November 11-12, 2023 I received the best poster award for basic research in the European Narcolepsy Network meeting in Leiden the Netherlands.
October 4, 2023, our recent Annals of Nerology study demostrated that, the remaining CRH positive neurons are more actived with AVP co expression, which may largely explain that the stable cortisol level of narcolepsy with cataplexy patients. In addition, we reported a higher activity of histaminergic neurons in narcolepsy with cataplexy patients. PMID: 37395722
May 04, 2023, I was remotely involved in a PNAS paper showing hypocretin/orexin deficiency was caused by epigenetic silencing. The corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) producing neurons in hypothalamus were also hypermethylated at the promotor region. This findings open the prospective of epigenetic modifications could casue the sleep disorder narcolepsy. On the other hand, it could reverse the disease by demethylation of the hypocretin and CRH. PMID 37126681 Jan 03, 2022, our recent Annals of Neurology study indicates that besides hypocretin/orexin deficiency, there is also a marked loss of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH)-positive neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of narcolepsy with cataplexy patients. This surprising decrease in CRH neurons may contribute to sleep-wake symptoms and perhaps also the auto-immune hypothesis. 2022 PMID: 34981555
Sep 03, 2021, our recent review article entilted 'Changes in histaminergic system in neuropsychiatric disorders and the potential treatment consequences.' was accetped in Current Neruopharmacology 2021 Sep PMID34521328
January 27, 2021, my recent lastauthor publication is online 'Histamine-4 receptor antagonist ameliorate Parkinson-like pathology in the striatum.' Brain, Behavior, and Immunity 2020 Nov PMID 33249171
September 5, 2020, It was my great honor to receive the young investigator award of this year from the European Narcolepsy Network. They aims to facilitate clinical and scientific progress in the field of narcolepsy and other hypersomnias of central origin.
Novermber 12, 2019, Our new work "Astrocyte Changes in the Prefrontal Cortex From Aged Non-suicidal Depressed Patients" is published in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience.
October 30, 2019, I was invited to have a talk in the Interdisciplinary Institute of Neuroscience and Technology, Qiushi Academy for Advanced Studies, Zhejiang Univerisity Hangzhou China. The title of my talk is about "Substantially increased number of detected hypocretin cells in human heroin addicts."
October 26, 2019, I was invited to have a talk in the Chinese sleep society annual meeting Jinan, ShanDong China. The title of my talk is about "Substantially increased number of detected hypocretin cells in human heroin addicts."
June, 2019, I am pleased to become one of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie fellows by a Horizon 2020 Marie Sklodowska-Curie COFUND programme (The success rate is round 10%).
April, 2019, our new paper "Histamine-4 receptor antagonist JNJ7777120 inhibits pro-inflammatory microglia and prevents the progression of Parkinson-like pathology and behavior in a rat model" generated considerable interest with a published editorial commentary by Naunyn-Schmiedeberg's Archives of Pharmacology, pointing out the therapeutic potential for Parkinson's disease. https://rdcu.be/bzCfC
November, 2018, a new paper "Histamine-4 receptor antagonist JNJ7777120 inhibits pro-inflammatory microglia and prevents the progression of Parkinson-like pathology and behavior in a rat model" published in Brain Behavior and Immunity. In our previous study, we found that mRNA expression of H4R was upregulated in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. In the present study, we validated this possible mechanism using the rotenone-induced PD rat model, in which mRNA expression levels of H4R-, and microglial markers were significantly increased in the Substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). Inhibition of H4R in rotenone-induced PD rat model by infusion of the specific H4R antagonist JNJ7777120 into the lateral ventricle resulted in blockade of microglial activation. In addition, pharmacological targeting of H4R in rotenone-lesioned rats resulted in reduced apomorphine-induced rotational behavior and prevention of dopaminergic neuron degeneration and associated decreases in striatal dopamine levels. These changes were accompanied by a reduction of Lewy body-like neuropathology. Our results provide the first proof of the efficacy of an H4R antagonist in a commonly used PD rat model and propose the H4R as a promising target to clinically tackle microglial activation - and thereby the progression of PD.
July, 2018, I want to share our recent paper “Substantially increased number of detected hypocretin cells in human heroin addicts.” which is published in Science Translational Medicine June 27th, 2018. Human narcolepsy was caused by a loss of 90% of the 80,000 brain cells containing hypocretin. Because the increase in hypocretin cell number induced by morphine is the reverse of the decrease in hypocretin cell number in narcolepsy, they reasoned that giving morphine to narcoleptics might reverse hypocretin cell loss. A narcoleptic mouse model in which hypocretin cells can be selectively removed made it possible to rigorously test this hypothesis. After hypocretin cells were removed, these mice became narcoleptic, experiencing cataplexy, the periodic loss of muscle tone that is the unique symptom of narcolepsy. But morphine administration increased the number of hypocretin-producing cells and also abolished cataplexy.
We also did a unique investigation of the effect of morphine on the number of hypocretin cells in two human narcoleptics, one who had received opiates for pain relief and one who had not received opiates, for this paper. We found a much higher number of hypocretin-containing neurons in the narcoleptic that had received opiates than we have seen in any prior narcoleptic we studied, and the medical record of this patient indicated a reversal of symptoms. Thus, we demonstrated a potential treatment or even cure for human narcolepsy.
June 2nd, 2018, I presented our recent work "Histamine-4 receptor antagonist inhibits pro-inflammatory microglia and prevents the progression of Parkinson-like behavior and pathology in a rat model" in the European histamine society annual meeting in Dublin. It was a great honor to serve as co-Chair for the session of histamine and brain with Prof. H. Haas.
January 2018, a work to understand the underlining brain mechanisms of posttraumatic disorders 'Impaired fear extinction in serotonin transporter knockout rats is associated with increased 5-hydroxymethylcytosine in the amygdala' was accepted by CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics. This is also the second paper from my 1.5 years work for Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Jun 2017, a paper was published ‘Diurnal fluctuation in the number of hypocretin/orexin and histamine producing neurons: Implication for understanding and treating neuronal loss’. It is a following up work as on 2012 I reported a diurnal fluctuation of human brain histamine production in Sleep.
January 2017, an invited book chapter entitled ‘Changes in Histidine Decarboxylase, Histamine N-Methyltransferase and Histamine Receptors in Neuropsychiatric Disorders’ was in pressed. Compared to other monoamine neurotransmitters, information on the association between the histaminergic system and neuropsychiatric disorders is scarce, resulting in a lack of histamine-related treatment for these disorders. This chapter tries to combine information obtained from genetic studies, neuroimaging, post-mortem human brain studies and cerebrospinal fluid measurements with data from recent clinical trials on histamine receptor agonists and antagonists, with a view to determining the possible role of the histaminergic system in neuropsychiatric disorders and to pave the way for novel histamine-related therapeutic strategies. It should be noted that, this chapter was highlighted by "European histamine society hot new paper recently" see link http://www.ehrs.org.uk/library/ Jun 2016, a coauthor paper 'The Role of the dopamine D1 receptor in social cognition: studies using a novel genetic rat model'was published in Disease Model and Mechanism.
Jun 2015, 'Interactions of the histamine and hypocretin systems in CNS disorders' was published in Nature review Neurology.
Jan 2015, 'The human histaminergic system in neuropsychiatric disorders' review was published in Trends in Neurosciences.
Dec 2014, I received a Brain and Behavior foundation (NARSAD) Young Investigator Grant.