Stem-cell therapies might be a hit in Japan
A group of US scientists has injected induced pluripotent stem cells, which are capable of becoming any cell in the body, into patients with Parkinson’s disease. The stem cells were injected to 18 sites across the putamen in both hemispheres, “to roughly fill up that region of the brain”. The stem cells have survived and are safe one year after surgery.
Alzheimer’s treatment can be used in the future
Scientists have found that brain tissue of people with Alzheimer’s disease, which had bulging lysosomes spilling waste into the brain, was made to contain shorter amounts of amyloid- plaques. Researchers said this might help reduce the risk of getting Alzheimer’s by changing the balance between short and longer strings of amyloid- plaques. Alzheimer’s is a neurodegenerative disease that causes memory loss.
A human brain map of respiratory capacity
A study has shown the human brain’s mitochondrial capacity and diversity. Researchers used a tool usually used for woodwork to create 703 cubes from the brain of a 54-year-old donor who died of a heart attack. The brain’s mitochondrial capacity and diversity were compared with standard 3D images of the brain. The brain accounts for 20% of the human body’s energy usage.
The bird brains help scientists with their research
Researchers have found that a human speech-sensing brain region, the frontal cortex, is active during the production of diverse social communication calls in marmoset monkeys. They also discovered that this activity is mediated by the parietal circuit in the frontal cortex, an area of the brain that is not well known for its role in social communication.
The largest brain map shows fruit fly’s neurons in detail
A study has found that neurological neurons enter the brain through left or right nerve. Researchers who analysed 200 neuronal data from an experiment described it as ‘left–right co-clustering’. The researchers identified more types of neuron than they had expected. To assign cell types to the remaining neurons, they ran a double-hemisphere co-clustering.