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Every week, many scientific studies are published. Here is an overview of the most interesting.
Amyloid in the eyes may be an indicator of Alzheimer’s disease
The investigators of the Discovery of the University of California at San Diego (UCSD) that amyloid plaques in the retinas may be an indicator of amyloid plaques in the brain, which are associated with Alzheimer’s disease. The hope is that it will act as a visible biomarker to detect disease risk. Amyloid deposits in the eye often occur in patients clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers at the UCSD School of Medicine compared tests of retina and cerebral amyloid in patients in study A4 and another study, the longitudinal assessment of amyloid risk and neurodegeneration, assessing the risk neurodegeneration in people with low levels of amyloid. The research was published in Alzheimer’s and dementia.
“This was a small initial data set from the screening visit,” said Robert Rissman, lead author of the study and professor of neuroscience at UC San Diego School of Medicine and director of the Biomarker Core for the Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study and Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at UC San Diego. “It was about eight patients. But these results are encouraging because they suggest that it may be possible to determine the onset, spread, and morphology of AD – a preclinical diagnosis – using retinal imaging, rather than more difficult and expensive brain scans. We look forward to seeing the results of additional retinal scans and the impact of solanezumab (a monoclonal antibody) on retinal imaging. Unfortunately, we will have to wait and see and analyze this data when the A4 trial is finished.
Data to date, however, suggests that non-invasive retinal imaging could be useful as a biomarker to detect AD risk at an early stage. The next step will be to conduct a larger study to determine the relationship between retinal amyloid and cerebral amyloid.
Brain organoids with complex neuronal activity
Researchers from the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA developed organoids of the brain. These are 3D brain-like cell complexes grown from human stem cells. And in this case, they demonstrated organized activity similar to that found in living human brains. Organoids allow researchers to study how a person’s cells differ from the norm as well as to conduct experiments they cannot do in living humans. Once they created several brain organoids derived from the skin cells of healthy people, the scientists studied the patterns of electrical activity in them. One approach was to insert a probe into an organoid to measure brain activity. The other was studying how brain cells work under a microscope. They also developed brain organoids from cells of patients with Rett syndrome, a genetic disorder linked to learning delays, repetitive movements and seizures. The organoids appeared normal in their structure and organization, but their neural oscillations were abnormal.
Short-term distress signals from fat cells help protect the heart
The “obesity paradox” occurs when obese people appear to have better markers of cardiovascular disease in the short to medium term compared to thin people. However, they generally have poorer long-term results. Researchers from UT Southwestern Medical Center identified a stress signal created by fat but which allows heart tissue to protect itself. The metabolic stress of obesity slowly causes fat tissue to become dysfunctional, causing its mitochondria to shrink and die. Eventually, unhealthy fat is unable to store the lipids created by excess calories and poisons other organs via what is called lipotoxicity. Some organs, including the heart, produce a preventive defense to protect against lipotoxicity, but until now, it has not been known how the heart detects fat dysfunction. Fat cells, as they became more and more dysfunctional, sent out extracellular vesicles filled with small pieces of dying mitochondria. Some of them travel to the heart in the blood and trigger oxidative stress; heart cells respond by producing protective antioxidant molecules.
How high cholesterol fuels cancer
Researchers from Duke University Medical Center identified the mechanisms behind how chronic high cholesterol levels increase the risk of breast cancer and other cancers. Most cancer cells die when they metastasize, which is a stressful cellular process. But those who don’t die overcome the stress-induced dying mechanism, and it’s fueled by cholesterol. One of the complexities of the topic is that cancers fueled by the hormone estrogen have benefited from cholesterol derivatives that act like estrogen, which increased cancer growth. But estrogen-negative breast cancers don’t depend on estrogen, but high cholesterol has always been linked to more serious illness. In their study, they found that migrating cancer cells eat cholesterol in response to stress, and although most die, those that survive are better able to resist ferroptosis, a natural process where cells succumb to stress. These most capable survival cells then proliferate and metastasize.
Breast milk of mothers who received COVID-19 vaccine contains anti-disease antibodies
A study of the University of Florida found that the breast milk of mothers vaccinated against COVID-19 contains significant amounts of antibodies against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Newborns have an underdeveloped immune system. They usually have some protection against their mother’s illnesses, and breast milk offers some passive immunity. The study, which was conducted between December 2020 and March 2021, recruited 21 breastfeeding healthcare workers who had not contracted COVID-19. They drew their breast milk and blood three times, before the vaccination, after the first dose and after the second dose. They found a strong antibody response in blood and breast milk after the second dose, about a hundred times higher than the levels before vaccination. The research was published in the journal Breastfeeding medicine.
“Our results show that vaccination results in a significant increase in antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19 – in breast milk, suggesting that vaccinated mothers can pass this immunity to their babies. what we are working on. confirm in our ongoing research, ”said Joseph Larkin III, lead author of the study and associate professor in the UF / IFAS Department of Microbiology and Cell Science.
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