(Press-News.org) Parkinson's disease (PD) is well known as a debilitating disease that gradually worsens over time. Although the disease's progression has been largely tied to the loss of motor functions, non-motor symptoms, including the loss of cognitive abilities, often emerge early in the disease.
Much less understood is the role that specific neural circuits play in these distinct motor and non-motor functions.
A new study led by neurobiologists at the University of California San Diego and their colleagues found that specific, identifiable neural pathways are charged with particular functions during stages of the disease. Their findings, published recently in Nature Neuroscience, can help form the basis for improving therapeutic strategies for precise symptoms of Parkinson's at various levels of disease progression.
The researchers used a mix of approaches to shed more light on the anatomical and functional importance of a center of brain circuitry known as the basal ganglia, located deep in the cranium. Specifically, the researchers, working in mice, investigated circuit pathways tied to specific neurons in the external globus pallidus, or GPe, and their role in different Parkinson's disease-related behaviors. The GPe is known for its strong output and influence on several downstream brain regions.
The investigations included a multi-pronged approach using electrophysiology, viral tracing and behavioral experiments. The researchers identified two populations of GPe neurons and their distinctive pathways tied to different behavioral symptoms.
"Our work demonstrates that the distinct neural circuitries in the basal ganglia are differentially involved in the motor and non-motor symptoms of Parkinsonian-like behaviors that occur at different stages of the disease," said Lim, an associate professor in the Neurobiology Section of the Division of Biological Sciences at UC San Diego. "This suggests that evaluation of the detailed circuit mechanisms is needed to fully understand the changes in brain during the progression of PD, and could provide better therapeutic strategies for the treatment of PD."
Lim said the most surprising finding from the research was the fact that dopaminergic neurons, those that are gradually lost during Parkinson's disease progression, could be linked so specifically to changes in different brain areas.
"Selective manipulation of specific changes can rescue one type of symptom--without affecting other symptoms--of Parkinson's Disease," said Lim.
With the new framework in hand, Lim and his colleagues are now looking deeper at the circuit pathways and how they are tied to different disease symptom stages, in particular with an emphasis on delaying the progression of the disease.
"Our findings provide a novel framework for understanding the circuit basis of varying behavioral symptoms of the Parkinsonian state, which could provide better strategies for the treatment of PD," the researchers write in the paper.
INFORMATION:
The full author list includes: Varoth Lilascharoen (former graduate student), Eric Hou-Jen Wang (current graduate student), Nam Do, Stefan Carl Pate, Amanda Ngoc Tran, Christopher Dabin Yoon, Jun-Hyeok Choi, Xiao-Yun Wang, Horia Pribiag, Young-Gyun Park, Kwanghun Chung and Byungkook Lim.
Developing new materials and novel processes has continued to change the world. The M3I3 Initiative at KAIST has led to new insights into advancing materials development by implementing breakthroughs in materials imaging that have created a paradigm shift in the discovery of materials. The Initiative features the multiscale modeling and imaging of structure and property relationships and materials hierarchies combined with the latest material-processing data.
The research team led by Professor Seungbum Hong analyzed the materials research projects reported by leading global ...
Researchers at the Bloomberg~Kimmel Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center have developed DeepTCR, a software package that employs deep-learning algorithms to analyze T-cell receptor (TCR) sequencing data. T-cell receptors are found on the surface of immune T cells. These receptors bind to certain antigens, or proteins, found on abnormal cells, such as cancer cells and cells infected with a virus or bacteria, to guide the T cells to attack and destroy the affected cells.
"DeepTCR is an open-source software that ...
A research team led by Professor PAN Jianwei and Professor XU Feihu from University of Science and Technology of China achieved single-photon 3D imaging over 200 km using high-efficiency optical devices and a new noise-suppression technique, which is commented by the reviewer as an almost "heroic" attempt at single photon lidar imaging at very long distances.
Lidar imaging technology has enabled high precision 3D imaging of target scene in recent year. Single photon imaging lidar is an ideal technology for remote optical imaging with single-photon level sensitivity and picosecond resolution, yet its imaging range is strictly limited by the quadratically decreasing count of photons that echo back.
