Katarina Zimmer Several recent studies in high-profile journals reported to have genetically engineered neurons to become responsive to magnetic fields. In doing so, the authors could remotely control the activity of particular neurons in the brain, and even animal behavior—promising huge advances in neuroscientific research and speculation for applications even in medicine. “We envision a new age of magnetogenetics is coming,” one 2015 study read. But now, two independent teams of scientists bring those results into question. In studies recently posted as preprints to bioRxiv, the researchers couldn’t replicate those earlier findings. “Both studies . . . appear quite meticulously executed from a biological standpoint—multiple tests were performed across multiple biological testbeds,” writes Polina Anikeeva, a materials and cognitive scientist at MIT, to The Scientist in an email. “I applaud the authors for investing their valuable time and resources into trying to reproduce the results of their colleagues.” The promise of magnetogenetics Being able to use small-scale magnetic fields to control cells or entire organisms would have enormous potential for research and medical therapies. It would be a less invasive method than optogenetics, which requires the insertion of optical fibers to transmit light pulses to specific groups of neurons, and would provide a more rapid means of inducing neural activity than chemogenetics, which sparks biochemical reactions that can take several seconds to stimulate neurons. © 1986–2019 The Scientist

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Brain imaging
Link ID: 26642 - Posted: 09.24.2019

Alex Smith Lori Pinkley, a 50-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., has struggled with puzzling chronic pain since she was 15. She's had endless disappointing visits with doctors. Some said they couldn't help her. Others diagnosed her with everything from fibromyalgia to lipedema to the rare Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Pinkley has taken opioids a few times after surgeries but says they never helped her underlying pain. "I hate opioids with a passion," Pinkley says. "An absolute passion." Recently, she joined a growing group of patients using an outside-the-box remedy: naltrexone. It is usually used to treat addiction, in a pill form for alcohol and as a pill or a monthly shot for opioids. As the medical establishment tries to do a huge U-turn after two disastrous decades of pushing long-term opioid use for chronic pain, scientists have been struggling to develop safe, effective alternatives. When naltrexone is used to treat addiction in pill form, it's prescribed at 50 mg, but chronic-pain patients say it helps their pain at doses of less than a tenth of that. Low-dose naltrexone has lurked for years on the fringes of medicine, but its zealous advocates worry that it may be stuck there. Naltrexone, which can be produced generically, is not even manufactured at the low doses that seem to be best for pain patients. Instead, patients go to compounding pharmacies or resort to DIY methods — YouTube videos and online support groups show people how to turn 50 mg pills into a low liquid dose. Some doctors prescribe it off-label even though it's not FDA-approved for pain. © 2019 npr

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 26641 - Posted: 09.24.2019

Obesity is not a choice and making people feel ashamed results only in them feeling worse about themselves, a report by top psychologists says. It calls for changes in language to reduce stigma, such as saying "a person with obesity" rather than an "obese person". And it says health professionals should be trained to talk about weight loss in a more supportive way. A cancer charity's recent ad campaign was criticised for "fat shaming". Obesity levels rose by 18% in England between 2005 and 2017 and by similar amounts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. This means just over one in four UK adults is obese while nearly two-thirds are overweight or obese. But these increases cannot be explained by a sudden loss of motivation across the UK - it is a lot more complicated than that, according to the British Psychological Society report, which concludes it "is not simply down to an individual's lack of willpower". "The people who are most likely to be an unhealthy weight are those who have a high genetic risk of developing obesity and whose lives are also shaped by work, school and social environments that promote overeating and inactivity," it says. "People who live in deprived areas often experience high levels of stress, including major life challenges and trauma, often their neighbourhoods offer few opportunities and incentives for physical activity and options for accessing affordable healthy food are limited." Psychological experiences also play a big role, the report says, with up to half of adults attending specialist obesity services having experienced difficulties in childhood. And stress caused by fat shaming - being made to feel bad about one's weight - by public health campaigns, GPs, nurses and policymakers, often leads to increased eating and more weight gain. © 2019 BBC

