Biology & Medicine News and Discussions

weatheriscool
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Identifying a neural circuit involved in how pain modulates dopamine neurons
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-09- ... lates.html
by Ingrid Fadelli , Medical Xpress

The neurotransmitter dopamine (DA) has several important functions. For instance, it known to play a role in how we feel pleasure, as well as in our ability to concentrate on everyday task, maintain focus, and learn specific behaviors.

Past neuroscience studies have found that the perception of pain decreases dopamine activity in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a part of the midbrain adjacent to the substantia nigra. The VTA is a key part of the reward system, a network of structures in the brain of humans and other mammals that supports the ability to learn behaviors through rewards.

While research evidence suggests that pain decreases activity of many VTA dopaminergic neurons, the specific neural circuits connecting nociception (i.e., the process through which chronic pain and stress are communicated through the nervous system) with dopaminergic activity is poorly understood.
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Automated computer program accurately counts micronuclei in cells
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-09- ... cells.html
by University of Tsukuba
Micronuclei, which are small nucleus-like structures within cells, are commonly associated with tumors. Now, researchers from Tsukuba, Japan have developed an automated computer program that can accurately and reproducibly count these structures from microscope images, which will increase the speed and accuracy of micronuclei research.

In a recently published study, researchers from the University of Tsukuba reported their new MATLAB-based program, named CAMDi (Calculating Automatic Micronuclei Distinction), which automatically counts the micronuclei from images of stained cells. Micronuclei can be stained the same way as regular nuclei, but they are differentiated from nuclei by their much smaller size. However, identifying them is easier said than done, because automatic systems for counting micronuclei have traditionally used images taken from just a single level of tissue. To understand why this is important, imagine cutting a cross-section through a ball that is fixed in space. If you cut a slice closer to the top or bottom areas of the ball, the size of the cross-section would be much smaller than if you chose a slice closer to the center—so a cross-section close to the periphery of a nucleus can easily be mistaken for a micronucleus.

To combat this problem, researchers at the University of Tsukuba took photos at different levels through cells or tissue and created a program capable of analyzing the resulting three-dimensional information. In this way, they ensured that what the program counted as micronuclei were, in fact, micronuclei. They then used this program to look at micronuclei in mouse neurons and tested the effects of neuroinflammation on micronucleus numbers.
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Newly discovered cell type in human skin contributes to inflammatory skin diseases

by Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), Singapore
https://phys.org/news/2021-09-newly-cel ... butes.html
A team of international scientists and clinical experts have unraveled a new cell type in human skin that contributes to inflammatory skin diseases such as atopic dermatitis (AD) and psoriasis (PSO). Their study findings were published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine in September 2021. The team hails from A*STAR's Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN), in collaboration with the Skin Research Institute of Singapore (SRIS), Singapore's National Skin Centre, Department of Dermatology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan, and industry partner Galderma.

Chronic inflammatory skin diseases such as AD and PSO are characterized by the presence of an activated T cell subtypes secreting pro-inflammatory cytokines in the skin. This T cell-mediated immune dysregulation is central to the pathogenesis of a wide range of inflammatory skin diseases. Thus, understanding the factors modulating T cell priming and activation in healthy and diseased skin is key to developing effective treatments for these diseases.

Recently, single-cell RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) approach has been used to analyze immune cells in human skin including dendritic cells (DCs) and macrophages, which are cell populations controlling T cell activation. To address the role of DCs and macrophages in chronic inflammatory skin diseases, the team used a combination of complex approaches (single-cell flow cytometry and RNA-seq of index-sorted cells from healthy and diseased human skin) to generate an unbiased profile/ landscape of DCs and macrophages, and to describe their distinct molecular signatures and proportions in skin lesions of AD and PSO patients.
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caltrek
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Daycares in Finland Built Their Own 'Forests', And It Changed Kids' Immune Systems
by Carly Cassella
September 21, 2021

https://www.sciencealert.com/daycares-i ... ne-systems

Introduction:
(Science Alert) Playing through the greenery and litter of a mini forest's undergrowth for just one month may be enough to change a child's immune system, according to an experiment in Finland.

When daycare workers rolled out a lawn, planted forest undergrowth (such as dwarf heather and blueberries), and allowed children to care for crops in planter boxes, the diversity of microbes in the guts and on the skin of young kids appeared healthier in a very short space of time.

Compared to other city kids who play in standard urban daycares with yards of pavement, tile and gravel, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds at these greened-up daycare centers in Finland showed increased T-cells and other important immune markers in their blood within 28 days.

"We also found that the intestinal microbiota of children who received greenery was similar to the intestinal microbiota of children visiting the forest every day," explained environmental scientist Marja Roslund from the University of Helsinki in 2020, when the research was published.

Prior research has shown early exposure to green space is somehow linked to a well-functioning immune system, but it's still not clear whether that relationship is causal or not.
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weatheriscool
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Bone-loss discovery points to potential treatment for osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-09- ... rosis.html
by Josh Barney, University of Virginia
A new discovery about osteoporosis suggests a potential treatment target for that brittle-bone disease and for bone loss from rheumatoid arthritis.

