Category Health/Medical

A rat enjoys some chocolatey liquid. Ellen Ambrose, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Johns Hopkins neuroscientists believe they have figured out how some mammals’ brains—in this case, rats—solve navigational problems. If there’s a “reward” at the end of the trip, like the chocolatey drink used in their study, specialized neurons in the hippocampus of the brain “replay” the route taken to get it, but backward. And the greater the reward, the more often the rats’ brains replay it. The finding suggests both the presence and magnitude of rewards influence how and how well the hippocampus forms memories.

“We’ve long known that the brains of awake animals have these replay events when they pause in their travels...

Figure 1． Molecular mechanism of Target-AID

Kobe University researchers have succeeded in developing ‘Target-AID’, a genome editing technique that does not cleave the DNA. The technique offers, through high-level editing operation, a method to address the existing issues of genome editing. It is expected that the technique will be applied to gene therapy in the future in addition to providing a powerful tool for breeding useful organisms and conducting disease and drug-discovery research.

Genome editing – which can directly manipulate the genome information of various organisms without leaving an artificial strand – has seen rapid progress in recent years and it is gradually becoming a revolutionary tool in fields ranging from life sciences to advanced medical research...

GRK2 interaction with DOR, not kinase activity, desensitizes the receptor at the plasma membrane in
peripheral pain-sensing neurons. Priming by inflammatory mediator BK induces PKC-dependent RKIP sequestration of
GRK2 to the cytosol, enhancing DOR responsiveness. Knock down of GRK2 enhances peripheral DOR-mediated
analgesia in vivo.

Opioid abuse is a growing public health crisis, affecting up to 36 million people worldwide. Many of these individuals first get hooked on prescription painkillers that target mu opioid receptors in the brain. A study in rats published August 25 in Cell Reports suggests that a different approach that targets delta opioid receptors on sensory neurons in peripheral tissues might avoid side effects and high abuse potential of currently available pain relievers.

In this study, Drago and Davis show that inhibition of mitochondrial calcium entry in Drosophila mushroom body neurons during development impairs fly memory without altering their capacity to learn. In addition, they show associated defects in the structure and synaptic vesicle content of mushroom body neurons.

TSRI Scientists offer new insights how calcium in mitochondria can impact the development of the brain and adult cognition. In particular, the team showed in fruit flies, a widely used model system, that blocking a channel that brings calcium to the mitochondria, called “mitochondrial calcium uniporter,” causes memory impairment but does not alter learning capacity...