Lifeboat Foundation

A team of neuroscientists at the New York University School of Medicine has found a link between chronic pain and overactive pyramidal neurons during sleep periods. In their study, published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, the group conducted experiments with injured mice experiencing chronic pain.

Prior research has shown that there is often a link between chronic pain and insomnia. After experiencing a neural injury of some sort, many patients are left with some degree of lasting pain. This tends to result in poor sleep and sometimes insomnia. Once that happens, the pain becomes worse, and over time becomes chronic. But why this happens has been a mystery. In this new effort, the team in New York conducted experiments with mice hoping to find the answer.

The work involved inducing chronic pain in mice by damaging two of the three branches that make up a group of sciatic nerves. Doing so led to skin sensitivity in the legs. The researchers scanned the brains of each of the mice before and after the damage. They observed that pyramidal neurons in the part of the cerebral cortex responsible for sensation processing in the skin became more active. And over the course of several weeks, the activity increased, peaking during non-REM sleep.

Approximately 9,000 people are admitted to Norwegian hospitals with stroke each year. About half of these patients feel exhausted afterwards, and many patients sleep more during the day than before the stroke. These after-effects are challenging and significantly affect patients’ everyday life.

However, we still have a limited understanding of which factors lead to increased fatigue and daytime sleep after stroke. Our research group therefore wanted to investigate whether cognitive and emotional complaints are related to increased fatigue and sleep during the day.

Our results were recently published in an article in the journal Frontiers in Neurology.

Here is an important reason to stay in touch with friends and family: social isolation causes memory and learning deficits and other behavioral changes. Many brain studies have focused on the effects social deprivation has on neurons, but little is known about the consequences for the most abundant brain cell, the astrocyte.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine working with animal models report in the journal Neuron that during social isolation, astrocytes become hyperactive, which in turn suppresses brain circuit function and memory formation. Importantly, inhibiting astrocyte hyperactivity reversed the cognitive deficits associated with social deprivation.

“One thing we have learned during the COVID pandemic is that social isolation can influence cognitive functions, as previous studies suggested,” said co-first author, Yi-Ting Cheng, graduate student in Dr. Benjamin Deneen’s lab at Baylor. “This motivated co-first author Dr. Junsung Woo and me to further investigate the effects of social isolation in the brain, specifically in astrocytes.”

Dr. Seol Seung-Kwon’s Smart 3D Printing Research Team at KERI and Professor Lim-Doo Jeong’s team at Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) developed core technology for smart contact lenses that can implement augmented reality (AR)-based navigation, with a 3D printing process.

A smart contact lens is a product attached to the human eye like a normal lens that provides various information. Research on these lenses is currently focused mainly on diagnosing and treating health problems. Recently, Google and others are developing smart contact lenses for displays that can implement AR. Yet many obstacles to commercialization exist due to several technical challenges.

In implementing AR with smart contact lenses, electrochromic displays that can be driven with low power are necessary, and a “pure Prussian blue” color, with cost competitiveness and quick contrast and transition between colors, is attracting attention as the lens’ material. In the past, the color was coated on the substrate in the form of a film using the electric plating method, which limited the production of advanced displays that can express various information (letters, numbers, images).

An artificial intelligence program may enable the first simple production of customizable proteins called zinc fingers to treat diseases by turning genes on and off.

The researchers at NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the University of Toronto who designed the tool say it promises to accelerate the development of gene therapies on a large scale.

Illnesses including cystic fibrosis, Tay-Sachs disease, and sickle cell anemia are caused by errors in the order of DNA letters that encode the operating instructions for every human cell. Scientists can in some cases correct these mistakes with gene editing methods that rearrange these letters.

Last week, it was revealed that microplastics were found for the first time in fresh Antarctic snow. They were discovered high in the Alps, bottled water, and human blood.

They can be harmful to animals if ingested. But the growing menace is difficult to remove — considering their size — especially once they settle into nooks and crannies at the bottom of waterways.

Norovirus is sometimes referred to as the stomach flu, but it is not related to the influenza virus. Rather, it is a highly contagious virus that typically causes gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea, vomiting, nausea and stomach pain. Mild fever and aches are possible, too.

Just a few virus particles are enough to make someone sick, and they spread easily via hands, surfaces, food and water. An infected person can transmit the virus for days after they’re feeling better, potentially even up to two weeks, according to the CDC.

Regionally, the Midwest had the highest average test positivity rate for norovirus as of Saturday, at over 19% — higher than any other week in the last year.

Illustrated is the power of combined interference with different DNA damage response processes to combat cancer: Homologous recombination, which is selectively deficient in the tumour due to the BRCA defect, and base excision repair of single strand breaks, which is blocked by the administration of PARP inhibitors.

Client:
Dr. Rini de Crom.
Dr. Marja Miedema.
www.erasmusmc.nl, 2014

Continue reading “DNA Damage Response” »

These animations show cellular biology on the molecular scale. The structure of chromatin, the processes of transcription, translation, DNA replication, and cell division are shown. All animations are scientifically accurate and derived from molecular biology and crystallography research. I have composed this video from multiple animations under fair use for non-profit, educational purposes. I do not claim copyright on this video or its contents, with the exception of the cell image. Most credit goes to Drew Berry and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI TV) for the animations. Full credits are at the end of the video.