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 26640 - Posted: 09.24.2019

A landmark French trial is due to begin to decide whether a diabetes pill prescribed for weight loss was behind the deaths of up to 2,000 people. Servier, the drug's manufacturer, is accused of deceiving users over the killer side effects of a drug later used to treat overweight diabetics. Believed to be one of France's biggest healthcare scandals, the firm is on trial for manslaughter and deceit. Servier has denied the charges, saying it did not lie about the side effects. French health experts believe the drug known as Mediator could have killed anywhere between 500 and 2,000 people before it was finally taken off the market in 2009. The country's state drug regulator, accused of not acting to prevent deaths and injuries, is also on trial. The trial will involve more than 2,600 plaintiffs and 21 defendants, and is expected to run over the course of six months. It will also look into why the drug, which was introduced in 1976, was allowed to sell for so long despite various warnings. Lawyers representing the plaintiffs argue that the drug manufacturer purposely misled patients for decades, and that this was bolstered by lenient authorities. Servier has been accused of profiting at least €1bn ($1.1bn, £880m) from the drug's sales. "The trial comes as huge relief. Finally, we are to see the end of an intolerable scandal," Dr Irene Frachon, a pulmonologist credited with lifting the lid on the side effects, told Reuters news agency. Dr Frachon's research drew on medical records across France and concluded that there was a clear pattern of heart valve problems among Mediator users. This prompted many more studies which ultimately led to the drug's ban. One study concluded that 500 deaths could be linked to Mediator between 1976 and 2009. A second one put the figure at 2,000. Those numbers have been disputed by Servier, which has said that there are only three documented cases where death can be clearly attributed to the use of Mediator. In other cases, it says, aggravating factors were at work. © 2019 BBC

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 26639 - Posted: 09.24.2019

By Perri Klass, M.D. Cesarean delivery can save a baby — or a mother — at a moment of medical danger. However, cesarean births have been linked to an increased risk of various long-term health issues for both women and children, and a recent study shows an association between cesarean birth and the risk of developing autism or attention deficit disorder. The study, published in August in JAMA Network Open, was a meta-analysis. It looked at data from 61 previously published studies, which together included more than 20 million deliveries, and found that birth by cesarean section was associated with a 33 percent higher risk of autism and a 17 percent higher risk of attention deficit disorder. The increased risk was present for both planned and unplanned cesarean deliveries. The first and most important thing to say is that these were observational studies, and that association is not the same as causation. The children born by cesarean section may be different in important ways from the children born vaginally, and those differences may include factors that could affect their later neurodevelopment, from maternal health issues to developmental problems already present during pregnancy to prematurity to difficult deliveries. If your child was born by cesarean section, there’s nothing you can do to change that, and knowing about this association may make you worry, while if you’re pregnant it may make you even more anxious about how the delivery will go. But the information about long-term associations and mode of birth should help to drive further research and understanding of how and why these associations play out. Tianyang Zhang, a Ph.D. student in clinical neuroscience at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm who was the first author on the article, said that earlier research had shown various associations between cesarean delivery and long-term health problems, including higher rates of obesity and asthma in children. This study looked at a range of developmental and mental health issues. Though it did find an association between cesarean delivery and autism spectrum and attention deficit disorders, it did not find significant associations with others, such as tic disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders or eating disorders. © 2019 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism; ADHD
Link ID: 26638 - Posted: 09.23.2019

By James Gallagher Health and science correspondent, BBC News Babies born by Caesarean section have dramatically different gut bacteria to those born vaginally, according to the largest study in the field. The UK scientists say these early encounters with microbes may act as a "thermostat" for the immune system. And they may help explain why Caesarean babies are more likely to have some health problems later in life. The researchers stress women should not swab babies with their vaginal fluids - known as "vaginal seeding". How important are gut bacteria? Our bodies are not entirely human - instead we are an ecosystem with around half our body's cells made up of microbes such as bacteria, viruses and fungi. Most of them live in our gut and are collectively known as our microbiome. The microbiome is linked to diseases including allergy, obesity, inflammatory bowel disease, Parkinson's, whether cancer drugs work and even depression and autism. This study - by Wellcome Sanger Institute, UCL, and the University of Birmingham - assessed how the microbiome forms when we leave our mother's sterile womb and enter a world full of bugs. Regular samples were taken from the nappies of nearly 600 babies for the first month of life, and some provided faecal samples for up to a year. © 2019 BBC

