#These serotonin neurons were built in a dish Serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in regulating mood and mental states, has been linked to numerous neurological
But because there has been no way to obtain live human serotonin neurons to study these diseases,
Now, researchers have generated human serotonin neurons from human fibroblasts, the cells that give rise to connective tissue in the body.
and drug discovery. ur work demonstrates that the precious serotonin neurons hidden deep inside the human brain can now be created in a petri dish,
builds on previous studies showing that human fibroblasts can be converted to neurons, using specialized transcription factors that bind to genes,
The new research demonstrates the first direct conversion of human fibroblasts into serotonergic neurons, Feng says.
These nduced serotonergic neuronsbehave like serotonin neurons in the human brain. e know the cells were converted to serotonergic neurons
because they express proteins that are only found in neurons that produce serotonin, Feng explains. hey are electrophysiologically active
and the selective uptake of serotonin. he researchers found that they could produce induced serotonergic neurons from fibroblasts by introducing four genes that control the development of serotonin neurons. hese genes change how the human genome,
so that the cell switches from a lung cell to a serotonin neuron, says Feng. ith this new technology,
scientists can generate serotonin neurons from patients who suffer from serotonin-related mental illnesses, says Feng.
While the paper focuses on converting lung fibroblasts to serotonin neurons Feng group has also been working on generating serotonin neurons from human skin cells,
which would be an even easier and less invasive process. Such induced serotonin neurons would be extremely beneficial
since they can be generated from individual patients suffering from illnesses involving the neurotransmitter. hese patient-specific serotonin neurons will be very useful to the discovery of new drugs for diseases ranging from depression
and anxiety to obsessive-compulsive disorder and many others, says Feng. hey will not only allow researchers to study why certain individuals develop a disease
and tissues his research shows that it is possible to convert one type of cell into other types that have been difficult to access, such as neurons or heart cells,
#Where Glia Meets Axon: New Technique to Better Understand Myelination Since the early part of the 20th century,
scientists have been trying to better understand the intricacies surrounding neuronal development. In particular, the process by which glial cellspecifically, Schwann cellsreate their fatty insulating layer that encircles the axons of peripheral neurons.
While the interactions between these two cell types hold the key to healthy brain function and cognition,
The cellular interactions that trigger the production of myelin are especially hard to pinpoint since the point of contact is buried essentially between the intertwined myelin layers and neuronal plasma membrane."
"Myelin is made by a glial cell wrapping around an axon cell, "explained senior author M. Laura Feltri, M d.,professor of biochemistry and neurology in the Jacobs School of medicine and Biomedical sciences at UB."
"To study myelin, you really need to study both cells. The glial cell wraps like a spiral around the axon, so every time you try to study the region of contact between the two cells,
you end up studying the whole combination. It's very hard to look just at the interface."
"This work may help to provide much-needed insight into demyelinating diseases such Krabbe Leukodystrophy, MS,
"In Krabbe's, for example, the problem is not just that there isn't sufficient myelin,
but that the glial cell is not providing proper support to the neuron. But to figure out exactly what's going wrong, we needed a better way to study that interface, Dr. Feltri noted.
The findings from this study were published recently in Nature Communications through an article entitled patial mapping of juxtacrine axo-glial interactions identifies novel molecules in peripheral myelination.
The new technique described in the current study involves using the neuron as a trigger to attract glial cells.
are necessary for the production of myelin.""Using this method, we can isolate the portion of a cell that comes in contact with another cell,
because the dysfunction of glial cells end up impairing the interactions with neurons, which, as a result, suffer
"Similarly, neurodegenerative diseases like Huntington's disease or Lou Gehrig's, that were considered unique diseases of neurons in the past,
are considered now diseases of cellular communications between neurons and glial cells
#Protein Based Sensors Expand Synthetic biology Repertoire Engineering proteins to detect specific DNA, RNA, or peptide sequences may not be a new idea,
"tpa has a direct effect on the brain as it can interact with neurons, this is why tpa can't be given for a few hours after a stroke has been diagnosed."
and nurture nerve cell formation, these devices have been tested successfully in the bodies of living rats in a laboratory.
Y-shaped sensory and motor branch axon bundles found in the sciatic nerve has been achieved.""The exciting next step would be to implant these guides in humans rather than rats,
We now know that many of the genes involved in mental health conditions carry instructions for creating the proteins in the brain synapses.
