Neurology News and Research

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RNA Modification Offers Hope for Treating Neurological Diseases

The research team led by Yongchao C. Ma, Ph.D., at the Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute at Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, uncovered a fundamental biological mechanism that holds promise for the development of novel treatments for neurological disorders like spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and autism, as well as various types of cancer.

5 Apr 2024

High-Resolution Map Tracks Cellular Changes During Inflammation

Cells within the intestines fulfill diverse functions, including nutrient absorption, sensing, and regulating homeostasis. Gut inflammation is a characteristic that sets certain chronic disorders apart.

3 Apr 2024

Canadian-Led Study Identifies Genetic Links to Cerebral Palsy

A Canadian-led study has identified genes which may be partially responsible for the development of cerebral palsy.

29 Mar 2024

Non-Immune Cells Form Memory, Boosts Inflammatory Response

An essential component of adaptive immunity is immunological memory, which is the capacity to react to a foreign material or antigen more quickly and intensely when exposed again.

21 Mar 2024

Machine Learning Accelerates Personalized T Cell Therapy Development for Cancer Patients

Making a personalized T cell therapy for cancer patients currently takes at least six months; scientists at the German Cancer Research Center and the University Medical Center Mannheim have shown that the laborious first step of identifying tumor-reactive T cell receptors for patients can be replaced with a machine learning classifier that halves this time.

18 Mar 2024

How Seba's Short-Tailed Bats Navigate Their Acoustic World

The world of bats is full of sounds. They utilize vocalizations for both navigation and communication with their conspecifics. For the latter, they produce ultrasonic noises that reverberate and allow them to form a mental "image" of their environment

26 Feb 2024

Researchers Unveil New Mechanism of Immune Cell Training in Thymus Gland

Immune cells must learn not to attack the body itself. A team of researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) has discovered a previously unknown mechanism behind this: other immune cells, the B cells, contribute to the "training" of the T cells in the thymus gland.

22 Feb 2024

Prefrontal Neurons’ Cascade of Phonetic Representations

A new study led by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) uses sophisticated brain recording techniques to show how neurons in the human brain cooperate to enable people to plan words for speech and then produce them verbally.

5 Feb 2024

New Technology Enables Minimally-Invasive, High-Resolution Recording of Brain Activity

Sensors built with a new manufacturing approach are capable of recording activity deep within the brain from large populations of individual neurons–with a resolution of as few as one or two neurons–in humans as well as a range of animal models, according to a study published in the Jan. 17, 2024 issue of the journal Nature Communications.

18 Jan 2024

EBV-Targeting T-Cells Linked to Early MS Damage

The body's immune response to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) may play a role in causing damage in people with multiple sclerosis, according to a new study led by UTHealth Houston.

12 Jan 2024

Brain Cell Genetics Drive Alzheimer's Progression

Developing treatments for Alzheimer's disease (AD) is difficult because complex underlying mechanisms drive different types of cells that may contribute to the disorder.

6 Dec 2023

"Wake" Slow Waves may Decrease the Impact of Epileptic Spikes on Brain Activity

Slow waves that usually only occur in the brain during sleep are also present during wakefulness in people with epilepsy and may protect against increased brain excitability associated with the condition, finds a new study led by researchers at UCL.

30 Nov 2023

Study Reveals Crucial Protein’s Role in Brain Cell Development

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison have pinpointed a crucial protein associated with the formation of a specific type of brain cell implicated in conditions such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.

20 Nov 2023

Rare Genetic Variant Found to Protect Against Alzheimer's Disease

Researchers at Gladstone Institutes have discovered that a rare genetic variant known as the "Christchurch mutation" can block detrimental effects of apolipoprotein E4, the best-established risk factor for the most common form of Alzheimer's disease.

14 Nov 2023

Unlocking the Secrets of Memory: Key Protein Regulates Hippocampal Plasticity

Mount Sinai researchers have shed valuable light on the mechanism of a key protein that regulates the plasticity and function of the hippocampus, a key brain region involved in memory and learning, and that decreases with age in mice.

3 Nov 2023

Uncovering New Insights Into Primate Brain Evolution

In a recent research investigation, scientists from Yale University unveiled the molecular pathways responsible for the developmental distinctions that set primates apart from mice.

27 Oct 2023

T Cells Infiltrate Brain and Worsen Alzheimer's Pathology, Study Finds

Cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD) develops when neurons begin to die, which can be caused by inappropriate immune responses and excessive inflammation in the brain triggered by amyloid beta deposits and tau tangles, two hallmarks of the disease.

28 Aug 2023

Sensory Neurons Develop Customized Nerve Endings Based on Cues From the Skin, Finds Study

Nerve cells that sense touch grow the appropriate endings for hairy or hairless skin based on cues from the skin itself, rather than through predetermined programming, according to research led by Harvard Medical School scientists and published Aug. 21 in Developmental Cell.

23 Aug 2023

Direct-to-Consumer Blood Test for Assessing User’s Alzheimer’s Disease Risk

In July, the first direct-to-consumer blood test designed to assess a user’s risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease hit the market. The test, which has not undergone Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review, measures the level of a protein called beta amyloid, a key component of plaques that form in the brains of Alzheimer’s disease patients, disrupting brain function.

23 Aug 2023

Aging Disrupts Gene Expression in Specific Regions of the Brain

Most of us who've reached middle age have noticed a slowing in memory and cognition, but scientists don't have a clear picture of the molecular changes that take place in the brain to cause it.

18 Aug 2023