Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
Toggle light / dark theme

Blog

Category: biotech/medical

Brain’s addiction circuit identified!

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) of our brain can properly perform its “braking” function to suppress impulses when excitatory and inhibitory signals are in balance. To investigate how chronic drug exposure disrupts this balance, the research team conducted cocaine administration experiments on mice. During this process, they tracked when inhibitory neurons in the PFC were activated and how they sent signals to downstream brain regions.

The experimental results showed that parvalbumin (PV) cells, which account for about 60–70% of the inhibitory neurons in the PFC, were highly active when the mice attempted to seek cocaine. However, when “extinction training”—training to stop seeking the drug—was conducted, the activity of these cells significantly decreased. This demonstrates that the activity patterns of PV cells are not permanently fixed by addiction but can be readjusted through the extinction process.

The research team confirmed that artificially suppressing PV cell activity significantly reduced cocaine-seeking behavior in mice. Conversely, activating these cells caused the drug-seeking behavior to persist even after the extinction process. This effect was specifically observed in drug-addiction behavior and did not appear with general rewards like sugar water. Furthermore, this phenomenon was not observed in somatostatin (SOM) cells—another type of inhibitory neuron—indicating that PV cells selectively regulate drug addiction behavior.

The team also identified the specific brain circuit through which these PV cells operate. Signals originating from the prefrontal cortex are transmitted to the reward circuit of the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA), a key brain region related to reward. This pathway emerged as the central channel for regulating addiction behavior, determining whether or not to seek the drug again. In this process, PV neurons act as a “regulatory switch,” controlling the flow of signals to influence dopamine signaling and deciding whether to maintain or suppress addictive behavior. ScienceMission sciencenewshighlights.

Drug addiction carries an extremely high risk of relapse, as cravings can be reignited by minor stimuli even long after one has stopped using. Previously, this phenomenon was attributed to a decline in the function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which regulates impulses. However, a joint international research team has recently revealed that the cause of addiction relapse is not a simple decline in brain function, but rather an imbalance in specific neural circuits.

The researchers have identified the core principle by which specific inhibitory neurons in the prefrontal cortex regulate cocaine-seeking behavior.

Continue reading “Brain’s addiction circuit identified!” | >

Cytosolic DNA structures produced by mismatch repair deficiency coordinate anti-tumor immunity in colorectal cancer

Mosley et al. investigate the role of cytosolic DNA structure in activation of cGAS/STING by MSI colorectal cancers. They find MSI cytosolic DNA is enriched in G-quadruplexes, leading to more effective cGAS/STING activation. Micronuclei are less effective at activating cytotoxic T cells through cGAS/STING but increase IL-10 and Treg activation.

Insulin and adipocyte IRF4 promote fat retention over muscle preservation during intermittent fasting in obesity

Marko et al. show that elevated insulin in obese mice suppresses adipocyte IRF4, which governs fat versus muscle preservation during 5:2 intermittent fasting (IF) with or without caloric restriction. During an acute fast in humans, obesity and elevated insulin promoted lean mass loss in males but not females.

Important for the prevention and management of mineral and bone disorders from chronic electrolyte imbalance👇

https://doi.org/10.1172/jci.insight.

Robert A. Fenton & team show that a diet low in potassium causes bone loss in mice, effects that are attributable to altered calcium absorption by the kidney.

The figure shows deep learning instance segmentation model to identify kidney tubules and indicates low dietary K+ intake alters the abundance of the calcium-sensing receptor.

1Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Austria.

2Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.

3Department of Medicine, Division of Nephrology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA.

Continue reading “Important for the prevention and management of mineral and bone disorders from chronic electrolyte imbalance👇” | >

Newly Discovered Protein Could Rewrite How Scientists Treat High Cholesterol

UT Southwestern discovery could lead to a novel approach for treating heart disease and fatty liver disease. Two researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have discovered a protein that helps regulate how the liver releases cholesterol-carrying particles into the bloodstream. The finding coul

Potential Risks of Blocking GDF15‐Based Brain Energy Sensing

GDF15 signals energetic stress to the brain, leading to unpleasant symptoms as the body conserves and reallocates energy. In conditions such as frailty and cancer, suppression of GDF15 signaling is expected to lead to an improvement in symptoms, but potentially at the cost of long-term health and survival.

MRAP2 potentiates GPCR signaling by conserved mechanisms that are disrupted by obesity-associated genetic variants

Jamaluddin et al. investigated how the MRAP2 accessory protein enhances signaling by three appetite-regulating GPCRs. MRAP2 disrupts GPCR oligomerization to form interactions, and its cytoplasmic region is essential for signaling. MRAP2 variants modulate receptor constitutive activity, enhance internalization, and reduce signaling, contributing to weight gain and hyperglycemia observed in humans.

Researchers uncover gut-liver serotonin pathway that limits nanoparticle and viral delivery

A new study has for the first time elucidated the gut-liver immune regulatory axis jointly maintained by intestinal commensal bacteria and the intestinal endocrine system, and uncovered the fundamental mechanism underlying the body’s nonspecific clearance of drug delivery carriers. It provides a universal solution to the core problem plaguing the delivery field for decades, significantly improves the delivery efficiency and therapeutic effect of tumor-targeted therapy, mRNA therapy, gene editing and other treatments, and blazes a new trail for the clinical translation of biomedical delivery technologies.

The research team led by Professors Wang Yucai, Zhu Shu and Jiang Wei from the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) published their research paper titled “Commensal-driven serotonin production modulates in vivo delivery of synthetic and viral vectors” in Science on March 19.

Cullin–RING receptors in rare disease biology

The researchers present the first integrative catalogue of 267 cullin–RING substrate receptors, of which 93 are linked to germline disorders.

The most frequent substrate receptor (SR)-related diseases are neurodevelopmental, neuromuscular, and congenital organ/skeletal syndromes.

Disease associations are shaped by substrate context rather than tissue enriched expression.

Pathogenicity arises through altered degron recognition, disrupted complex assembly, dosage imbalance, or ubiquitin–proteasome system-independent functions.

Distinct variants in the same SR can yield divergent phenotypes, reflecting dosage sensitivity and developmental context.

Patient alleles inform diagnosis and therapeutic strategies, positioning SRs as central nodes connecting proteostasis, rare-disease genetics, and targeted protein degradation. sciencenewshighlights ScienceMission https://sciencemission.com/Cullin%E2%80%93RING-receptors

Continue reading “Cullin–RING receptors in rare disease biology” | >

AI-powered imaging tracks wound healing under the skin in real time

No matter the size or severity, wounds on human skin are difficult to monitor while they heal. Biopsies disrupt the wound site and are too invasive for routine, repeated monitoring, and most medical imaging devices that could do the job are large, expensive, and booked up with more pressing diagnostics. Clinicians typically resort to visual inspection or quick measurements of the wound’s size over time.

Based on research completed as part of a multi-year collaboration with Nokia Bell Labs, biomedical engineers at Duke University are developing a solution. Using a custom-built optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging system together with artificial intelligence (AI) models grounded in a deep understanding of tissue regeneration, researchers have shown they can accurately and objectively measure the progress of wounds healing over time.

Using their new approach, the researchers also show that a hydrogel under development to improve wound healing works better with stiffer mechanical properties. The results are a two-for-one boon in a challenging area for both clinicians and researchers.

/* */