Synapse News and Research

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Study reveals how T cells analyze and react to the signals of infection at the immunological synapse

The immune system is highly complex. The cast of characters alone required to marshal an immune response to a foreign invader can number in the millions as the body's soldiers, T cells, are called into action.

20 Nov 2005

Lowering calorie intake may help Parkinson's disease

A new Oregon Health & Science University and Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center study suggests that early-stage Parkinson's disease patients who lower their calorie intake may boost levels of an essential brain chemical lost from the neurodegenerative disorder.

20 Nov 2005

Nerve-cell dendrites splice messenger RNA

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have discovered that nerve-cell dendrites have the capacity to splice messenger RNA (pre-mRNA), a process once believed to only take place in the nucleus of cells.

14 Nov 2005

Scientists find new mechanism by which brain cells can be damaged during chronic neurodegenerative diseases

Scientists at the University of Rochester Medical Center have targeted a new culprit and method of attack on neurologic functions in diseases such as Alzheimer's and dementia associated with HIV.

7 Nov 2005

Neuron finding could advance understanding of epilepsy and age-related memory loss

Neurons experience large-scale changes across their dendrites during learning, say neuroscientists at The University of Texas at Austin in a new study that highlights the important role that these cell regions may play in the processes of learning and memory.

3 Nov 2005

Rett syndrome discovery

The gene responsible for Rett syndrome, a devastating neurological disease found mostly in girls, not only silences some genes but in combination with another also regulates alternative splicing, crucial to the formation of proteins -- a finding that may explain the symptoms associated with this puzzling disorder and others related to it

17 Oct 2005

Astrocytes modulate adenosine - thought to be important in controlling wake-to-sleep transitions and epileptic seizures

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have demonstrated that star-shaped glial cells in the brain called astrocytes are directly involved in regulating communication between neurons.

10 Oct 2005

Study points to link to neurodegenerative disease target

A University of California - San Francisco (UCSF) study has found that a specific signaling link between neurons and muscles in the fruit fly is essential for keeping the insect's nervous system stable.

1 Sep 2005

Mouse model of Rett Syndrome displays reduced cortical activity

Sacha Nelson of Brandeis University in Waltham, MA and Rudolf Jaenisch of the Whitehead Institute of Biomedical Research in Cambridge, MA and their colleagues report online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Early Edition that spontaneous neuronal activity is reduced in the cortex of a knockout mouse model for the childhood neurodevelopmental disorder, Rett Syndrome.

23 Aug 2005

Researchers reveal secret of key protein in brain and heart function

Brown University biologists have solved the structure of a critical piece of synapse-associated protein 97 (SAP97) found in abundance in the heart and head, where it is believed to play a role in everything from cardiac contractions to memory creation. Results are published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

31 Jul 2005

Nerve cells can also release neurotransmitters outside of synapses

Every neurobiology textbook invariably states that nerve cells communicate with each other through synapses, the specialized cell-cell contacts found at the end of the cells' threadlike extensions. In the journal Science, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences and the University of California at San Diego report that nerve cells, or neurons, may not have to rely on traditionally defined synapses to "talk" to each other.

18 Jul 2005

Researchers gain better understanding of how nerves need to be reconnected after spinal cord injury

Nerve cells relay messages at blink-of-the-eye speeds by squirting chemicals called neurotransmitters across tiny gaps called synapses to awaiting message receptors. But lots of different receptors and neurotransmitters work simultaneously. Which goes where to send the proper message?

13 Jul 2005

Research moves us closer to understanding how complicated network connections are wired up during embryonic development

A newborn baby moves, breathes and cries in part because a network of nerves called motor neurons carry signals from the infant's brain and spinal cord to muscles throughout its body.

3 Jun 2005

Scientists develop a way to block the signals responsible for neuropathic pain

Remember how it felt the last time you burned your finger on a hot stove? Imagine what it's like to have that burning pain in your hands or feet all the time and know there's virtually nothing you can do about it.

1 Jun 2005

Suspect gene may increase susceptibility to anxiety and depression

People with the depression-linked gene variant showed less gray matter and weaker connections in the mood-regulating circuit. How well the circuit was connected accounted for nearly 30 percent of their anxious temperament

8 May 2005

Research suggests a central role for NMDA receptors in learning and memory

Learning and memory are processes that link experience with behavior and therefore play central roles in our daily experience. That there exists a physical basis for these processes seems at first hard to imagine--except for the fact that physical disruptions in the brain, such as stroke or disease, can make them go wrong.

11 Apr 2005

Ephrins may influence learning

A Burnham Institute study has found that one of the cell's largest families of signaling molecules, called ephrins, which are known to regulate the development of nerve cells, also controls nerve cells' ability to engulf critical chemicals and proteins for learning and memory.

11 Apr 2005

Researchers have identified the proteins that allow specific brain cells to "change channels"

Johns Hopkins researchers have identified the proteins that allow specific brain cells to "change channels," a rare ability that tweaks what can come into the cell. The findings, described in the March 24 issue of Neuron, might let researchers harness the process, perhaps one day using it to protect cells that die in Lou Gehrig's disease.

28 Mar 2005

Commonly used anesthetic regimen appears to have no negative effects on the developing brain of the fetus

An anesthetic regimen commonly used during surgery on pregnant mothers appears to have no negative effects on the developing brain of the fetus, according to a new study on sheep conducted by Duke University Medical Center researchers.

9 Mar 2005

Common anesthetics appear safe for developing fetal brain

A group of Dartmouth researchers has learned that the brain's auditory cortex, the part that handles information from your ears, holds on to musical memories.