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 26637 - Posted: 09.23.2019

Alison Abbott A prominent German neuroscientist committed scientific misconduct in research in which he claimed to have developed a brain-monitoring technique able to read certain thoughts of paralysed people, Germany’s main research agency has found. The DFG’s investigation into Niels Birbaumer’s high-profile work found that data in two papers were incomplete and that the scientific analysis was flawed — although it did not comment on whether the approach was valid. In a 19 September statement, the agency, which funded some of the work, said it was imposing some of its most severe sanctions to Birbaumer, who has positions at the University of Tübingen in Germany and the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva, Switzerland. The DFG has banned Birbaumer from applying for its grants and from serving as a DFG evaluator for five years. The agency has also recommended the retraction of the two papers1,2 published in PLoS Biology, and says that it will ask him to return the grant money that he used to generate the data underpinning the papers. “The DFG has found scientific misconduct on my part and has imposed sanctions. I must therefore accept that I was unable to refute the allegations made against me,” Birbaumer said in a statement e-mailed to Nature in response to the DFG’s findings. In a subsequent phone conversation with Nature, Birbaumer added that he could not comment further on the findings because the DFG has not yet provided him with specific details on the reasoning behind the decisions. Birbaumer says he stands by his studies, which he says, “show that it is possible to communicate with patients who are completely paralysed, through computer-based analysis of blood flow and brain currents”. © 2019 Springer Nature Limited

Keyword: Consciousness; Brain imaging
Link ID: 26636 - Posted: 09.23.2019

Patti Neighmond For people who live with chronic pain, getting up, out and moving can seem daunting. Some fear that physical activity will make their pain worse. But in fact, researchers find the opposite is true: The right kind of exercise can help reduce pain. Today, Emma Dehne agrees. Dehne is 44, lives in Chapel Hill, N.C., and works as a business officer in the office of the executive vice chancellor at the University of North Carolina. She says her commitment to exercise is relatively recent. Just a year and a half ago, Dehne pretty much avoided any physical movement she didn't have to make. Just climbing stairs was painful — "sometimes to the point where I would have to hold on to the banister to help myself up," she says, "and I couldn't even extend my leg." At times, it felt as though the ligaments in her knees "were tearing." Dehne was diagnosed around age 40 with osteoarthritis in both knees, a painful swelling and deterioration of the cushioning cartilage in those joints that reduces their range of motion. Luckily for her, she says, she worked at the Thurston Arthritis Research Center at the University of North Carolina. The woman working in the cubicle next to hers ran a program that encouraged people with osteoarthritis to start walking to help reduce their pain. Dehne was skeptical but felt she was just too young to be burdened by this disease; she agreed to give brisk walks a try. In the beginning she felt stiff, tired and out of breath. That changed quickly. © 2019 npr

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 26635 - Posted: 09.23.2019

Maryse Zeidler Frustration: that's the word Vancouverite Jacqueline Sinclair uses most often to describe her insomnia. There's the frustration of lying in bed, awake in the middle of the night, knowing how crappy she'll feel the next day. The frustration of struggling to relax as she lies awake. And the frustration of failing at what should be a basic life skill. "Knowing that the rest of the world is able to do something as simple as sleep ... it's frustrating," said Sinclair, 50, who works from home doing administration for the family's construction business. Sleep has eluded Sinclair for the past 10 years. As remedies, she has cut out caffeine, sugar and gluten. She has tried herbal teas, homeopathy and vitamins. CBD oil and prescription sleeping pills have been helpful, but they each had worrisome side effects. "I'm not sure what's next," she said. "I hope I go to bed tonight and sleep for six hours straight. Wouldn't that be fantastic?" Jacqueline Sinclair has struggled with insomnia for 10 years. She says she has tried several remedies, but none has worked effectively. (jacqueline sinclair) Dr. Ram Randhawa, a psychiatrist at the University of British Columbia's Sleep Disorders Program, says about 30 per cent of Canadians struggle with getting to or staying sleep at any given time. The prevalence of insomnia does seem to be higher among women, he said. For most people, sleep issues are a temporary problem brought on by stress or worry. For some, they can be a debilitating, life-long problem. ©2019 CBC/Radio-Canada

