Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers led by the University of California, Irvine are the first to reveal how two neural circuits located in the brain’s retrosplenial cortex are directly linked to spatial navigation and memory storage. This discovery could lead to more precise medical treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other cognitive disorders by allowing them to target pathway-specific neural circuits.

The study, published in Molecular Psychiatry, identified two types of RSC pathways, connected to different parts of the brain, each with its own pattern of inputs and functions.

“By demonstrating how specific circuits in the RSC contribute to different aspects of cognition, our findings provide an anatomical foundation for future studies and offer new insights into how we learn and remember the space around us,” said lead and co-corresponding author Xiangmin Xu, UC Irvine Chancellor’s Professor of anatomy and neurobiology and director of the campus’s Center for Neural Circuit Mapping.

Think back to that basic biology class you took in high school. You probably learned about organelles, those little ‘organs’ inside cells that form compartments with individual functions.

For example, mitochondria produce energy, lysosomes recycle waste and the nucleus stores DNA. Although each organelle has a different function, they are similar in that every one is wrapped up in a membrane.

Continue reading “Tiny ‘Organs’ Hiding in Our Cells Could Challenge The Origins of Life” »

Science Corporation, a biotech startup launched by a Neuralink cofounder, claims that it’s achieved a breakthrough in brain-computer interface technology that can help patients with severe vision loss.

In preliminary clinical trials, legally blind patients who had lost their central vision received the company’s retina implants, which restored their eyesight and even allowed them to read books and recognize faces, the startup announced last week.

“To my knowledge, this is the first time that restoration of the ability to fluently read has ever been definitively shown in blind patients,” CEO Max Hodak, who was president of Neuralink before founding Science Corp, said in a statement.

Aging is characterized by a gradual decline in function, partly due to accumulated molecular damage. Human skin undergoes both chronological aging and environmental degradation, particularly UV-induced photoaging. Detrimental structural and physiological changes caused by aging include epidermal thinning due to stem cell depletion and dermal atrophy associated with decreased collagen production. Here, we present a comprehensive single-cell atlas of skin aging, analyzing samples from young, middle-aged, and elderly individuals, including both sun-exposed and sun-protected areas. This atlas reveals age-related cellular composition and function changes across various skin cell types, including epidermal stem cells, fibroblasts, hair follicles, and endothelial cells. Using our atlas, we have identified basal stem cells as a highly variable population across aging, more so than other skin cell populations such as fibroblasts. In basal stem cells, we identified ATF3 as a novel regulator of skin aging. ATF3 is a transcriptional factor for genes involved in the aging process, with its expression reduced by 20% during aging. Based on this discovery, we have developed an innovative mRNA-based treatment to mitigate the effects of skin aging. Cell senescence decreased 25% in skin cells treated with ATF3 mRNA, and we observed an over 20% increase in proliferation in treated basal stem cells. Importantly, we also found crosstalk between keratinocytes and fibroblasts as a critical component of therapeutic interventions, with ATF3 rescue of basal cells significantly enhancing fibroblast collagen production by approximately 200%. We conclude that ATF3-targeted mRNA treatment effectively reverses the effects of skin aging by modulating specific cellular mechanisms, offering a novel, targeted approach to human skin rejuvenation.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

Modern radiocarbon dating and advanced gene-sequencing technology have allowed researchers to analyze the remains found.

A small medical center south of Dallas is offering 3D telehealth visits. Its CEO believes the technology is a “game changer” that could help save struggling hospitals.

Tumors find different ways to avoid immune cell detection and proliferate in their environment. Antitumor immune cells will initially recognize and target the growing tumor; however, different mutations and adaptive mechanisms allow the cancer to persist. For example, it is well documented that tumors secrete different proteins to suppress immune cell activity. In other words, these proteins prevent healthy immune cells from properly functioning. Researchers focus on different aspects of immune cell suppression to allow cancer-targeting cells, known as T cells, to appropriately recognize and stop tumor growth. Previously, it was discovered that lactic acid is generated and secreted by the tumor cells and aids in their progression. Specifically, lactic acid suppresses T cells and prevents immune cells from reaching the tumor. Lactic acid generates a low pH level in the tumor microenvironment that makes it difficult for immune cells to properly function. Lactic acid fermentation or production was also found to limit therapeutic efficacy and elicit cancer drug resistance.

The limitation of cancer immunotherapy is due to the dysregulated metabolism or energy uptake generated by lactic acid. Immune cells switch “off” their antitumor activity, which allows cancers to progress. The study of these different metabolic processes is difficult because of a cell’s ability to change nutrient breakdown instantly. Therefore, scientists have trouble isolating cells in their natural state without disrupting the cell’s metabolic integrity. Although metabolism is difficult to study, scientists are working to understand more about lactic acid and its effect on immune cells. In this context, researchers hope to develop stronger immunotherapies that elicit a robust and durable antitumor response.

A recent study in Nature Immunology, by Dr. Greg Delgoffe and others, discovered that tumor-infiltrating T cells in the tumor microenvironment uptake lactic acid through a specific membrane transporter that reduces their function. Delgoffe is a professor in the Department of Immunology at the University of Pittsburgh and a member of the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute. His work focuses on T cell metabolism in the tumor microenvironment and how physicians can leverage these processes to overcome therapeutic limitations.

Johns Hopkins University-led researchers, working with the Biomarkers for Older Controls at Risk for Dementia (BIOCARD) cohort, have found that certain factors are linked to faster brain shrinkage and quicker progression from normal thinking abilities to mild cognitive impairment (MCI). People with type 2 diabetes and low levels of specific proteins in their cerebrospinal fluid showed more rapid brain changes and developed MCI sooner than others.

Long-term studies tracking brain changes over many years are rare but valuable. Previous research mostly provided snapshots in time, which can’t show how individual brains change over the years. By following participants for up to 27 years (20-year median), this study offers new insights into how health conditions might speed up brain aging.

In a study, “Acceleration of Brain Atrophy and Progression From Normal Cognition to Mild Cognitive Impairment,” published in JAMA Network Open, researchers used the BIOCARD cohort to examine risk factors associated with the acceleration of brain atrophy and progression from normal cognition to MCI. An Invited Commentary is also available.

A team of researchers led by Rice University’s Jacob Robinson and the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Peter Kan has developed a technique for diagnosing, managing and treating neurological disorders with minimal surgical risks. The team’s findings were published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.

While traditional approaches for interfacing with the nervous system often require creating a hole in the skull to interface with the brain, the researchers have developed an innovative method known as endocisternal interfaces (ECI), allowing for electrical recording and stimulation of neural structures, including the brain and spinal cord, through cerebral spinal fluid (CSF).

“Using ECI, we can access multiple brain and spinal cord structures simultaneously without ever opening up the skull, reducing the risk of complications associated with traditional surgical techniques,” said Robinson, professor of electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering.