Category Health/Medical

The immune system’s white blood cells, which are produced in the bone marrow, mostly help to defend against bacteria and injury, but sometimes they can turn against the body—for example, in cardiovascular disease, their inflammatory aggression can harm arteries and the heart. New research in Nature Immunology that was led by investigators at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) provides insights into the pathways that increase or decrease the bone marrow’s output of these cells. The findings may lead to new treatments for conditions that arise when the balance of white blood cell production goes awry.

Senior author Matthias Nahrendorf, MD, Ph.D...

Deleting the TRPM2 protein from macrophages reduced atherosclerosis in mice. Macrophages travel through our arteries, gobbling fat. But fat-filled macrophages can narrow blood vessels and cause heart disease. Now, UConn Health researchers describe in Nature Cardiovascular Research how deleting a protein could prevent this and potentially prevent heart attacks and strokes in humans.

Macrophages are large white blood cells that cruise through our body as a kind of clean-up crew, clearing hazardous debris. But in people with atherosclerosis – fatty deposits and inflammation in their blood vessels – macrophages can cause trouble...

New research has discovered how the enteric nervous system — or ‘second brain’ — can communicate with both the brain and spinal cord, which up until now had remained a major mystery. The study found specialized cells within the gut wall release serotonin when stimulated by food, which then acts on the nerves to communicate with the brain. The authors say as there is a direct connection between serotonin levels in our body and depression and how we feel, understanding how the gut communicates with the brain is of major importance.

How the ‘second brain’ — the enteric nervous system in our gut — communicates with our first brain has been one of the most challenging questions faced by enteric neuroscientists, until now.

New research from Flinders University has discovered how speci...

A University of Iowa neuroscience research team has identified a fundamental biochemical mechanism underlying memory storage and has linked this mechanism to cognitive deficits in mouse models of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias.

While working to understand how memories are formed and stored in the brain, the team identified a novel protein folding mechanism in the endoplasmic reticulum that is essential for long term memory storage. They further demonstrated that this mechanism is impaired in a tau-based mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease and that restoring this protein folding mechanism reverses memory impairment in this mouse model for the study of dementia...