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 26634 - Posted: 09.23.2019

By Linda Searing Don’t feel guilty about sneaking in a nap now and then: It might be good for your heart. People who napped once or twice a week were 48 percent less likely than non-nappers to face serious cardiovascular problems — heart attack, stroke, heart failure — according to new research. The findings, published in the journal Heart, were based on nearly 3,500 adults, ages 35 to 75, who were tracked for about five years. How long people napped each time made no difference, and napping more frequently than a couple times a week did not improve the results. Sleep experts generally agree that a ­20-minute nap is all that most people need to feel refreshed and less stressed. Napping longer means waking from a deeper sleep and that can leave someone feeling groggy or fuzzy-headed. Napping late in the day also is not recommended because it can mar nighttime sleeping. The recommended amount of sleep for most adults is at least seven hours a night, with an hour or two more for people 61 and older. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than a third of Americans regularly get too little sleep. That can lead to chronic health problems, including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, according to experts at Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 26633 - Posted: 09.23.2019

Daniel Pfau I came out to a Christian counselor during a therapy session in 2001 when I was 14. He convinced me to engage in conversion therapy, a pseudoscientific practice to change an individual’s sexual orientation based in the assumption that such behaviors are “unnatural.” He produced an article describing a talk at that year’s American Psychological Association conference that indicated the therapy worked. This painful experience encouraged me, when I started my scientific career, to examine queerness in biology. The queer community, 25 million years (or more) in the making Understanding how complex human relationships developed requires a complete picture of our social behavior during evolution. I believe leaving out important behaviors, like same-sex sexual behavior, can bias the models we use to explain social evolution. Many researchers have postulated how queer behaviors, like same-sex sexual behavior, may have developed or how they are expressed. Recently, scientists at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT published a paper suggesting a genetic component to same-sex sexual behavior expression in modern humans. However, no studies provide an argument of when queer behavior may have arisen during humans’ evolution. Such research would push back against the assertions I encountered during my youth, that queerness is a modern aberration. © 2010–2019, The Conversation US, Inc.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 26632 - Posted: 09.21.2019

Emily Makowski When we eat sour food, we instantaneously react due to a taste-sensing circuit between the tongue and the brain. Two papers published today (September 19)—one in Cell and the other in Current Biology—show that the otopetrin-1 proton channel in the tongue’s sour taste receptors is one of the components responsible for sour taste sensing in mice. These findings add to the body of sour taste research “from the molecular level, of how these protons are transported, up to the level of how the mice are able to taste it,” says Lucie Delemotte, a computational biophysicist at KTH Royal Institute of Technology who was not involved with either study. On the tongue, each taste bud contains a cluster of taste receptor cells innervated by a gustatory nerve network. The tips of these cells have a variety of taste molecule-capturing proteins and, in the case of sour detection, proteins that are called proton channels that sense pH. A team led by Charles Zuker at Columbia University Medical Center identified a potential sour taste receptor for the first time in 2006, and he and other researchers have continued to work on clarifying the mechanics and function of that receptor along with other possible sour taste receptors. A breakthrough occurred last year when Emily Liman of the University of Southern California’s lab discovered that otopetrin-1 (also referred to as OTOP1) was a proton channel also implicated in detecting sour tastes. But the researchers stopped short of demonstrating that OTOP1 was required for sour taste sensing in an actual animal—until now. © 1986–2019 The Scientist

