This confocal image shows the mossy cell commissural projections (red) and neural stem cells (in green) in the adult mouse dentate gyrus region of the brain.
Credit: Song Lab, UNC School of Medicine

Scientists showed that ‘mossy cells’ in the hippocampus regulate local stem cells to control their production of new neurons, which is important for normal learning and memory, stress response, and mood regulation. Such neurogenesis in the adult brain is disrupted in many common conditions including Alzheimer’s disease, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, traumatic brain injury, and some forms of epilepsy.

Targeting mossy cells to reverse such disruption may therefore offer a new strategy for treating these conditions”The hope is we could manipulate even a small number of mossy cells to restore ...

The figure shows two views, frontal and lateral, of the image obtained by CT of the lungs of a mouse with fibrosis (grey areas) before and after receiving nano-therapy directed at senescent cells. Credit: Guillem Garaulet and Francisca Mulero, CNIO.

Scientists have designed a drug encapsulation system that selectively targets senescent cells. The study paves the way for therapeutic approaches to eliminate senescent cells in many diseases, such as pulmonary fibrosis and cancer.

Senescent cells are damaged cells that do not perform their normal roles anymore but that are not dead -hence they are commonly known as zombi cells. These cells interfere with the functioning of the tissue in which they accumulate...

A representation of two competing black hole models: lamp-post and extended. The black dot is the black hole, blue is its accretion disk, and red is the corona.
Credit: Fumiya Imazato, Hiroshima University

X-ray polarimetry resolves shape of matter around Cygnus X-1 black hole. In an international collaboration between Japan and Sweden, scientists clarified how gravity affects the shape of matter near the black hole in binary system Cygnus X-1. Their findings, which were published in Nature Astronomy this month, may help scientists further understand the physics of strong gravity and the evolution of black holes and galaxies.

Near the center of the constellation of Cygnus is a star orbiting the first black hole discovered in the universe...

Salmonella bacteria cause about 1.2 million illnesses a year, but a new Stanford study identified a molecule that offers natural protection against the pathogen.
Kateryna Kon/Shutterstock

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a molecule that serves as natural protection against one of the most common intestinal pathogens. Propionate, a byproduct of metabolism by a group of bacteria called the Bacteroides, inhibits the growth of Salmonella in the intestinal tract of mice, according to the researchers. The finding may help to explain why some people are better able to fight infection by Salmonella and other intestinal pathogens and lead to the development of better treatment strategies.

The researchers determined that propionate doesn’t trigger the immune r...