Scientists have identified a protein that acts like a brake on the nervous system’s ability to repair damaged connections. Blocking AHR helped injured nerve fibers regrow and improved movement and sensation in mice with nerve or spinal cord injuries. The discovery could eventually point toward new treatments designed to shift neurons from simply surviving an injury to actively rebuilding themselves.
Do you ever feel like sometimes you can master a new dance step almost immediately, while other times you struggle to nail it despite repeated practice? This might be due to skill or effort, but also to something less obvious: whether the brain is in a state that allows learning to take hold.
The brain does not learn in isolation from the rest of the body. Signals from internal organs continuously reach the brain through a key part of our nervous system called the vagus nerve. Researchers at Tohoku University specializing in super-network brain physiology have now demonstrated in mice that stimulating this nerve after training can promote lasting motor learning. This study reveals a previously underappreciated way in which body-to-brain signaling may support long-term learning.
The findings were published in iScience on August 25, 2026.
An interesting paper: Kul et al. engineered adenovirus serotype 5 (Ad5) to bear alternate fiber knobs which enabled cerebellum transduction, primarily via the hCD46 receptor in a humanized mouse model. Adenoviruses were injected directly into the mice’s brains at surgically defined locations.
Young and colleagues developed a novel adenovirus vector that transduces Purkinje cells in a humanized mouse model. Since commonly used adenovirus vectors do not transduce Purkinje cells, these vectors offer immense promise toward developing gene therapy approaches for cerebellar disorders and potentially other neurological disorders requiring expression of large transgenes.
Researchers at Delft University of Technology have demonstrated for the first time that nano-antennas can enhance the fluorescence of proteins in living human and other mammalian cells. Scientists already use smart fluorescent proteins that light up when the electrical voltage across a nerve cell changes. By placing nano-antennas close to these light-emitting proteins, researchers can monitor processes inside cells with much greater precision. The discovery adds a new tool for revealing electrical signals in the brain through nanotechnology as well as genetic engineering. The research has been published in Advanced Materials.
Monitoring signals in the brain requires both high resolution and rapid imaging. “Existing methods for visualizing voltage changes in cells often do not produce enough light, or they do not respond quickly or strongly enough to the small electrical pulses that occur at synapses,” says principal investigator Daan Brinks.
First authors Marco Locarno and Qiangrui Dong achieved a breakthrough by placing nano-antennas extremely close to fluorescent voltage-sensitive proteins. This made the proteins up to six times brighter, allowing researchers to monitor processes in living mammalian cells with much greater precision. Importantly, the cells remained alive and continued to function normally throughout the measurements.