Researchers first optimized transceiver optics. The lidar system setup adopted ...
A new automated process prints a peptide-based hydrogel scaffold containing uniformly distributed cells. The scaffolds hold their shapes well and successfully facilitate cell growth that lasts for weeks.
"Bioprinting" -- 3D printing that incorporates living cells -- has the potential to revolutionize tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. Scientists have experimented with natural and synthetic "bioinks" to print out scaffolds that hold cells in place as they grow and form a tissue with a specific shape. But there are challenges with cell survival. Natural bioinks, such as gelatin and collagen, need to be treated with chemicals or ultraviolet light to hold their shape, which affects ...
A new analysis of the entire genetic makeup of more than 53,000 people offers a bonanza of valuable insights into heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders, paving the way for new and better ways to treat and prevent some of the most common causes of disability and death.
The analysis from the Trans-Omics for Precision Medicine (TOPMed) program examines the complete genomes of 53,831 people of diverse backgrounds on different continents. Most are from minority groups, which have been historically underrepresented in genetic studies. The increased representation should translate into better understanding of how heart, lung, blood and sleep disorders affect minorities and should help reduce longstanding health disparities.
"The Human Genome Project has generated ...
Researchers at Tel Aviv University were able to reconstruct the nutrition of stone age humans. In a paper published in the Yearbook of the American Physical Anthropology Association, Dr. Miki Ben-Dor and Prof. Ran Barkai of the Jacob M. Alkov Department of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, together with Raphael Sirtoli of Portugal, show that humans were an apex predator for about two million years. Only the extinction of larger animals (megafauna) in various parts of the world, and the decline of animal food sources toward the end of the stone age, led humans to gradually increase the vegetable element in their nutrition, until finally they had no choice but to domesticate both plants and animals - and became farmers.
"So far, attempts to reconstruct the diet of stone-age humans ...
WASHINGTON, April 5, 2021 -- Forever chemicals are known for being water-, heat- and oil-resistant, which makes them useful in everything from rain jackets to firefighting foams. But the chemistry that makes them so useful also makes them stick around in the environment and in us -- and that could be a bad thing: https://youtu.be/tqKEG5LxPiY.
INFORMATION:
Reactions is a video series produced by the American Chemical Society and PBS Digital Studios. Subscribe to Reactions at http://bit.ly/ACSReactions and follow us on Twitter @ACSReactions.
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS' mission is to advance the broader ...
CORVALLIS, Ore. - Researchers in the Oregon State University College of Science have taken a key step toward new drugs and vaccines for combating COVID-19 with a deep dive into one protein's interactions with SARS-CoV-2 genetic material.
The virus' nucleocapsid protein, or N protein, is a prime target for disease-fighting interventions because of the critical jobs it performs for the novel coronavirus' infection cycle and because it mutates at a comparatively slow pace. Drugs and vaccines built around the work of the N protein carry the potential to be highly effective and for longer periods of time - i.e., less susceptible to resistance.
Among the SARS-CoV-2 proteins, ...
Ishikawa, Japan - One of the most important classes of problems that all scientists and mathematicians aspire to solve, due to their relevance in both science and real life, are optimization problems. From esoteric computer science puzzles to the more realistic problems of vehicle routing, investment portfolio design, and digital marketing--at the heart of it all lies an optimization problem that needs to be solved.
An appealing technique often used in solving such problems is the technique of "quantum annealing", a framework that tackles optimization problems by using "quantum tunneling"--a quantum physical phenomenon--to pick out an optimum solution out of several candidate solutions. ...
INDIANAPOLIS -- The high incidence of COVID-19 and resulting sudden changes in the health of many long-stay nursing home residents across the country have amplified the importance of advance care planning and the need for periodic review of the process, especially as widespread vaccination changes the calculus of the disease.
Two new studies from Indiana University and Regenstrief Institute focus on POLST, a medical order form widely used in nursing homes that documents what life-sustaining treatments a person prefers to receive or not receive, such as hospitalization or comfort-focused care. The studies, published online ...
