PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

UC Irvine research team identifies glycosylation enzyme critical in brain formation

Findings may contribute to new therapeutic uses for neural stem cells

2023-05-16
(Press-News.org) Irvine, Calif., May 16, 2023 — The MGAT5 glycosylation enzyme plays a crucial role in brain development, according to a study by University of California, Irvine researchers, a discovery that may contribute to new therapeutic purposes for neural stem cells.

Neurons, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes are the final mature cells of the brain and spinal cord formed by neural stem cells. Each has distinct and key functions. Neurons transmit signals, astrocytes help modify those signals, and oligodendrocytes keep the signals from degrading. When any cells make proteins or fats that end up on the cell surface, they often add small sugar molecules. The team tested whether this internal process – called glycosylation – affects how neural stem cells form mature brain cells.

The study, published in the journal Stem Cell Reports, found that during glycosylation, the MGAT5 enzyme significantly regulates the formation of neurons and astrocytes from neural stem cells. Neural stem cells that don’t have MGAT5 make more neurons and fewer astrocytes during the very early stages of brain development, altering its structure. These changes may contribute to later aberrant behavior patterns, including abnormal social interactions and repetitive actions.

“Now that we know MGAT5 and glycosylation have a substantial impact on neuron and astrocyte formation, we have a better idea of how our nervous system develops,” said corresponding author Lisa Flanagan, professor of neurology in UCI’s School of Medicine. “We hope these findings will contribute to the use of neural stem cells for therapeutic purposes by providing new information about the factors regulating these cells.”

It was known that neural stem cells respond to the external signals they encounter during development. But it was not known whether neural stem cells could modify their responses to those signals. The team analyzed the role of glycosylation enzymes in brain maturation by comparing control mice to those whose neural stem cells did not have the MGAT5 enzyme. It found that neural stem cells use glycosylation to manage their reactions to external signals and regulate the development of mature brain cells.

“As we continue our work, we hope to determine which cell surface proteins and pathways controlled by glycosylation are critical for neuron and astrocyte formation,” Flanagan said. “This will give us better insight into the external signals significantly modified by neural stem cell glycosylation, which will, in turn, help to decode the complex processes that occur during brain development and expand the therapeutic usefulness of neural stem cells.”

The team included researchers from the School of Medicine’s departments of anatomy & neurobiology, neurology, and pathology & laboratory medicine as well as The Henry Samueli School of Engineering’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Sue & Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center.

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under awards IOS-2019400 and IOS-1254060; by the National Institutes of Health under award T32 NS082174; and by a Brython Davis Fellowship.

About the University of California, Irvine: Founded in 1965, UCI is a member of the prestigious Association of American Universities and is ranked among the nation’s top 10 public universities by U.S. News & World Report. The campus has produced five Nobel laureates and is known for its academic achievement, premier research, innovation and anteater mascot. Led by Chancellor Howard Gillman, UCI has more than 36,000 students and offers 224 degree programs. It’s located in one of the world’s safest and most economically vibrant communities and is Orange County’s second-largest employer, contributing $7 billion annually to the local economy and $8 billion statewide. For more on UCI, visit www.uci.edu.

Media access: Radio programs/stations may, for a fee, use an on-campus ISDN line to interview UCI faculty and experts, subject to availability and university approval. For more UCI news, visit news.uci.edu. Additional resources for journalists may be found at communications.uci.edu/for-journalists.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Insight into brain’s waste clearing system may shed light on brain diseases

Insight into brain’s waste clearing system may shed light on brain diseases
2023-05-16
Like the lymphatic system in the body, the glymphatic system in the brain clears metabolic waste and distributes nutrients and other important compounds. Impairments in this system may contribute to brain diseases, such as neurodegenerative diseases and stroke. A team of researchers in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University in St. Louis has found a noninvasive and nonpharmaceutical method to influence glymphatic transport using focused ultrasound, opening the opportunity to use the method to further study brain diseases and brain function. Results of the work are published in the Proceedings ...

Dr. David Simon wins Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research Studying Melanoma

Dr. David Simon wins Pershing Square Sohn Prize for Young Investigators in Cancer Research Studying Melanoma
2023-05-16
The prize, now in its 10th year, is given annually to at least six early-career scientists based in the New York City area by The Pershing Square Sohn Cancer Research Alliance. Prizes are awarded to scientists who are pursuing innovative cancer research and taking risks that might preclude them from traditional funding. Winners receive $250,000 a year for up to three years and access to networking opportunities and an annual retreat with past winners. For Dr. Simon, the prize will allow him to apply his knowledge as a neuroscientist to cancer research. “I'm not a traditional cancer biologist,” said Dr. ...

Saturated fatty acids promote immune escape of oral cancers

2023-05-16
A team from the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and School of Dentistry, led by Yu Leo Lei, D.D.S., Ph.D., have identified a mechanism in mice for how obesity affects some oral cancers’ ability to escape from the immune system. This study, published in Cell Reports, found that obesity helps to establish a type of tumor microenvironment that promotes tumor progression. How exactly this happens lies in the relationship between the saturated fatty acids, the STING-type-I interferon pathway, and NLRC3. “We tend to think about the increased risks for gastrointestinal tumors, breast cancer, pancreatic cancer, and ovarian cancer when it comes to obesity,” ...

When does the gender gap start in the computer science field?

2023-05-16
If you are a third grader, your chances of growing up to be a computer scientist is likely to heavily depend on your gender — a situation Allison Master says is just plain wrong. How can Master be certain? Because third grade girls are telling her so. “Our new research addresses a big, longstanding issue in STEM education, that women are highly under-represented in fields like computer science. It’s actually one of the most challenging fields for women’s representation. Only about 20% of people who major in computer science are women,” said Master, assistant professor ...