These are the connections between neurons that allow them to communicate with one another. But despite knowing about hundreds of mutations associated with schizophrenia,
we do need not to look at human neurons because we can use mice instead and we only need a single mutation rather than the several gene mutations that normally give rise to the condition.
the animal grows up with a lack of brain plasticity (the ability to change neural pathways over time) in the synapses that were trying to form at the time.
By using genetically modified neurons coupled with microbubbles, the researchers have demonstrated they can control the movements of nematodes.
The process alled sonogenetics ses sound waves to turn neurons on and off. The study is published in the journal Nature Communications,
and uses light pulses to control neurons. Just like a switch in your house turns your lights on and off,
light can be used to turn neurons on and off. Special light-sensitive channel proteins are added to specific neurons
and are activated then with focused lasers. However, the procedure gets tricky when it comes to cells deep inside the body.
additional tool to manipulate neurons and other cells in the body.""Chalasani and his team conducted their research on nematodes, a type of roundworm.
and as a result showed the neurons could be controlled by ultrasound. So far, the work has only been performed on worms.
it may be possible to make target human neurons temporarily susceptible to the ultrasound signal in a clinical setting for certain neurological treatments."
Debate rages between those who blame the formation of tau protein tangles within neurons, and those who believe a buildup of beta amyloid plaques are the main cause.
impeding the capacity of neurons to avoid the buildup of tau. Gan sought a drug that would prevent acetylization from occurring."
this week to the world largest international society of biomedical engineers, said the electrical stimulation to the spinal cord appears to reawaken neurons there.
Once abuzz, those spinal neurons appear to recognize sensations sent up by the moving lower limbs
the reawakened spinal cord neurons may to a point, continue to relearn their old ways. Whether that process leads a paralyzed patient to walk again depends on the extent and location of his or her spinal cord injury
the new technology that allows scientists to selectively control the firing of genetically modified neurons within living animalsbrains.
So far, the triggering of neurons has been compared pretty dumb to how existing biofeedback devices and many electronic systems work.
Scientists decide when to activate neurons and then look for certain responses, then again decide when and for how long to shine the light that excites the brain cells.
MIT, and Emory University have developed a losed-loopoptogenetic control system that can achieve optimal excitation of neurons all on its own.
#White blood cell Mediated Therapy for Neurons in Patients with Parkinson Disease Scientists at the University of North carolina at Chapel hill have begun researching the delivery of neurotropic factors to the brain as a potential therapeutic for Parkinson disease.
Currently, there are no treatments that can stop or reverse Parkinson hallmark loss of neurons. However, one potential therapy is the development of smarter immune cells that deliver neurotropic factors to neurons damaged by the disease.
Batrakova and her team genetically modified white blood cells called macrophages, to produce and deliver glial cell-line derived neurotropic factor (GDNF) to the brain.
GDNF is known to act as a protective protein in the brain that can stimulate the growth and healing of damaged neurons.
efficiently and effectively transport the proteins to the target neurons. Delivering the protective proteins through immune cells is a breakthrough in GDFP therapy.
Using this method to image neurons, they showed that actin, a key component of the cytoskeleton (backbone of the cell), has a different structure in axons than in dendrites, two parts of a neuron.
But current super-resolution microscopy techniques do not deliver spectral information, which is useful for scientists to understand the behavior of individual molecules,
Alzheimer, for example, may be related to degradation of the cytoskeleton inside neurons. he cytoskeleton system is comprised of a host of interacting subcellular structures and proteins,
potentially allowing them to observe communication between neurons, activation of immune cells, or stem cell differentiation, among other phenomena.
For the first time, a circuit of about 100 artificial synapses was proved to perform a simple version of a typical human task:
Using this method to image neurons they showed that actin, a key component of the cytoskeleton (backbone of the cell), has a different structure in axons than in dendrites, two parts of a neuron.
But current super-resolution microscopy techniques do not deliver spectral information, which is useful for scientists to understand the behavior of individual molecules,
Alzheimer's, for example, may be related to degradation of the cytoskeleton inside neurons.""The cytoskeleton system is comprised of a host of interacting subcellular structures and proteins,
When these dendrites reach and contact the cathode, they form a short circuit. Electrical current now flows across the dendrites instead of the external circuit,
rendering the battery useless and dead. The current also heats up the dendrites, and because the electrolyte tends to be flammable,
the dendrites can ignite. Even if the dendrites don't short circuit the battery, they can break off from the anode entirely
and float around in the electrolyte. In this way, the anode loses material, and the battery can't store as much energy."
