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The potential of polyunsaturated fatty acids in alleviating depression and reducing suicide risk

Research in 'Molecular Psychiatry' explores the role of long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFAs) in major depressive disorder (MDD) and suicide risk, showing mixed results in clinical trials for depression treatment. The study underscores the need for further investigation into LC-PUFAs' neurobiology to advance personalized medicine for mood disorders and suicide prevention.

26 Nov 2023

Saliva analysis breakthrough: Detecting cognitive decline stages in Parkinson’s patients

Researchers used integrative metaproteogenomic analysis to show that changes in salivary microbiota and biomolecules can indicate cognitive impairment stages in Parkinson’s disease patients, offering a potential diagnostic tool.

23 Nov 2023

New insights into the brain's control of eating speed

When you eagerly dig into a long-awaited dinner, signals from your stomach to your brain keep you from eating so much you'll regret it – or so it's been thought.

22 Nov 2023

Study identifies common skin bacterium as previously unknown culprit behind itch

Scientists at Harvard Medical School have shown for the first time that a common skin bacterium - Staphylococcus aureus - can cause itch by acting directly on nerve cells.

22 Nov 2023

Researchers discover mechanism for memory storage in engram cells

What is the mechanism that allows our brains to incorporate new information about the world, and form memories? New work by a team of neuroscientists led by Dr Tomás Ryan from Trinity College Dublin shows that learning occurs through the continuous formation of new connectivity patterns between specific engram cells in different regions of the brain.

22 Nov 2023

Brain's response to unexpected visual patterns evolves over time

Faced with images that break the expected pattern, like a do not enter sign where a stop sign is expected, how does the brain react and learn compared to being shown images which match what was predicted?

21 Nov 2023

MSU researchers discover why inflammation in the gut causes visceral pain

Researchers at Michigan State University may have discovered why visceral pain is so common in people who have experienced inflammation in their guts, including patients with irritable bowel syndrome, or IBS.

21 Nov 2023

New treatment for neurodegenerative diseases may be found in used coffee grounds

Neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's, affect millions of people in the United States, and the cost of caring for people who live with these conditions adds up to hundreds of billions of dollars each year.

21 Nov 2023

Scientists unravel iron-based memory mechanism in bacteria

Scientists have discovered that bacteria can create something like memories about when to form strategies that can cause dangerous infections in people, such as resistance to antibiotics and bacterial swarms when millions of bacteria come together on a single surface.

21 Nov 2023

Genomic study sheds light on the underlying biology of cannabis use disorder

A Yale-led analysis of the genomes of more than 1 million people has shed light on the underlying biology of cannabis use disorder and its links to psychiatric disorders, abuse of other substances such as tobacco, and possibly even an elevated risk of developing lung cancer.

20 Nov 2023

Researchers develop AI system that mirrors brain's physical constraints

Cambridge scientists have shown that placing physical constraints on an artificially-intelligent system – in much the same way that the human brain has to develop and operate within physical and biological constraints – allows it to develop features of the brains of complex organisms in order to solve tasks.

20 Nov 2023

High cholesterol in midlife linked to later-life dementia

An increasing number of studies have found a significant link between higher cholesterol levels in midlife and Alzheimer's disease and dementia in later life. Swap fatty foods for healthier options this Christmas and get tested now, says a leading testing expert.

20 Nov 2023

Pigeon virus causes fatal neurological disease in young leukemia patient

A case report details a fatal neurologic disease in an immunocompromised toddler caused by pigeon avian paramyxovirus, underscoring the effectiveness of metagenomic testing in diagnosing complex infectious diseases.

19 Nov 2023

Stem-cell-derived brain cells hold promise for Alzheimer's, Parkinson's research

Researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have identified a protein key to the development of a type of brain cell believed to play a role in disorders like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and used the discovery to grow the neurons from stem cells for the first time.

17 Nov 2023

Study links nanoplastics to Parkinson's disease and dementia

Nanoplastics interact with a particular protein that is naturally found in the brain, creating changes linked to Parkinson's disease and some types of dementia.

17 Nov 2023

Researchers identify a promising new strategy for glaucoma cell replacement therapy

Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness worldwide, and vision loss, due to the loss of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), cannot currently be reversed with any treatment.

17 Nov 2023

Nerve-immune system cross-talk: Key to zebrafish heart regeneration

Unlike humans, zebrafish can completely regenerate their hearts after injury. They owe this ability to the interaction between their nervous and immune systems, as researchers led by Suphansa Sawamiphak from the Max Delbrück Center now report in the journal Developmental Cell.

17 Nov 2023

New insights into how cells maintain their identity over generations

Every cell in the human body contains the same genetic instructions, encoded in its DNA. However, out of about 30,000 genes, each cell expresses only those genes that it needs to become a nerve cell, immune cell, or any of the other hundreds of cell types in the body.

16 Nov 2023

Hunger hormone directly impacts the brain to drive eating behavior

A hunger hormone produced in the gut can directly impact a decision-making part of the brain in order to drive an animal's behavior, finds a new study by UCL (University College London) researchers.

16 Nov 2023