, physical activity, sc [...]

by Srinivasan Periasamy  , Se-Ping Chien  , Bing-Fang Lee  , Dur-Zong Hsu  and Ming-Yie Liu

Received: 31 March 2019;  Published: 17 July 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.1903033

Background: Sinusoidal obstruction syndrome is caused by an injury to the liver induced either by accidental ingestion of pyrrolizidine alkaloid monocrotaline or by chemotherapeutic drug oxaliplatin used for the treatment of colorectal cancer. Sinusoidal obstruction syndrome is characterized by rounding and swelling of the sinusoidal endothelial cell, which leads to obstruction of blood vessels, leukocyte infiltration, and oxidative stress. Melatonin, a powerful antioxidant, prevents acute liver injury. We investig [...]

by Kate Howells  and Andrew P. Smith

Received: 02 April 2019;  Published: 02 July 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.1903032

Background: Previous research suggests that insufficient daily sleep has negative effects on both well-being and academic attainment. Much of the research in this field has focused on adolescents and children rather than university students in the UK. Methods: The present study used the Student Well-Being Process Questionnaire and independent sleep questions to measure subjective well-being and levels of sleep in a student sample (N=345) who completed the survey online. Academic attainment was measured with exam an [...]

by Daniel Goyal  , Fatma Mansab  , James Neil  and Jaleel Miyan

Received: 05 March 2019;  Published: 28 June 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.1902031

Background: Research into the effects of microflora on health and in disease has increased recently. Such enthusiasm seems well placed. Should the preliminary studies translate through the larger, more powerful studies, the medical community may well have an entirely new platform from which to intervene for health and against disease. Methods: Delineating the pathways involved in the microflora and host interaction is likely to yield further avenues for intervention. Here we examine autonomic function and correlate [...]

by Daniel Z. Lieberman  , Sara Teichholtz  and Brenna R. Emery

Received: 25 February 2019;  Published: 28 June 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.1902030

Is it ethically permissible to sacrifice the life of one human being in order to save the lives of five others? This question forms the basis of the famous thought experiment called “the trolley problem.” Surveys have found that 90 percent of people agree it is permissible when the victim to be sacrificed is described as off in the distance, whereas the opposite result occurs if the victim is described as up close. No consistent ethical principle has been identified that account for these results. In this paper we [...]

by Kelly P. Attard  , Robert JT Adams  , Andrew Vakulin  and Amy C. Reynolds

Received: 22 March 2019;  Published: 27 June 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.1902029

Inadequate sleep is a largely under recognised problem in Australia despite researchers consistently highlighting it as a key component of health and wellbeing. Over a third of Australian adults now experience some form of inadequate sleep, which is consistently linked to a range of accompanying physical and mental health concerns. In addition to the health burden on the individual, the associated financial burden incurred by the community is extremely high with inadequate sleep costing over 66.3 billion annually i [...]

by Laura Alonso Canal  , Cecilia Paredes Mercado  , María José Quiles Blanco  and Marco Motta Calderón

Received: 01 April 2019;  Published: 14 May 2019;  doi: 10.21926/obm.neurobiol.1902028

Lyme disease is a spirochetal illness transmitted primarily through the bite of ticks. The disease has a broad spectrum of comorbid conditions including osteoarticular, cardiovascular, and neurological involvement. In addition, clinical variability depends on the age of affected individuals. The Center for Disease Control recognizes the disease as an epidemic and mentions it to be a major morbidity burden in our environment because of the frequent lack of diagnosis and early treatment. Scientific literature mention [...]