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 26631 - Posted: 09.21.2019

By Maureen O'Hagan, Kaiser Health News Hanging on Kimberly Repp’s office wall in Hillsboro, Ore., is a sign in Latin: “Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae,” meaning “This is a place where the dead delight in helping the living.” For medical examiners, it is a mission. Their job is to investigate deaths and learn from them, for the benefit of us all. Repp, however, is not a medical examiner; she is a microbiologist. She is also an epidemiologist for Oregon’s Washington County, where she had been accustomed to studying infectious diseases such as flu or norovirus outbreaks among the living. But in 2012 she was asked by county officials to look at suicide. The request introduced her to the world of death investigations and also appears to have led to something remarkable: in this suburban county of 600,000, just west of Portland, the suicide rate now is going down. That result is remarkable because national suicide rates have risen, despite decades-long efforts to reverse the deadly trend. Advertisement While many factors contribute to suicide, officials here believe they have chipped away at this problem through Repp’s initiative to use data—very localized data that any jurisdiction could collect. Now her mission is to help others learn how to gather and use them. New York State has just begun testing a system like Repp’s. Humboldt County in California is implementing it. She has gotten inquiries from Utah and Kentucky. Colorado, meanwhile, is using its own brand of data collection to try to achieve the same kind of turnaround. © 2019 Scientific American

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 26630 - Posted: 09.21.2019

By Natalia Sylvester My parents refused to let my sister and me forget how to speak Spanish by pretending they didn’t understand when we spoke English. Spanish was the only language we were allowed to speak in our one-bedroom apartment in Miami in the late 1980s. We both graduated from English as a second language lessons in record time as kindergartners and first graders, and we longed to play and talk and live in English as if it were a shiny new toy. “No te entiendo,” my mother would say, shaking her head and shrugging in feigned confusion anytime we slipped into English. My sister and I would let out exasperated sighs at having to repeat ourselves in Spanish, only to be interrupted by a correction of our grammar and vocabulary after every other word. One day you’ll thank me, my mother retorted. That day has come to pass 30 years later in ordinary places like Goodwill, a Walmart parking lot, a Costco Tire Center. I’m most thankful that I can speak Spanish because it has allowed me to help others. There was the young mother who wanted to know whether she could leave a cumbersome diaper bin aside at the register at Goodwill while she shopped. The cashier shook her head dismissively and said she didn’t understand. It wasn’t difficult to read the woman’s gestures — she was struggling to push her baby’s carriage while lugging the large box around the store. Even after I told the cashier what the woman was saying, her irritation was palpable. The air of judgment is one I’ve come to recognize: How dare this woman not speak English, how dare this other woman speak both English and Spanish. It was a small moment, but it speaks to how easy it would have been for the cashier to ignore a young Latina mother struggling to care for her child had there not been someone around to interpret. “I don’t understand,” she kept saying, though the mother’s gestures transcended language. I choose not to understand is what she really meant. © 2019 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 26629 - Posted: 09.21.2019

By Knvul Sheikh One afternoon in April 1929, a journalist from a Moscow newspaper turned up in Alexander Luria’s office with an unusual problem: He never forgot things. Dr. Luria, a neuropsychologist, proceeded to test the man, who later became known as subject S., by spouting long strings of numbers and words, foreign poems and scientific formulas, all of which S. recited back without fail. Decades later, S. still remembered the lists of numbers perfectly whenever Dr. Luria retested him. But S.’s ability to remember was also a hindrance in everyday life. He had a hard time understanding abstract concepts or figurative language, and he was terrible at recognizing faces because he had memorized them at an exact point in time, with specific facial expressions and features. The ability to forget, scientists eventually came to realize, was just as vital as the ability to remember. “We’re inundated with so much information every day, and much of that information is turned into memories in the brain,” said Ronald Davis, a neurobiologist at the Scripps Research Institute in Jupiter, Fla. “We simply cannot deal with all of it.” Researchers like Dr. Davis argue that forgetting is an active mechanism that the brain employs to clear out unnecessary pieces of information so we can retain new ones. Others have gone a step further, suggesting that forgetting is required for the mental flexibility inherent in creative thinking and imagination. A new paper, published Thursday in the journal Science, points to a group of neurons in the brain that may be responsible for helping the brain to forget. Akihiro Yamanaka, a neuroscientist at Nagoya University in Japan, and his team stumbled across the cells, known as melanin-concentrating hormone, or M.C.H., neurons, while studying sleep regulation in mice. Unlike most of the brain’s neurons, which are active when animals are awake, M.C.H. neurons in the hypothalamus start firing electrical signals most actively when a sleeping animal is in a stage called R.E.M. sleep. This phase of sleep is characterized by rapid eye movement, an elevated pulse, unique brain waves and, in humans, vivid dreams. When the researchers tracked M.C.H. signals in mice, they found that the cells were suppressing neurons in the hippocampus, a brain region known to play a role in the consolidation of memory. © 2019 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 26628 - Posted: 09.20.2019

