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Category: neuroscience – Page 22
A new reagent makes living brains transparent for deeper, non-invasive imaging
Making a living brain transparent and watching its neurons fire without disturbing their function—sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it? Yet the solution may already exist within our own bodies. In a paper published in Nature Methods, a research team led by Kyushu University introduces a new reagent called SeeDB-Live.
SeeDB-Live uses albumin—a common protein in blood serum—to clear tissue while preserving cellular function. The technique allows scientists to see deeper, brighter structures in both brain slices in a dish and living mice, achieving neural activity that was previously out of sight.
“This is the first time tissue clearing has been achieved without altering its biology,” says Takeshi Imai, professor at Kyushu University’s Faculty of Medical Sciences and the study’s senior author.
Plasma Phosphorylated Tau 217 and Incident MCI and Dementia in Older Women
In this cohort study of cognitively unimpaired older women, p-tau217 was associated with incident MCI or dementia up to 25 years later.
This cohort study examines associations of baseline plasma phosphorylated tau 217 with incident mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia and whether associations vary by age, race, APOE ε4 carrier status, or hormone therapy use among older men and women.
Open 3D Human Organ Atlas lets users explore anatomy in unprecedented detail
An international team of scientists and clinicians has announced the launch of a new open-access 3D portal that allows users to explore intact human organs in unprecedented detail—from the whole organ down to individual cells locally. The Human Organ Atlas, created using a powerful synchrotron imaging method, brings together some of the most detailed 3D images of human organs ever produced. It enables scientists, doctors, educators, students and the wider public to interactively “fly through” organs such as the brain, heart, lungs, kidney and liver, providing a new way of understanding human anatomy and human diseases.
Building on an initial release, the Human Organ Atlas (HOA) is now available in a greatly expanded form and can be accessed directly through a standard web browser, without specialized software. The technology is published in the journal Science Advances.
The Atlas is powered by an advanced imaging method called Hierarchical Phase-Contrast Tomography (HiP-CT), developed at the European Synchrotron (ESRF) in Grenoble, France, by an international team led by University College London (UCL), UK. HiP-CT uses the ESRF’s Extremely Brilliant Source—a new generation of synchrotron source—which is up to 100 billion times brighter than conventional hospital CT scanners.
Dendrite-Targeting Inhibitory Interneurons Form Biased Circuits with Deep and Superficial Pyramidal Cells in Hippocampal CA1
JNeurosci: Johantges et al. used mice to study excitatory and inhibitory synaptic connections in the CA1 region, creating a circuit map with cell-type resolution that will guide future research on how the hippocampus supports learning and memory.
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In the CA1 hippocampus, pyramidal cells (PCs) can be classified as deep or superficial based on their radial position within the stratum pyramidale. Deep and superficial PCs form biased circuits with perisomatic-targeting PV+ basket cells, but it is unknown if such cell-type–specific circuit motifs extend to dendrite-targeting interneurons. Using male and female mice, we investigated synaptic connectivity and physiology in brain slices from four transgenic lines thought to capture distinct subsets of interneurons: SST-IRES-Cre, Nkx2.1-Cre, Chrna2-Cre, and Htr3a-GFP. First, we found that oriens-lacunosum moleculare (OLM) cells captured by the Chrna2-Cre line are a subset of Htr3a-GFP+ cells in the hippocampus. This novel finding is consistent with previous work showing Nkx2.1-Cre OLM cells are distinct from both Chrna2-Cre and Htr3a-GFP+ OLM cells.
Clinical Reasoning: A 49-Year-Old Man With Meningoencephalitis and Persistent Altered Mental Status
Cannabis use is common among those with mental health conditions, and many people report using cannabis to manage mental health symptoms.
It is important for clinicians to understand the lack of clear benefits of cannabis for mental health conditions and the potential for substantial adverse effects.
📌 This Review summarizes the current evidence on the effects of cannabis on commonly encountered mental health conditions and provides clinicians with basic information about cannabis pharmacology and biology.