For decades, multiple sclerosis research has focused on myelin, the insulation around the brain’s wiring. Scientists paid less attention to another loss that was happening in parallel: neurons in the cortex, the seat of higher thinking and cognition, were quietly dying. A team led by UC San Francisco, University of Cambridge, and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center … Read more
Researchers combined genetic epidemiology, transcriptomics, molecular docking, and mouse experiments to show how a common endocrine-disrupting chemical may influence biological pathways tied to major depressive disorder. Study: Bisphenol a exposure and major depressive disorder: an integrative analysis combining network toxicology, molecular docking, genetic epidemiology, and transcriptomic validation. Image Credit: monticello / Shutterstock A new study … Read more
Erica Periandri and Gabor Egervari, from Washington University in St. Louis, led a study to explore how alcohol exposure in male mice influences gene expression and mechanisms that regulate gene function-or epigenetics. Says Egervari, “We recently uncovered that metabolites [from the body’s breakdown] of alcohol directly regulate genes in the hippocampus following a one-time exposure to alcohol. This is a previously unknown and surprisingly direct way in which alcohol impacts the brain, and it … Read more
A new study shows that APOE4 reshapes brain-linked immune and lymphatic pathways in strikingly different ways in females and males, with opposite cognitive effects when innate immunity is suppressed. Study: Sex-specific APOE4-dependent innate immunity regulates meningeal lymphatics, brain lipids, neuroinflammation, and cognition. Image Credit: ahmetmapush / Shutterstock In a recent study published in the journal Neuron, … Read more
Older adults are much more likely to become seriously ill from flu or COVID because aging lung cells can drive excessive immune responses, according to a new study led by researchers at UC San Francisco. The findings enhance the understanding of the inflammation that accompanies aging, explaining how an otherwise minor cough can sometimes send … Read more
Neural organoids have been heralded as having huge potential for advancing our knowledge of the brain in several fields. These include exploring the responses of brain tissue to drugs, investigating the effect of specific genetic mutations on neural electrical activity and characterising how neural systems develop. In the past, viability of these systems has been limited by their scalability, reproducibility and longevity. New research from King’s College London has succeeded in scaling up the organoid approach; … Read more
A new study by UCLA Health published in Cell presents a major advancement in the future of personalized medicine by pinpointing new connections between people’s genes, disease risk and medicine response by using a clinically well-characterized and diverse population-represented biobank. By analyzing genetic data and electronic health records from 93,936 participants in the UCLA ATLAS … Read more
New research published in Nature Cardiovascular Research reveals that heart failure and atrial fibrillation share underlying genetic and molecular mechanisms, suggesting that the two cardiovascular conditions may be less distinct than previously thought. Two serious heart conditions that often coexist Heart failure occurs when the heart muscle is damaged and unable to pump enough nutrient-rich blood to meet the … Read more
Chronic inflammation can raise a person’s risk of cancer, and a new study reveals key details about how that might happen in the gut and points to better ways to identify and reduce risk. Scientists at the Broad Institute and Harvard University have revealed in mice that after colitis, or chronic intestinal inflammation, seemingly healed … Read more
One of oncology’s biggest challenges is that the same treatment can work well for some patients but fail completely in others. A study published in Nature Communications, from a multi-disciplinary team led by Dr Louise Fets at the LMS, has mapped the distribution of a type of targeted treatments, known as PARP inhibitors, using advanced imaging techniques and patient ovarian tumour samples. The research reveals that build up of these drugs in lysosomes – small compartments inside cells that normally act as “recycling centres” – can trap and … Read more