The findings from University of Virginia School of Medicine researchers and their collaborators help explain why specialized bone cells, called "osteoclasts," begin to break down more bone than the body replaces. With more research, scientists one day may be able to target that underlying cause to prevent or treat bone loss.

The discovery also suggests an answer for why some previous attempts to develop osteoporosis treatments produced disappointing results.

"Bone degradation and subsequent repair are fine-tuned through complex interactions between the cells that degrade the bone—osteoclasts—and those that produce new bone matrix. Simple elimination of osteoclasts is, therefore, not always the best approach to treat pathologic bone loss. Instead, we found a 'signaling node' in osteoclasts that regulates their function in degrading the bone, but doesn't reduce osteoclast numbers," said researcher Sanja Arandjelovic of UVA's Department of Medicine and UVA's Carter Immunology Center.
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Large-scale genetic repeat variations contribute to height and other human traits
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-09- ... eight.html
by Claudia Lopez Lloreda, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard

New study finds that a type of genetic modification involving long, repeated sequences within the human genome can affect a variety of health-related traits.

Over the last decade, geneticists studying how variations in DNA sequence between individuals can influence disease risk and other traits have largely focused on one type of variation: single-letter changes. Now a new study reveals how larger genetic modifications also significantly contribute to human traits.

The study, from researchers at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School, found that genetic changes called variable number tandem repeats (VNTRs) are strongly associated with nearly two dozen traits, including height, hair curl, and risk for heart and kidney disease. VNTRs are sections of the genome that stretch from seven up to thousands of base pairs in length, and are repeated a varying number of times in different individuals.

The team expected to see some associations between VNTRs and traits, but were surprised by how strong those links were. "The VNTRs we studied wound up being the top or second biggest genomic contributor to a trait," said Po-Ru Loh, an associate member of the Broad Institute, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School, and co-senior author of the study. "That really was a surprise."
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3D-printed vaccine patch can offer painless, more effective immunization
A team of scientists have developed a painless way to deliver a vaccine shot without the use of a needle while offering a better immune response, they say.

Researchers from Stanford University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say that their 3D-printed vaccine patch can offer an immune response that's much stronger than a vaccine delivered with a traditional jab.

As described in their paper, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in August, the polymer patch is one square centimetre in size and contains 100 3D-printed microneedles. The needles are 700 micrometres long; just barely long enough to penetrate the skin and deliver the vaccine.
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Researchers from Stanford University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill say that their 3D-printed vaccine patch can offer an immune response that's much stronger than a vaccine delivered with a traditional jab. (UNC-Chapel Hill)
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weatheriscool
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Treating severe depression with on-demand brain stimulation

by University of California, San Francisco
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10- ... brain.html
The study, which appears in the Oct. 4, 2021, issue of Nature Medicine, represents a landmark success in the years-long effort to apply advances in neuroscience to the treatment of psychiatric disorders.

"This study points the way to a new paradigm that is desperately needed in psychiatry," said Andrew Krystal, Ph.D., professor of psychiatry and member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. "We've developed a precision-medicine approach that has successfully managed our patient's treatment-resistant depression by identifying and modulating the circuit in her brain that's uniquely associated with her symptoms."

Previous clinical trials have shown limited success for treating depression with traditional deep brain stimulation (DBS), in part because most devices can only deliver constant electrical stimulation, usually only in one area of the brain. A major challenge for the field is that depression may involve different brain areas in different people.
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Study detects origins of Huntington's disease in two-week-old human embryos
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10- ... bryos.html
by Rockefeller University

Huntington's disease is a fatal condition involving the death of brain cells, typically striking in midlife. But new findings suggest the disease process starts decades earlier. Although symptoms emerge in adulthood, researchers have been able to detect the earliest effects of Huntington's in the first two weeks of human embryonic development. 

The findings recast Huntington's, often considered a neurodegenerative condition, as a developmental disease, and point to new approaches for finding treatments for a disease that currently has no cure or therapies.

"When the patient goes to the doctor, that's when the last dominoes have fallen. But the first domino is pushed in the developmental phase," says Ali Brivanlou, head of the Laboratory of Synthetic Embryology at Rockefeller University, who published the findings in the journal Development. "Knowing this trajectory, we may be able to block the progression of the disease."
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Scientists discover three rare cannabinoids reduce seizures in mice
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-10- ... -mice.html
by University of Sydney
Research from pharmacologists at the University of Sydney provides new insights into how cannabis extracts may work to treat epilepsy.

The study for the first time reports that three acidic cannabinoids found in cannabis reduced seizures in a mouse model of Dravet syndrome, an intractable form of childhood epilepsy.

The study has been published in the British Journal of Pharmacology.

"From the early nineteenth century cannabis extracts were used in Western medicine to treat seizures but cannabis prohibition got in the way of advancing the science," said Associate Professor Jonathon Arnold from the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics and the Sydney Pharmacy School.

"Now we are able to explore how the compounds in this plant can be adapted for modern therapeutic treatments."
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