The mysterious ailments experienced by some 40 Canadian and U.S. diplomats and their families while stationed in Cuba may have had nothing to do with sonic "attacks" identified in earlier studies. According to a new Canadian study, obtained exclusively by Radio-Canada's investigative TV program Enquête, the cause could instead be neurotoxic agents used in pesticide fumigation. A number of Canadians and Americans living in Havana fell victim to an unexplained illness starting in late 2016, complaining of concussion-like symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, nausea and difficulty concentrating. Some described hearing a buzzing or high-pitched sounds before falling sick. In the wake of the health problems experienced over the past three years, Global Affairs Canada commissioned a clinical study by a team of multidisciplinary researchers in Halifax, affiliated with the Brain Repair Centre, Dalhousie University and the Nova Scotia Health Authority. "The working hypothesis actually came only after we had most of the results," Dr. Alon Friedman, the study's lead author, said in an interview. The researchers identified a damaged region of the brain that is responsible for memory, concentration and sleep-and-wake cycle, among other things, and then looked at how this region could come to be injured. "There are very specific types of toxins that affect these kinds of nervous systems ... and these are insecticides, pesticides, organophosphates — specific neurotoxins," said Friedman. "So that's why we generated the hypothesis that we then went to test in other ways." Twenty-six individuals participated in the study, including a control group of people who never lived in Havana. ©2019 CBC/Radio-Canada

Keyword: Neurotoxins; Attention
Link ID: 26627 - Posted: 09.20.2019

By Matt Richtel and Sheila Kaplan The number of vaping-related lung illnesses has risen to 530 probable cases, according to an update on Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and a Missouri man became the eighth to die from the mysterious ailments. During a news briefing, Dr. Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the C.D.C., said officials expect more deaths because some people are suffering from severe lung illnesses. But the nation’s public health officials said they still were unable to pinpoint the cause, or causes, of the sicknesses that have resulted in hundreds of hospitalizations, with many in intensive care units. Dr. Schuchat said some patients are on ventilators and therefore are unable to tell investigators what substances they vaped. “I wish we had more answers,” she said. The C.D.C. provided the first demographic snapshot of the afflicted: Nearly three-quarters are male, two-thirds between 18 and 34. Sixteen percent are 18 or younger. “More than half of cases are under 25 years of age,” Dr. Schuchat said. Illnesses have now been reported in 38 states, and one United States territory. In the most recent case, in St. Louis, officials said on Thursday that a man in his mid-40s who had chronic pain had begun vaping last May. He was hospitalized Aug. 22 with respiratory problems and died on Wednesday. “He started out with shortness of breath and it rapidly progressed and deteriorated, developing into what is called acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS),” said Dr. Michael Plisco, a critical care pulmonologist at Mercy Hospital St. Louis. “Once the lungs are injured by vaping, we don’t know how quickly it worsens and if it depends on other risk factors.” He and other officials said they did not know what substance the patient had been vaping, but Dr. Plisco said in an interview that tissue samples from his lungs showed cells stained with oil. Some products include oils that if inhaled — even small droplets — can cling to the lungs and airways and cause acute inflammation, doctors have said. © 2019 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 26626 - Posted: 09.20.2019

