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Sleep is known to contribute to the healthy functioning of the brain and the consolidation of memories. Past psychology research specifically highlighted its role in retaining episodic memories, which are memories of specific events or experiences.

Researchers at Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, University of Toronto and other institutes recently carried out a study to better understand the extent to which transforms how we remember real-world experiences over time and what processes could underpin this transformation. Their findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, suggest that sleep actively and selectively improves the accuracy with which we remember one-time real-world experiences.

“My lab studies real-life memory such as the memory of events that occur as part of daily experiences,” Brian Levine, senior author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “We are interested in how these memories are transformed over time and why some elements are remembered while others are forgotten. This is hard to do with naturalistic events in peoples’ lives where we have no control over what happened. So we set up the Baycrest Tour as a controlled but naturalistic event that we could use to memory.”

Researchers will soon be able to study biological changes at scales and speeds not previously possible to significantly expand knowledge in areas such as disease progression and drug delivery.

Physicists at The University of Queensland have used “tweezers made from light” to measure activity within microscopic systems over timeframes as short as milliseconds. Professor Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop from UQ’s School of Mathematics and Physics said the method could help biologists understand what was happening within single living cells.

“For example, they will be able to look at how a cell is dividing, how it responds to outside stimuli, or even how affect cell properties,” Professor Rubinsztein-Dunlop said.

A new imaging technique is helping ultra-powerful MRI scanners detect tiny differences in the brains of patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy. In a groundbreaking study, doctors at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge used this approach to identify hidden brain lesions, allowing them to offer patients surgery that could cure their condition.

7T MRI scanners, named for their use of a 7 Tesla magnetic field, which is more than twice as strong as the 3T scanners commonly used, have previously struggled with signal blackspots in key areas of the brain. However, researchers from Cambridge and Paris have developed a technique that overcomes this issue, as detailed in a study published today (March 21) in Epilepsia.

The challenge of treating focal epilepsy.

Rabah et al. discover an astrocyte-to-neuron hydrogen peroxide signalling cascade, which is crucial for long-term memory formation in Drosophila. This signalling is found to be inhibited by amyloid-β peptide, suggesting a link to Alzheimer’s disease.

Mechanism of neuroinflammation protection by astrocytes.

How astrocytes controls neuroinflammation is not clearly understood.

The researchers demonstrate that the upregulation of basic leucine zipper ATF-like transcription factor (BATF)2 downstream of IFNg regulates the inflammatory potential of astrocytes during neuroinflammation.

In vivo evidence suggests that BATF2 limits CNS autoimmunity and the expression of IFNg-driven inflammatory mediators.

Mechanistically, BATF2 binds and prevents the overexpression of IFN regulatory factor (IRF)1 and IRF1 targets such as caspase-1. Batf2−/− mice exhibit exacerbated clinical disease severity in a murine model of central nervous system autoimmunity and express increased astrocyte-specific IRF1 and caspase-1, suggesting an amplified IFN response in vivo.

They also demonstrate that BATF2 expressed primarily in astrocytes within multiple sclerosis lesions and that this expression is colocalized with IRF1.

These data suggest that BATF2 contributes to protective mechanisms in astrocytes during chronic neuroinflammation. https://sciencemission.com/BATF2-and-neuroinflammation

Here Harkos et al. review the role of continuous models and discrete models in predicting and understanding therapy delivery and efficacy in solid tumours. They propose ways to integrate mechanistic and AI-based models to further improve patient outcomes.

Results of a trial revealed that a unique investigational drug formulation called Rhenium Obisbemeda (186RNL) more than doubled median survival and progression-free time, compared with standard median survival and progression rates, and with no dose-limiting toxic effects.

Rhenium Obisbemeda enables very high levels of a specific activity of rhenium-186 (186Re), a beta-emitting radioisotope, to be delivered by tiny liposomes, referring to artificial vesicles or sacs having at least one lipid bilayer. The researchers used a custom molecule known as BMEDA to chelate or attach 186Re and transport it into the interior of a liposome where it is irreversibly trapped.

In this trial, known as the phase 1 ReSPECT-GBM trial, scientists set out to determine the maximum tolerated dose of the drug, as well as safety, overall response rate, disease progression-free survival and overall survival.

After failing one to three therapies, 21 patients who were enrolled in the study between March 5, 2015, and April 22, 2021, were treated with the drug administered directly to the tumors using neuronavigation and convection catheters.

The researchers observed a significant improvement in survival compared with historical controls, especially in patients with the highest absorbed doses, with a median survival and progression-free time of 17 months and 6 months, respectively, for doses greater than 100 gray (Gy), referring to units of radiation.

Importantly, they did not observe any dose-limiting toxic effects, with most adverse effects deemed unrelated to the study treatment.

Northwestern Medicine investigators have uncovered new insights into how intercellular “glue” functions to enable interactions between cells, as detailed in a study published in Nature Communications.

In order to communicate and transfer cellular cargo, within tissues can link together by fusing their cytoskeletons and cell membranes.

These connective structures, called adherens junctions, play important roles in tissue development and renewal, but remain poorly understood, said Sergey Troyanovsky, Ph.D., professor of Dermatology, of Cell and Developmental Biology and senior author of the study.

What makes us unique? Different from most, yet similar to a few? What shapes our physical, behavioral, and even mental makeup? The answer lies in our genes.

Passed from parents to their offspring, genes contain the information that specifies physical and biological traits.

But that’s not all. Genes are also responsible for diseases. Faulty genes can cause all kinds of issues that can manifest as birth defects, chronic diseases, or developmental problems.