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The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. Enclosed in the cranium, it has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times as large as the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size.

Study shows why depression affects women more than men

Researchers at Mount Sinai have found that a novel class of genes known as long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) expressed in the brain may play a pivotal role in regulating mood and driving sex-specific susceptibility versus resilience to depression.

22 Apr 2020

Nasal spray containing esketamine could provide an effective treatment for depression

Depression and long-term stress have been demonstrated to cause changes in the brain which offer a partial explanation for depressive moods, apathy, memory difficulties and other symptoms commonly associated with depression.

22 Apr 2020

AHA invests almost $17 million to speed up health impacts of e-cigarettes, nicotine on youth

The American Heart Association (AHA) is investing nearly $17 million in scientific research to be led by scientists from Boston University, the Ohio State University and Yale University to study the health impacts of e-cigarettes and other nicotine delivery systems on youth and young adults.

22 Apr 2020

Antibiotics linked to increased risk of opioid abuse

Taking antibiotics alongside opioids may increase the risk of opioid abuse, according to research in rats recently published in eNeuro.

22 Apr 2020

Researchers identify biological mechanism in depressed individuals

University of Illinois at Chicago researchers report that in depressed individuals there are increased amounts of an unmodified structural protein, called tubulin, in lipid rafts - fatty sections of a cell membrane - compared with non-depressed individuals.

22 Apr 2020

PiCoVacc vaccine candidate for COVID-19 effective in animal trials

In a new study available on the bioRxiv preprint server, a group of researchers from China report on the pilot-scale production of a purified inactivated severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) virus vaccine candidate (PiCoVacc), shown to induce virus-specific neutralizing antibodies in rats, mice, and non-human primates.

21 Apr 2020

Air pollution, dementia, and cardiovascular disease

A new study published in March 2020 in the journal JAMA Neurology shows an association between air pollution and the development of dementia. However, the role played by cardiovascular disease (CVD) is yet to become apparent.

21 Apr 2020

Study receives $1 million to explore new approach to treating first responders with PTSD

A study co-led by researchers at McMaster and Western universities on a new approach to treating public safety personnel (PSP) with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is receiving close to $1 million in funding.

21 Apr 2020

Study finds how metabolism regulates sleep in worms

Can staying up late make you fat? A growing body of research has suggested that poor sleep quality is linked to an increased risk of obesity by deregulating appetite, which in turn leads to more calorie consumption.

21 Apr 2020

AI may help eliminate use of biopsy for brain cancer patients

Brain cancer patients in the coming years may not need to go under the knife to help doctors determine the best treatment for their tumors.

21 Apr 2020

CRISPR helps identify new protein potentially involved in Alzheimer’s disease

Experts at the University of Tokyo have identified a new protein in the pathway that leads to Alzheimer's disease. Researchers used the "molecular scissors" of CRISPR/Cas9 to search for new genes related to the neurodegenerative disease.

21 Apr 2020

Researchers use brain-computer interfaces technology to decode the brain’s mechanism

When people suffer debilitating injuries or illnesses of the nervous system, they sometimes lose the ability to perform tasks normally taken for granted, such as walking, playing music or driving a car. They can imagine doing something, but the injury might block that action from occurring.

21 Apr 2020

Experts identify new protein that leads to Alzheimer’s disease

Experts at the University of Tokyo have identified a new protein in the pathway that leads to Alzheimer's disease.

21 Apr 2020

Antibodies against Imood could be potential treatment for OCD

Mental health conditions such as obsessive compulsive disorder could be treated in a new way using drugs that target the immune system, research suggests.

21 Apr 2020

Research could help stabilize and improve brain-computer interfaces

Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have published research in Nature Biomedical Engineering that will drastically improve brain-computer interfaces and their ability to remain stabilized during use, greatly reducing or potentially eliminating the need to recalibrate these devices during or between experiments.

20 Apr 2020

University of Utah invests $1.3 million in multidisciplinary COVID-19 research projects

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to spread across the globe, University of Utah scientists are at the forefront of efforts to learn more about how to lasso the virus that causes it and understand its potential long-term social, economic, and psychological effects.

20 Apr 2020

Scientists delay onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in mice

A team of researchers led by scientists at the University of Toronto has delayed the onset of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis in mice.

20 Apr 2020

ACE2-TMPRSS2 profiling indicates tissue vulnerability to SARS-CoV-2 infection

A new study published in April 2020 on the preprint server bioRxiv reports that the different levels of susceptibility of various organs to viral attack by the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing the huge pandemic of COVID-19 sweeping around the world can be predicted from the level of expression of two molecules, the ACE2 receptor, and the TMPRSS2 protein.

20 Apr 2020

Scientists discover an earlier origin to human language pathway in the brain

Scientists have discovered an earlier origin to the human language pathway in the brain, pushing back its evolutionary origin by at least 20 million years.

20 Apr 2020

Using genome-wide CRISPR technology to identify leukemia's weakness

A team of researchers at University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center used CRISPR technology to identify key regulators of aggressive chronic myeloid leukemia, a type of cancer that remains difficult to treat and is marked by frequent relapse.

20 Apr 2020