Heidi Ledford Tumour cells can plug into — and feed off — the brain’s complex network of neurons, according to a trio of studies. This nefarious ability could explain the mysterious behaviour of certain tumours, and point to new ways of treating cancer. The studies1,2,3, published on 18 September in Nature, describe this startling capability in brain cancers called gliomas, as well as in some breast cancers that spread to the brain. The findings bolster a growing realization among doctors and scientists that the nervous system plays an important role in the growth of cancers, says Michelle Monje, a paediatric neuro-oncologist at Stanford University in California and lead author of one of the studies1. Even so, finding cancer cells that behave like neurons was a surprise. “It’s unsettling,” Monje says. “We don’t think of cancer as forming an electrically active tissue like the brain.” Feeding off the brain Frank Winkler, a neurologist at Heidelberg University in Germany and a lead author on another of the Nature studies2, stumbled on the phenomenon in 2014 while studying communication networks established by cells in some brain tumours. He and his team discovered synapses, structures that neurons use to communicate with one another, in the tumours. It was “crazy stuff”, Winkler says. “Our first reaction was, ‘This is just difficult to believe.’” The researchers assumed that the tumour synapses would be a random occurrence. But as Winkler and his colleagues report in their latest study, they found synapses in glioma samples taken from cancer cells grown in culture, human glioma tumours transplanted into mice and glioma samples taken from ten people.

Keyword: Glia
Link ID: 26625 - Posted: 09.19.2019

Lindsey Bever An autistic “Sesame Street” muppet is caught in a conflict between the most prominent autism organization in the United States advocating for early intervention, and autistic adults who see the condition as a difference, not a disease needing to be cured. Since 2017, a Muppet named Julia has given children on the spectrum a role model and helped parents and peers understand the condition. The red-haired, green-eyed 4-year-old flaps her hands when she gets excited, cries when loud noises overwhelm her, strokes her stuffed rabbit for comfort and communicates in her own way and her own time, sometimes using a communication device. Autistic self-advocates, who were consulted in her creation, have applauded how she is not only depicted but also accepted by other human and Muppet characters on the show. Over the summer, Julia became embroiled in a controversy over a partnership with Autism Speaks, an influential and well-funded organization that some autistic adults say has promoted ideas and interventions that have traumatized many people in their community. The Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN), an organization run by and for autistic people, announced it had cut ties with “Sesame Street” after the children’s program partnered with Autism Speaks to make the Muppet the face of a public service campaign encouraging early screening and diagnosis of autism. ASAN has accused Autism Speaks of using “language of acceptance and understanding to push resources that further stigma and treat autistic people as burdens on our families.” It contends that resource materials from Autism Speaks encourage parents “to view autism as a terrible disease from which their child can ‘get better.’ ”

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 26624 - Posted: 09.19.2019

Shawna Williams Pain, unpleasant though it may be, is essential to most mammals’ survival, a warning to back off before we lose a limb or worsen a wound. So it was curious when, in a 2008 study, molecular physiologist Gary Lewin and his colleagues found that, unlike most mammals, naked mole rats (Heterocephalus glaber) didn’t lick or flick a limb that had been injected with a small amount of capsaicin—the hot in hot chili pepper. The mole rats turned out to be similarly nonchalant when exposed to dilute hydrochloric acid. “We wondered, first of all, how they became insensitive to these things,” says Lewin, who heads up a lab at Berlin’s Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine. The team took an evolutionary approach to finding the answer. Several group members traveled to the naked mole rat’s native territory of East Africa to try out three common pain-causing substances on seven other mole rat species, plus the more distantly related East African root rat. They found that, in addition to the naked mole rat, the Natal mole rat was insensitive to capsaicin, while the Cape mole rat and the root rat didn’t seem to feel a burn from the hydrochloric acid. Most startlingly, one species, the highveld mole rat (Cryptomys hottentotus pretoriae), didn’t flinch when injected with a few milliliters of a highly diluted solution of an irritant present in mustard and wasabi known as AITC—an agent that even the naked mole rat reacted to. When team member Karlien Debus donned a gas mask to inject a similar amount of 100 percent AITC under the skin of a highveld mole rat, there was still no response. “Probably the AITC was the most interesting because AITC is a substance that actually every [other] animal in the entire animal kingdom avoids,” Lewin says. An electrophilic compound, AITC can crosslink an animal’s proteins and damage its cells. © 1986–2019 The Scientist.

Keyword: Pain & Touch; Evolution
Link ID: 26623 - Posted: 09.19.2019