"Dendrites are hazardous and reduce the capacity of rechargeable batteries, "said Asghar Aryanfar, a scientist at Caltech, who led the new study that's published this week on the cover of The Journal of Chemical Physics, from AIP Publishing.
Although the researchers looked at lithium batteries, which are among the most efficient kind, their results can be applied broadly."
"The dendrite problem is general to all rechargeable batteries, "he said. The researchers grew lithium dendrites on a test battery
and heated them over a couple days. They found that temperatures up to 55 degrees Celsius shortened the dendrites by as much as 36 percent.
To figure out what exactly caused this shrinkage, the researchers used a computer to simulate the effect of heat on the individual lithium atoms that comprise a dendrite,
which was modeled with the simple, idealized geometry of a pyramid. The simulations showed that increased temperatures triggered the atoms to move around in two ways.
generating enough motion to topple the dendrite. By quantifying how much energy is needed to change the structure of the dendrite,
Aryanfar said, researchers can better understand its structural characteristics. And while many factors affect a battery's longevity at high temperatures--such as its tendency to discharge on its own
This will be particularly useful for understanding complex processes in neurons and cancer cells to help us unravel disease mechanisms,
#Scientists develop atomic force microscopy for imaging nanoscale dynamics of neurons While progress has been made over the past decades in the pursuit to optimize atomic force microscopy (AFM) for imaging living cells,
or mature hippocampal neurons, without any sign of cellular damage.""We've now demonstrated that our new AFM can directly visualize nanometer scale morphological changes in living cells,
where the morphological changes of a fingerlike neuronal protrusion in the mature hippocampal neuron are observed.
According to Dr. Yasuda, the successful observations of structural dynamics in live neurons present the possibility of visualizing the morphology of synapses at nanometer resolution in real time in the near future.
Since morphology changes of synapses underlie synaptic plasticity and our learning and memory, this will provide us with many new insights into mechanisms of how neurons store information in their morphology,
how it changes synaptic strength and ultimately how it creates new memory y
#Nanotechnology may double radio frequency data capacity A team of Columbia Engineering researchers has invented a technology--full-duplex radio integrated circuits (ICS)--that can be implemented in nanoscale CMOS to enable simultaneous transmission and reception
This means they can view dendrites--the microscopic thorns that cause batteries to fail--as they form.
In their studies, the team found that extended battery cycling leads to lithium growing beneath the layer--the genesis of the dendrites that have implications for battery safety and performance.
#Scientists get 1 step closer to finding how to repair damaged nerve cells A team of researchers at the IRCM led by Frdric Charron, Phd,
and Netrin-1 Guides Commissural Axons"),could eventually help develop tools to repair nerve cells following injuries to the nervous system (such as the brain and spinal cord).
Researchers in Dr. Charron's laboratory study neurons, the nerve cells that make up the central nervous system, as well as their long extensions known as axons.
During development, axons must follow specific paths in the nervous system in order to properly form neural circuits and allow neurons to communicate with one another.
IRCM researchers are studying a process called axon guidance to better understand how axons manage to follow the correct paths."
"To reach their target, growing axons rely on molecules known as guidance cues, which instruct them on which direction to take by repelling
or attracting them to their destination, "explains Dr. Charron, Director of the Molecular biology of Neural development research unit at the IRCM.
Over the past few decades, the scientific community has struggled to understand why more than one guidance cue would be necessary for axons to reach the proper target.
In this paper, IRCM scientists uncovered how axons use information from multiple guidance cues to make their pathfinding decisions.
To do so, they studied the relative change in concentration of guidance cues in the neuron's environment
which is referred to as the steepness of the gradient.""We found that the steepness of the gradient is a critical factor for axon guidance;
the steeper the gradient, the better the axons respond to guidance cues, "says Tyler F. W. Sloan, Phd student in Dr. Charron's laboratory and first author of the study."
"In addition, we showed that the gradient of one guidance cue may not be steep enough to orient axons.
In those instances, we revealed that a combination of guidance cues can behave in synergy with one another to help the axon interpret the gradient's direction."
