A CDC report has revealed that nine of 68 of children who died of flu this year had brain damage, but it’s unclear whether this influenza-associated encephalopathy is on the rise.
Category: neuroscience
I Don’t Recognize Myself Anymore // Dark Ambient Mix
I am many.
A dark ambient journey through feeling lost, detached, and emotionally numb.
use this mix for late-night thoughts, study, writing, sleep or to to calm down.
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All audio has been modified, mixed, and mastered by blackridge.
For those living with dementia, new study suggests shingles vaccine could slow the disease
An unusual public health policy in Wales may have produced the strongest evidence yet that a vaccine can reduce the risk of dementia. In a new study led by Stanford Medicine, researchers analyzing the health records of Welsh older adults discovered that those who received the shingles vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia over the next seven years than those who did not receive the vaccine.
The remarkable findings, published April 2 in Nature, support an emerging theory that viruses that affect the nervous system can increase the risk of dementia. If further confirmed, the new findings suggest that a preventive intervention for dementia is already close at hand.
In a follow-up study published Dec. 2 in Cell, the researchers found that the vaccine may also benefit those already diagnosed with dementia by slowing the progress of the disease.
DAP12 deletion reduces neuronal SLIT2 and demyelination and enhances brain resilience in female tauopathy mice
How DAP12 deletion enhances brain resilience in female tauopathy mice.
Microglia selectively expresses DAP12 (DNAX-activation protein 12), which, plays a crucial role in microglial immune responses.
Previously, it was show that tauopathy mice lacking DAP12 exhibit higher tau pathology but are protected from tau pathology-induced cognitive deficits but the mechanism remains elusive.
The authors in this study show that tau processing in primary microglia is reduced by Dap12 deletion, while, tau pathology increased in female tauopathy mice, with minimal effects on males. However, brain inflammation, synapse loss, and demyelination are reduced by Dap12 deletion indicating enhanced resilience to tau toxicity.
The authors also show that elevated SLIT2 levels and demyelination in tauopathy and is reversed by Dap12 deletion. The author s also found correlation of SLIT2 expression and tau pathology in AD brain tissue. https://sciencemission.com/DAP12-deletion-reduces-neuronal-SLIT2
Background Pathogenic tau accumulation drives neurodegeneration in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Enhancing the aging brain’s resilience to tau pathology would lead to novel therapeutic strategies. DAP12 (DNAX-activation protein 12), highly and selectively expressed by microglia, plays a crucial role in microglial immune responses. Previous studies have shown that tauopathy mice lacking DAP12 exhibit higher tau pathology but are protected from tau pathology-induced cognitive deficits. However, the exact mechanism behind this resilience remains elusive. Methods We investigated the effects of DAP12 deletion on tau pathology, as well as tau-induced brain inflammation and neurodegeneration, in homozygous human Tau P301S transgenic mice. In addition, we conducted single-nucleus RNA sequencing of hippocampal tissues to examine cell type-specific transcriptomic changes at the single-cell level.
After Neuralink, Max Hodak is building something even wilder
Developing an advanced Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) is only the beginning.
“In order to prove a theory of consciousness is right, you have to see it for yourself,” Hodak explains. “That will require these big brain-computer interfaces.”
Hodak thinks that once humans understand how billions of neurons bind together to create a unified experience — what neuroscientists call “the binding problem” — we can start doing truly wild things.
I almost hesitate to say some of those wild things include multiple brains working to form one consciousness. “You could really, in a very fundamental sense, talk about redrawing the border around a brain, possibly to include four hemispheres, or a device, or a whole group of people,” he says.
A Fentanyl Vaccine Is About to Get Its First Major Test
ARMR’s experimental vaccine is designed to neutralize fentanyl in the bloodstream before it reaches the brain. Keeping fentanyl out of the brain would prevent the respiratory failure that comes with overdose, which causes death, as well as the euphoric high people get while taking fentanyl.
The basic idea behind ARMR’s shot is the same as any other vaccine. It trains the body’s immune system to make antibodies that recognize a foreign invader. But since fentanyl is much smaller than the pathogens our current vaccines target, it doesn’t trigger a natural antibody response on its own. To stimulate antibody production, ARMR has paired a fentanyl-like molecule with a ‘carrier’ protein—a deactivated diphtheria toxin that’s already used in several approved medical products…
…If a vaccinated person encounters fentanyl, antibodies in the blood would then bind to the drug and prevent it from traveling to the brain. Normally, fentanyl molecules can pass through the blood-brain barrier with ease, in part because of their small size. But fentanyl molecules with antibodies attached would be too big to get through. The result? No high and no overdose. The antibody-bound fentanyl molecules would eventually be passed in the urine.
The vaccine is based on work from the University of Houston, with collaborators at Tulane University designing an adjuvant derived from E.coli bacteria to boost the immune response to the vaccine. In rats, the shot blocked 92 to 98 percent of fentanyl from entering the brain and prevented the behavioral effects of the drug. The effects lasted for at least 20 weeks in the rats, which Gage thinks could translate to a year of protection in people.
ARMR Sciences of New York is trialing a vaccine in the Netherlands to protect against fentanyl-related overdose and death.
The Genius Spiders Changing How We Think About Brains
Go to https://complexly.store/ to support Complexly this holiday season!
Despite having a brain the size of a pinhead, jumping spiders in the genus Portia can plan ahead, learn through trial and error, and even lie. How are they so smart? They’re changing what we know about cognition.
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