Category Health/Medical

Defensins, anti-microbial molecules essential to maintain healthy gut flora

Extra vitamin D can restore good bacteria in the gut, according to a study in mice, giving hope in the fight against risk factors for diabetes and heart disease. It is well known that a diet high in fat can trigger a metabolic syndrome, a group of symptoms that pose as risk factors for diabetes and heart disease. Scientists have now found vitamin D deficiency is necessary for this syndrome to progress in mice, with disturbances in gut bacteria.

If these findings can be validated in humans, sun bathing and vitamin D supplements may be feasible and affordable approaches to improve or even prevent metabolic syndrome...

High molecular weight tau bands (about 80kDa) can be appreciated, with greater immunoreactivity in patients with AD compared with healthy subjects. Credit: Dr. Ricardo B. Maccioni

Drs Maccioni and Farías have pioneered the technology that detects in human blood platelets the pathological oligomeric forms of brain tau protein in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and other neurodegenerative disorders. More importantly, the ratio between this anomalous tau and the normal tau protein can discriminate AD patients from normal controls, and are associated with decreased cognitive impairment. These studies open a new avenue in the development of highly sensitive and efficient biomarkers for neurodegenerative disorders...

Spinster homolog 1 (Drosophila) SPNS1

In a new study, TSRI, Florida scientists have shown how 2 genes “balance” each other to maintain normal cell function. A disruption in one of the genes, called spns1, can induce degradation and premature “senescence” – or aging – while the other gene, called atp6v0ca, can jump in to suppress that degradation. Their experiments in zebrafish suggest that these combined genetic disruptions can counteract premature aging and extend developmental lifespan.

“We found that the dual defects did indeed counteract senescence during development and extended the animal’s survival and life span,” said TSRI Associate Professor Shuji Kishi...

View of synapses in the amygdala of a mouse, obtained using a confocal microscope. mGlu4 receptors in red, and mGlu1a receptors in green. The white bar bottom right corresponds to 5 ?m. Credit: Zussy et al., 2016

Pain serves as a valuable warning signal, but when it becomes chronic, pain should be considered as a real disease. An international team including research scientists from the CNRS and INSERM has identified and controlled one of the centers associated with chronic pain. This work, published on 20 December 2016 in Molecular Psychiatry, made it possible to relieve the symptoms in mice and demonstrated the ability of the brain to remedy this problem.

While around 20% of the European population has experienced episodes of chronic pain, treatments are only effective in fewer than half...