Lifeboat Foundation

Gene editing reverses brain genetic reprogramming caused by adolescent binge drinking.

Gene editing may be a potential treatment for anxiety and alcohol use disorder in adults who were exposed to binge drinking in their adolescence, according to the findings of an animal study published on May 4, 2022, in the journal Science Advances.

The study was issued by researchers from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) who have been studying the effects of early-life binge drinking on health later in life.

Researchers discovered new regions of the brain that work together for memory recall and storage.

Researchers have developed an algorithm that can identify the basic needs of users from the text and images they share on social networks. The experts hope this tool will help psychologists to diagnose possible mental health problems. The study suggests that Spanish-speaking users are more likely to mention relationship problems when feeling depressed than English speakers.

We spend a substantial amount of our time sharing images, videos or thoughts on social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Now, a group of researchers from the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) has developed an algorithm that aims to help psychologists diagnose possible mental health problems through the content people post on these platforms.

According to William Glasser’s Choice Theory, there are five basic needs that are central to all human behavior: Survival, Power, Freedom, Belonging and Fun. These needs even have an influence on the images we choose to upload to our Instagram page. “How we present ourselves on social media can provide useful information about behaviors, personalities, perspectives, motives and needs,” explained Mohammad Mahdi Dehshibi, who led this study within the AI for Human Well-being (AIWELL) group, which belongs to the Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications at the UOC.

Death may be the most uncanny topic to discuss for human beings. Even thinking about it is uncomfortable for some people.

To eliminate the mystery behind it, researchers worldwide are conducting scientific studies on death and coming up with surprising results, such as when researchers captured brainwaves during an individual’s death and found semblance to high cognition activities.

And now, a team of scientists from the U.S. may have found a way to revive a glimmer of activity in human eyes after death. According to a study published yesterday (May 11, 2022) in the journal Nature, the team has managed to revive the connections between light-sensing neurons in organ donor eyes.

Scientists have found a new method to measure people’s mental imagery abilities, offering insight into “aphantasia”, the condition of not being able to visualize images in the mind.

Breakthrough hints other cells in central nervous system, such as the brain, could be restored.

Stem cell therapies are showing huge promise in a lot of areas, but one application that has scientists particularly excited is in next-generation treatments for Parkinson’s disease. A team experimenting in this area has demonstrated how implanting carefully cultivated stem cells into rats can bring about remarkable recovery from motor symptoms typical of the disease, and are now setting their sights on upcoming human trials.

Parkinson’s disease is considered a prime target for innovative stem ell therapies because the condition can be traced back to the deterioration of a particular type of cell in a particular region of the brain. The neurons in the substantia nigra, a structure in the midbrain, are responsible for producing dopamine, which helps control movement, among other things.

The loss of these neurons is what contributes to motor symptoms in Parkinson’s patients, so using stem cell therapies to replace them is a very appealing idea, and one that has started to migrate from animal testing to humans. In a world-first trial undertaken in Japan in 2018, Parkinson’s patients had stem-cell-derived precursor cells implanted into their brains where they matured into the dopamine-producing neurons, with a number of subjects reported to be doing well.

A receptor that was first identified as necessary for insulin action, that also is located on the neural stem cells found deep in the brains of mice, is pivotal for brain stem cell longevity, according to a Rutgers study, a finding that has important implications for brain health and future therapies for brain disorders.

The study 0, appearing in the journal Stem Cell Reports, pinpoints a specific protein known as the insulin receptor (INSR), which is abundant on the neural stem cells that reside in the brain’s subventricular zone. During development, neural stem cells give rise to the entire nervous system, and they persist into adulthood. Over the lifespan these neural stem cells produce new neurons and non-neuronal cells that maintain the infrastructure and functioning of the brain.

Separately, the scientists made another finding when examining brain tumors: INSR plays a crucial role in sustaining and maintaining a population of specialized brain cancer cells known as glioblastoma (GBM) stem cells. When they inactivated the INSR in the GBM stem cells they inhibited the growth of those primitive tumor forming cells.