"In collaboration with the Program in Neuroengineering at Mcgill University, Dr. Charron's team developed an innovative technique to recreate the concentration gradients of guidance cues in vitro,
that is to say they can study the developing axons outside their biological context.""This new method provides us with several benefits
conduct longer-term experiments to observe the entire process of axon guidance, and obtain extremely useful quantitative data,
""This scientific breakthrough could bring us closer to repairing damaged nerve cells following injuries to the central nervous system,"states Dr. Charron."
"A better understanding of the mechanisms involved in axon guidance will offer new possibilities for developing techniques to treat lesions resulting from spinal cord injuries,
"For the first time, a circuit of about 100 artificial synapses was proved to perform a simple version of a typical human task:
However, one challenge is reducing the tissue/neuron damage associated with needle penetration, particularly for chronic insert experiment and future medical applications.
This will be particularly useful for understanding complex processes in neurons and cancer cells to help us unravel disease mechanisms,
#Researchers Develop 3d Printed Brain tissue The brain is amazingly complex, with around 86 billion nerve cells.
gellan gum-RGD (RGD-GG), combined with primary cortical neurons. The ink was optimized for a modified reactive printing process
including its connections between neurons, the synapses, scientists must use electron microscopes. However, the tissue must first be fixed to prepare it for this high magnification imaging method.
e g. showing neurons to be much closer than they actually are. EPFL scientists have solved now the problem by using a technique that rapidly freezes the brain,
This in turn, distorts our understanding of the brain anatomy, e g. the actual proximity of neurons, the structures of blood vessels etc.
The analysis showed that the chemically fixed brain was much smaller in volume, showing a significant loss of extracellular space the space around neurons.
In addition, supporting brain cells called strocytes seemed to be connected less with neurons and even blood vessels in the brain.
the connections between neurons, the synapses, seemed significantly weaker in the chemically-fixed brain compared to the cryofixed one.
and protect neurons. Another example of Scales practical application came from examining the 3d positions of active microglial cells and amyloid beta plaques.
RGS7 appears to exert its effects by regulating morphine-induced changes in excitability of neurons and plasticity of synapseshe ability of the synapse, the junction between two nerve cells,
In the brain, calcium is used to communicate information within and between neurons and it activates a host of other cell functions,
and its signaling pathway is critical for normal performance of neurons and that this signaling pathway represents a key ubin the pathogenesis of ASD,
specifically how it regulates the level of neuron excitability. The brains of people who have autism show signs of hyperexcitability,
kick-starting a chain reaction that resulted in inflammation and myelin damage. Myelin is the protective sheath that insulates nerve fibers in the brain,
and it is the primary site of injury in MS. What more, the scientists were able to pinpoint a specific protein in the blood, the blood-clotting factor fibrinogen,
When these peripheral immune cellsacrophages and T cellsntered the brain, they attacked myelin. ur results provide the first evidence that blood promotes T cell responses against the brain,
which is sufficient to cause myelin destruction, we also identified fibrinogen as the critical protein driving this process.
stopping the microglia from signaling to the peripheral immune cells and averting myelin damage and inflammation.
kick-starting a chain reaction that resulted in inflammation and myelin damage. Myelin is the protective sheath that insulates nerve fibers in the brain
and it is the primary site of injury in MS. Image is for illustrative purposes only. hese findings question a long-held paradigm that myelin-specific T cells initiate inflammation in the brain through activation of microglia
and brain macrophages, says Scott Zamvil, MD, Phd, a professor of neurology at the University of California,
There, the autoantibodies can bind to neurons and accelerate the accumulation of beta amyloid deposits, a hallmark of Alzheimer pathology.
then they are operating in parallel much like neurons in the human brain, which is especially good at such tasks.
That because the gold grains work in parallel much like neurons in the human brain which is especially good at these tasks c
Now researchers have found that a migraine may be triggered by a protein deep in the brain that stimulates the neurons controlling facial sensations.
and adds weight to the theory that neurons, not blood vessels, are responsible for migraine attacks. here a migraine starts is a key question,
studied two neuropeptides released by neurons thought to play a role in the pain associated with migraine.
and PACAP on a set of neurons that innervate the head and face, which are known to trigger a headache.
