Stanford Medicine scientists have rebuilt, in laboratory glassware, the neural pathway that sends information from the body’s periphery to the brain, promising to aid research on pain disorders.
Category: neuroscience – Page 76
A cloaked human stem-derived neural graft capable of functional integration and immune evasion in rodent models
Immune evasion of human stem-cell-derived neural graft in rodent models.
Transplantation rejection is the main challenge in human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived therapies.
The researchers used hPSC line (termed H1-FS-8IM), engineered to overexpress 8 immunomodulatory transgenes, to enable transplant immune evasion.
They show in co-cultures, H1-FS-8IM PSC-derived midbrain neurons evaded rejection by T lymphocytes, natural killer cells, macrophages, and dendritic cells.
The authors also provide preclinical evidence of pluripotent stem cell line evading immune detection after neural engraftment in a humanized immune system mouse model and reversal of motor symptoms in Parkinsonian rats.
Incorporation of a suicide gene within the universal donor cell ensures safety for cell-based therapies. https://sciencemission.com/A-cloaked-human-stem-cell-derived-neural-graft
Scientists discover that fruit fly larvae can sense electric fields
While it may be an unfamiliar sensation to humans, electroreception is relatively commonplace in the animal kingdom. Sharks, bees and even the platypus all share this ability to detect electric fields in their environment.
Scientists at UC Santa Barbara have just added fruit flies to that list. A team of researchers led by Matthieu Louis found that fruit fly larvae can sense electric fields and navigate toward the negative electric potential using a small set of sensory neurons in their head.
The findings, published in Current Biology, present an immense opportunity. Fruit flies are arguably the most commonly used experimental animals, the basis for studies in fields as disparate as genetics, neurobiology and aging. Uncovering electroreception in fruit flies opens new avenues of research into the basis of this sense and could even lead to new techniques in bioengineering.
An Overview of the Effects of Lithium on Alzheimer’s Disease: A Historical Perspective
Lithium was introduced into psychiatric practice in the late nineteenth century and has since become a standard treatment for severe psychiatric disorders, particularly those characterized by psychotic agitation. It remains the most effective agent for managing acute mania and preventing relapses in bipolar disorder. Despite potential adverse effects, lithium’s use should be carefully considered relative to other treatment options, as these alternatives may present distinct safety and tolerability profiles. The World Health Organization classifies lithium salts as ‘essential’ medications for inclusion in global healthcare systems. Over the past two decades, the growing recognition of lithium’s efficacy—extending beyond mood stabilization to include reducing suicide risk and inducing neuroprotection—has led to its incorporation into clinical practice guidelines.
Nonlinear sound-sheet microscopy
Key to this innovation in ultrasound imaging—a method called Nonlinear sound sheet microscopy —was the discovery of a sound-reflecting probe. The author said: “This probe is a nanoscale gas-filled vesicle that lights up in ultrasound images, making cells visible. These vesicles have a protein shell and we can engineer them to tune their brightness in images. We used these gas vesicles to track cancer cells.”
In addition to revealing cells, the team used ultrasound and microbubbles as probes circulating in the blood stream to detect brain capillaries. The author said: “To our knowledge, nonlinear sound sheet microscopy is the first technique capable of observing capillaries in living brains. This breakthrough has tremendous potential to diagnose small vessel diseases in patients.” Since microbubble probes are already approved for human use, this technique could be deployed in hospitals in a few years.
Ultrasound is one of the most widely used imaging techniques in medicine, but up until recently it hardly played a role in imaging the tiniest structures of our bodies such as cells. “Clinical ultrasound, like the kind used for pregnancy scans, creates real-time images of body parts”, the first author explains. “It allows diagnosis of various diseases, or to monitor a developing baby. However, what is going on at a microscopic level remains hidden.”
Now, a team of scientists managed to image specifically labelled cells in 3D with ultrasound. For the first time, they imaged living cells inside whole organs across volumes the size of a sugar cube. In comparison, current light-based microscopes often require imaging of non-living samples, the author says. “The sample or organ of interest has to be removed and processed, and you lose the ability to track activity of cells over time”
Human ‘mini-brains’ reveal protein GRAMD1B’s potential role in neurodegeneration
Researchers at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center and College of Medicine have discovered a new way that neurons act in neurodegeneration by using human neural organoids—also known as “mini-brain” models—from patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD).
Understanding this new pathway could help researchers find better treatments for FTLD and Alzheimer’s, the two most common forms of dementia that lead to cognitive decline.
Researchers used advanced techniques to study neurons from patients and mice, including growing human neural organoids (mini-brains) that can feature several cell types found in the brain.
Challenging Decades of Neuroscience: Brain Cells Are More Plastic Than Previously Thought
Neurons are specialized brain cells responsible for transmitting signals throughout the body. For a long time, scientists believed that once neurons develop from stem cells into a specific subtype, their identity remains fixed, regardless of changes in their surrounding environment.
However, new research from the Braingeneers, a collaborative team of scientists from UC Santa Cruz and UC San Francisco, challenges this long-held belief.
In a study published in iScience, the Braingeneers report that neuronal subtype identity may be more flexible than previously thought. The team used cerebral organoids, 3D models of brain tissue, to investigate how neurons develop and adapt. Their findings offer new insights into how different neuron subtypes influence brain function and may play a role in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Study uncovers a brain circuit linked to the intensity of political behavior
People diagnosed with various mental health disorders can sometimes start engaging in intense political behavior, such as violent protests, civil disobedience and the aggressive expression of political views. So far, however, the link between political behavior and the brain has been rarely explored, as it was not viewed as central to the understanding of mental health disorders.
Researchers at Harvard Medical School, Stanford University School of Medicine and Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine recently carried out a study investigating the neural underpinnings of political behavior. Their findings, published in Brain, unveil the existence of a brain circuit that is associated with the intensity of people’s political involvement, irrespective of their ideology or party affiliation.
“This paper started out as a collaborative effort that focused on learning how to help people better come together and thrive, alongside Stephanie Balters at Stanford,” Shan H. Siddiqi, first author of the paper, told Phys.org.