You’ve got some nerve

You’ve got some nerve
2023-05-16
Researchers at the University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center and the School of Dentistry identified a new metric to articulate the relationship between nerve density and oral cancer. The study, published in Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research, investigated normalized nerve density to translate previous mechanistic studies into a context that could be used in the clinic. “We are recognizing more and more that there's a very dynamic interaction between nerves and cancer cells in the tumor microenvironment,” said Nisha D’Silva, B.D.S., M.S.D, Ph.D., Donald Kerr Endowed Collegiate ...

National study recommends starting SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccination three months after bone marrow transplant

2023-05-16
SEATTLE – (May 16, 2023) – Patients with cancer whose immune systems are being supported or rebuilt by bone marrow transplantation should begin receiving vaccines for protection against SARS-CoV-2 three months post-transplant, according to a large, prospective, observational study led collaboratively by the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research, the Blood & Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center. The research, involving 22 cancer centers and research institutions in the United States and focusing on mRNA-based vaccines, published in The Lancet journal ...

As patients wait for imaging results, WVU research links delays with how online radiologists get paid

As patients wait for imaging results, WVU research links delays with how online radiologists get paid
2023-05-16
Online workflow systems for off-site radiologists are one reason for health care delays that cost hospitals money and test the patience of patients, according to West Virginia University research. Bernardo Quiroga, associate professor of supply chain management at the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics, and his coauthors analyzed a radiology workflow platform, used by thousands of U.S. hospitals, which allows radiologists working from home to log in, view a pool of tasks such as X-rays or CT and MRI scans that are available for processing, and choose which of those radiological studies to read and report on. The radiologists’ ...

Are college students with religious tattoos more religious? Yes and no

2023-05-16
Contact: Shelby Cefaratti-Bertin, Baylor University Media & Public Relations, 254-327-8012 Follow us on Twitter: @BaylorUMedi WACO, Texas (May 15, 2023) – For most of U.S. history, tattoos have been associated with sailors and bikers, but not church-going people. As tattoos have become more popular, with nearly one-third of U.S. adults sporting at least one tattoo, religious-themed tattoos have also increased. A recent study examined the behaviors of college students with tattoos, including religious tattoos. Jerome R. Koch, Ph.D., professor of sociology at Texas Tech University, and Kevin D. Dougherty, Ph.D., professor of sociology at ...

Neglected 80-year-old antibiotic is effective against multi-drug resistant bacteria

Neglected 80-year-old antibiotic is effective against multi-drug resistant bacteria
2023-05-16
An old antibiotic may provide much-needed protection against multi-drug resistant bacterial infections, according to a new study publishing May 16th in the open access journal PLOS Biology by James Kirby of Harvard Medical School, US, and colleagues. The finding may offer a new way to fight difficult-to-treat and potentially lethal infections. Nourseothricin is a natural product made by a soil fungus, which contains multiple forms of a complex molecule called streptothricin. Its discovery in the 1940s generated high hopes ...

A potential new weapon in the war against superbugs

2023-05-16
“The end of modern medicine as we know it.” That’s how the then-director general of the World Health Organization characterized the creeping problem of antimicrobial resistance in 2012. Antimicrobial resistance is the tendency of bacteria, fungus and other disease-causing microbes to evolve strategies to evade the medications humans have discovered and developed to fight them. The evolution of these so-called “super bugs” is an inevitable natural phenomenon, accelerated by misuse of existing drugs and intensified by the lack of new ones in the development ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Toxic metals linked to impaired growth in infants in Guatemala

Being consistently physically active in adulthood linked to 30–40% lower risk of death

Nerve pain drug gabapentin linked to increased dementia, cognitive impairment risks

Children’s social care involvement common to nearly third of UK mums who died during perinatal period

‘Support, not judgement’: Study explores links between children’s social care involvement and maternal deaths

Ethnic minority and poorer children more likely to die in intensive care

Major progress in fertility preservation after treatment for cancer of the lymphatic system

Fewer complications after additional ultrasound in pregnant women who feel less fetal movement

Environmental impact of common pesticides seriously underestimated

The Milky Way could be teeming with more satellite galaxies than previously thought

New study reveals surprising reproductive secrets of a cricket-hunting parasitoid fly

Media Tip Sheet: Symposia at ESA2025

NSF CAREER Award will power UVA engineer’s research to improve drug purification

Tiny parasitoid flies show how early-life competition shapes adult success

New coating for glass promises energy-saving windows

Green spaces boost children’s cognitive skills and strengthen family well-being

Ancient trees dying faster than expected in Eastern Oregon

Study findings help hone precision of proven CVD risk tool

Most patients with advanced melanoma who received pre-surgical immunotherapy remain alive and disease free four years later

Introducing BioEmu: A generative AI Model that enables high-speed and accurate prediction of protein structural ensembles

Replacing mutated microglia with healthy microglia halts progression of genetic neurological disease in mice and humans

New research shows how tropical plants manage rival insect tenants by giving them separate ‘flats’

Condo-style living helps keep the peace inside these ant plants

Climate change action could dramatically limit rising UK heatwave deaths

Annual heat-related deaths projected to increase significantly due to climate and population change

Researchers discover new way cells protect themselves from damage

Rivers choose their path based on erosion — a discovery that could transform flood planning and restoration

New discovery reveals dopamine operates with surgical precision, not as a broad signal

New AI tool gives a helping hand to x ray diagnosis

New Leicester study reveals hidden heart risks in women with Type 2 Diabetes

[Press-News.org] UC Irvine research team identifies glycosylation enzyme critical in brain formation
Findings may contribute to new therapeutic uses for neural stem cells