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Category: neuroscience – Page 19

Researchers Offer New Perspective on How Protein Restriction May Promote Healthy Aging and Longevity

A new perspective from LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center proposes a new way of understanding how dietary protein restriction may promote healthy aging and extend lifespan: through a coordinated physiological response that connects cellular nutrient sensing with hormones, the brain and changes throughout the body.

“Protein restriction and the hallmarks of aging: A coordinated physiological adaptive response?” – authored by Dr. Chris Morrison, Dr. Sora Kim and Dr. Sangho Yu of Pennington Biomedical – was recently published in the journal Cell Metabolism. The authors argue that the diverse effects of protein restriction, including changes in metabolism, glucose regulation, energy expenditure, growth and food preferences, should be viewed as interconnected components of a broader response to protein scarcity rather than as isolated biological pathways.

The perspective provides a framework for investigating how the body’s response to protein scarcity may influence healthy aging and longevity and whether that response can be measured or ultimately targeted to improve health across the lifespan.

Scientists find a new layer of Alzheimer’s hidden in the genome

Scientists found that the 3D organization of DNA is disrupted in several types of brain cells affected by Alzheimer’s disease, altering how important genes are switched on and off. The discovery reveals a previously underexplored layer of the disease that could open new paths for understanding and eventually treating Alzheimer’s.

Mayo Clinic researchers find a way to reprogram immune cells and boost chemotherapy response in glioblastoma

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Mayo Clinic researchers have identified a potential new approach to treating glioblastoma that could help the immune system fight the aggressive brain cancer while improving the effectiveness of existing chemotherapy.

The preclinical research, published in Nature Communications, found that inhibiting the enzymatic activity of a protein called MALT1 can reprogram immune cells surrounding glioblastomas, shifting them from a state that helps protect the cancer to one that promotes an antitumor immune response.

Researchers also found that treatment with a MALT1 inhibitor slowed tumor growth in preclinical models and that combining MALT1 with temozolomide, the chemotherapy most commonly used to treat glioblastoma, enhanced temozolomide effectiveness. In one preclinical model, median survival substantially increased when this chemotherapy was combined with MALT1 inhibition in comparison to treatment with temozolomide alone.

CAIVdirected smallmolecule shuttle enables targeted brain delivery of biologics Chemical Biology

After AAV directed evolution led to discovery of a new blood-brain-barrier (BBB) receptor (carbonic anhydrase IV) which facilitates transcytosis, Ding et al. linked a small molecule binder of CA-IV to antibodies, allowing the antibodies to traverse the BBB. This is a major advance since it represents the first time that a receptor target discovered via AAV directed evolution has been adapted to transport other types of molecules across the BBB.

Existing receptor targets to direct delivery of biologics across the blood−brain barrier are ubiquitously expressed in the central nervous system (CNS) and peripheral tissues. Now, carbonic anhydrase IV (CA-IV) is identified as a brain-enriched receptor, enabling selective and prolonged delivery of large molecules to the CNS through conjugation of a small molecule targeting CA-IV.

Brain aging may be detected decades before symptoms appear, with links to gut health

A new UCLA study has found a connection between how quickly the brain ages and the bacteria and chemical byproducts found in the gut, offering a clue to what drives brain aging long before symptoms appear.

Researchers have long used brain scans to estimate a person’s “brain age,” a measure that can differ from someone’s actual age in years. When a brain looks older than expected on a scan, prior research has linked it to poorer memory, thinking skills and mood. However, most of these studies involved older adults or people with existing brain diseases. Whether this gap between brain age and chronological age means anything in younger, generally healthy people has been unclear.

In a new study published in the journal eBioMedicine, UCLA Health researchers analyzed brain scans from nearly 1,500 adults across three separate groups using a method that measures how different regions of the brain communicate with one another while at rest.

New video game could help reveal how people with autism perceive the world

People with autism often come at life from a different angle—seeing details others miss, focusing on patterns rather than faces, experiencing heightened or dimmed physical sensations. Although researchers have tracked some of the many ways the neurodevelopmental disorder alters perception of the world, the precise brain mechanisms involved remain obscure, says Boston University researcher Benjamin Scott. One reason: Research often excludes people with more severe symptoms.

Scott and his colleagues have created a more inclusive approach: a video game that measures how people with autism understand and interpret information—and that can be played by people across the disorder’s spectrum of symptom severity, including those who are nonverbal. The researchers say it could spur fresh insights into how the autistic brain works and help refine the development and testing of new drugs and therapies.

Around 1 in 31 children in the United States have autism, according to the nonprofit Autism Speaks, with symptoms that affect communication and other social skills and include restricted and repetitive behaviors. At the moment, scientists studying these issues often rely on subjective assessments from family members—particularly of people with significant communication issues—rather than input from the patients themselves. The game changes that.