Category Health/Medical

Glioblastoma (histology slide). Credit: Wikipedia/CC BY-SA 3.0

Blocking enzyme PRMT5 in tumor cells could be a promising new strategy for the treatment of glioblastoma (GB), the most aggressive and lethal form of brain cancer. The researchers show that knocking down PRMT5 (protein arginine methyltransferase 5) might force the cells into senescence and slow or stop tumor growth. PRMT5 regulates gene transcription and other cell processes by transferring methyl groups and modifying chromatin. Overexpression of the enzyme in GB is associated with more aggressive disease.

The researchers showed PRMT5 inhibits the activity of a major tumor-suppressor gene called PTEN...

Reconstruction of a single cell with all imaged orientation-tuned synapses overlaid onto the orientation preference map; the cell is indicated by a triangle and its synapses are indicated by circles — both are colored by their preferred orientation. Credit: Max Planck Florida Institute for Neuroscience

Study points to an active role for dendrites in cortical processing. The cerebral cortex is the largest and most complex area of the brain, with 20 billion neurons and 60 trillion synapses-a neuronal network whose proper function is critical for sensory perception, motor control, and cognition. The part of the cerebral cortex devoted to vision has played a key role in elucidating fundamental principles that are used by cortical circuits to encode information.

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Overweight adults spend more of their sleep in REM stage than healthy weight adults do. An individual’s body composition and caloric intake can influence time spent in specific sleep stages, according to results of a new study from Perelman School of Med at PennU that will be presented at SLEEP 2016, 30th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC.

In the study, 36 healthy adults experienced 2 consecutive nights of 10 hrs in bed per night at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.Polysomnography was recorded on the second night. Body composition and resting energy expenditure were assessed on the morning following the first night of sleep. Food/drink intake was measured each day.

The Penn team found that BMI, body fat percentage and resting energy expenditur...

Fibrils formed by the aggregation of the amyloid beta protein can be seen in these transmission electron microscope images, which show differences in fibril morphology between the normal protein (above) and an altered protein with one amino acid replaced by its mirror image. The altered protein also forms fibrils more slowly and is more toxic to cells. (Image credit: Warner et al., CEJ 2016)

Subtle change to amyloid beta protein affects its aggregation behavior, stabilizes an intermediate form with enhanced toxicity. Much of the research on Alzheimer’s disease has focused on the amyloid beta protein, which clumps together into sticky fibrils that form deposits in the brains of people with the disease...