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Category: neuroscience

Brain-penetrating nanoparticles, ultrasound and microbubbles show promise in treating glioblastoma

University of Virginia Comprehensive Cancer Center scientists have developed a promising new experimental approach to targeting glioblastoma, the most common and deadliest brain cancer. The approach could overcome many of the limitations of treatments using existing drugs.

UVA’s Roger Abounader, MD, Ph.D., and colleagues have identified “microRNAs” that can simultaneously suppress multiple malfunctioning genes responsible for glioblastoma’s formation and growth. The scientists use a combination of brain-penetrating nanoparticles, focused ultrasound waves and microbubbles to deliver the miRNAs through the brain’s natural protective barrier—a barrier that typically blocks treatments for tumors and neurodegenerative diseases. The study is published in the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

“This new approach could help target numerous molecules that promote cancer growth, including those for which no drugs exist, at the same time to achieve better therapies,” said Abounader, a professor at UVA’s School of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology, Comprehensive Cancer Center and Center for RNA Science and Medicine. “We are hoping to translate our findings into future clinical trials for patients with glioblastoma and other brain tumors.”

Gut microbial metabolites may shape vulnerability to stress-related mental disorders

Gut microbiome-derived metabolites may influence stress-related mental disorders through neural, immune, endocrine, and epigenetic pathways. Evidence is strongest for depression and preclinical models, while larger longitudinal human studies are needed to establish causality and clinical value.

From molecules to networks, siibra integrates brain data into a unified atlas

In the current issue of the journal Nature Methods, siibra is introduced as a software suite that integrates data from different multimodal sources into a comprehensive atlas of the human brain and makes the data easily accessible—for interactive exploration and automated, reproducible data analyses, simulations and AI applications. siibra is developed by an international team of scientists led by the Institute of Neuroscience and Medicine (INM-1) at Forschungszentrum Jülich.

To better understand the human brain, information from various levels must be integrated, from molecules and cells to their organization and entire networks. A central challenge is that these data are often scattered across sources and organized differently. They originate from methods such as microscopy, MRI and connectivity analysis; exist in formats ranging from images to tables; and rely on different spatial reference systems and conceptual taxonomies.

“Using siibra, we are now able to access and analyze brain data in a structured way from micro-to macrolevels—for more precise neuroscience studies, bio-inspired AI and clinical applications such as deep brain stimulation,” says Dr. Timo Dickscheid, working group leader for “Big Data Analytics.”

High-speed 3D imaging reveals how seizures move through the brain

Seizures can race through the brain in seconds, making them difficult to capture in detail. To overcome this challenge, researchers have developed a new high-resolution light-sheet imaging system that is fast enough to image seizure propagation in the brain of a larval zebrafish in 3D.

“We developed a light-sheet microscope that allows rapid volumetric imaging with real-time correction of aberrations—imperfections in the way a microscope forms an image,” said research team leader Peter Kner from the University of Georgia. “Most imaging of seizure events in zebrafish has only captured 2D images, but our system allows 3D high-resolution imaging over a larger volume than was previously possible.”

In their article published in the journal Biomedical Optics Express, the researchers show that their new microscopy system can capture volumes up to 499 × 499 × 150 microns3 at a rate of four volumes per second with near-diffraction-limited resolution. They used the system to observe how seizures spread through the nervous system in zebrafish larvae, which are commonly used in neuroscience research.

Scientists studying bee brains found clues to how colonies coordinate complex behaviour without a central controller, relying instead on many small individual decisions

Honeybee colonies work in an organised way even though no bee tells the others what to do. Young bees look after the queen and baby bees, older ones build and guard the hive, and the oldest workers fly out to collect food.

Why some human brains can outlast other soft tissues after death

Why do some brains survive long after death when most other soft tissue decays? That’s the question a research team led by Alexandra Morton-Hayward at the University of Oxford set out to answer.

The brain is one of the first organs to liquefy and decompose after death. Yet in recent decades, archaeologists have recovered more than 4,400 well-preserved human brains dating back 12,000 years. In more than 1,300 cases, the brain was the only soft tissue left inside skeletal remains.

This phenomenon occurs most often in waterlogged, low-oxygen graves, but scientists lacked a clear explanation for how such a fragile organ can sometimes outlast everything else.

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