The pair measured the electrical activity of these neurons in anaesthetised rats and studied blood vessels in the rodentsbrain to identify
Only PACAP caused the neurons to increase their activity about an hour and a half after it was administered.
the neurons responsible for a headache no longer surged with activity. hese receptors could genuinely represent a new therapeutic target for migraine,
the widening of blood vessels did not happen at the same time as the overactivity of neurons. In other words, the dilation of blood vessels doesn seem to have anything to do with migraine.
Although triptans are prescribed as vasoconstrictors drugs that shrink blood vessels other research suggests that they also block the release of peptides like PACAP from neurons.
and new neurons grown by asthma drug IT as good as new. An asthma drug has rejuvenated rat brains,
Typically, we lose the ability to make new neurons. And age-related inflammation of the brain is implicated in many brain disorders.
These receptors are thought also to be involved in the birth of neurons. A drug called montelukast (Singulair), regularly prescribed for asthma and allergic rhinitis, blocks these receptors,
They also had greater new neuron growth than untreated old rats about 50 per cent of that seen in young rats,
In the arm's suckers, they saw activity in genes that are normally related to signaling between neurons in other animals
#Spinal Neuron Connections Probed with Fluorescence microscopy Using two-photon fluorescence microscopy, researchers have gained new insight into how the spinal cord mediates commands from the brain to get the body moving.
Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies used a fluorescent tag that could be added to multiple neurons
connects to the right motor neurons to allow movements like walking. The CPG is where relatively simple signals from the brain are translated into more complex instructions for motor neurons to control muscles.
But until now, researchers didn't know exactly how CPG cells forged connections with motor neurons. By tweaking the locations
and identities of motor neurons and then watching the resulting patterns of activation, researchers found that CPG cells didn't rely solely on motor neurons'locations to connect to them.
Instead, the genetic identity of each subtype of cells what makes those that control the quadriceps muscle different from those that control the calf muscle,
for instance is also important. That's a key finding for research on how to treat spinal cord injuries and ALS,
Current efforts involve stem cells that are transformed into motor neurons and then implanted into the spinal cord to regenerate damaged connections.
however, suggest that general motor neurons might not do the trick; specific subtypes of motor neurons may be necessary.
Funding for the work came from the National institutes of health, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, Sol Goldman Trust and Marshall Heritage Foundation a
an organism that has more than 10,000 neurons and is about 50 times larger than the roundworm C. elegans,
demonstrating that neurons in the deepest, least accessible regions of the brain could be seen clearly,
The electrodes sent electrical pulses to the rats neurons when their heads pointed north and south.
so that it doesn't form spindly lithium metal fibers known as dendrites, which can cause batteries to explode
and the bottom layer acts as the circuit to transport electrical signals and translate them into biochemical stimuli compatible with nerve cells.
a flexible electronic circuit that could carry pulses of electricity to nerve cells. Bao's team has been developing flexible electronics that can bend without breaking.
Finally the team had to prove that the electronic signal could be recognized by a biological neuron.
For this experiment the team members engineered a line of neurons to simulate a portion of the human nervous system.
which activated the neurons, proving that the artificial skin could generate a sensory output compatible with nerve cells.
Optogenetics was used only as an experimental proof of concept, Bao said, and other methods of stimulating nerves are likely to be used in real prosthetic devices.
to show that direct stimulation of neurons with electrical pulses is possible. Bao's team envisions developing different sensors to replicate, for instance,
Transferring the digital signal from the artificial skin system to the cortical neurons of mice proved to be another challenge,
Applying these newly engineered optogenic proteins to fast-spiking interneurons of the somatosensory cortex of mice in vitro sufficiently prolonged the stimulation interval
allowing the neurons to fire in accordance with the digital stimulation pulse. These results indicate that the system may be compatible with other fast-spiking neurons,
including peripheral nerves. Model robotic hand with artificial mechanoreceptors s
#Protein Found In Malaria Could Help Stop Cancer Researchers have discovered how a protein from malaria could some day help stop cancer.
which the nerve cells get out of their usual rhythm and fire in a very rapid frequency, over the course of their lives.
these channels act like a doorman to regulate the entry of calcium ions in the nerve cells.
This leads to a large increase in the amount of a special calcium ion channel in the nerve cells and overall, this significantly boosts the risk of epileptic seizures.
and there's still the risk of the battery exploding due to the dendrites (spindly lithium metal fibres) created during the charging process.
is caused by a depletion of dopamine-producing neurons in the brain. Current treatments include medications and electrical implants in the brain
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