Tag: 22/8/25

Categories : NeurologyTags :

New Study Upends Decades-old Assumptions About Brain Plasticity

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Source: CC0

A new study from Pitt researchers challenges a decades-old assumption in neuroscience by showing that the brain uses distinct transmission sites – not a shared site – to achieve different types of plasticity. The findings, published in Science Advances, offer a deeper understanding of how the brain balances stability with flexibility, a process essential for learning, memory and mental health.

Neurons communicate through a process called synaptic transmission, where one neuron releases chemical messengers called neurotransmitters from a presynaptic terminal. These molecules travel across a microscopic gap called a synaptic cleft and bind to receptors on a neighbouring postsynaptic neuron, triggering a response.

Traditionally, scientists believed spontaneous transmissions (signals that occur randomly) and evoked transmissions (signals triggered by sensory input or experience) originated from one type of canonical synaptic site and relied on shared molecular machinery. Using a mouse model, the research team, led by Oliver Schlüter, associate professor of neuroscience, discovered that the brain instead uses separate synaptic transmission sites to carry out regulation of these two types of activity, each with its own developmental timeline and regulatory rules.

“We focused on the primary visual cortex, where cortical visual processing begins,” said Yue Yang, a research associate in the Department of Neuroscience and first author of the study. “We expected spontaneous and evoked transmissions to follow a similar developmental trajectory, but instead, we found that they diverged after eye opening.”

As the brain began receiving visual input, evoked transmissions continued to strengthen. In contrast, spontaneous transmissions plateaued, suggesting that the brain applies different forms of control to the two signaling modes.

To understand why, the researchers applied a chemical that activates otherwise silent receptors on the postsynaptic side. This caused spontaneous activity to increase, while evoked signals remained unchanged – strong evidence that the two types of transmission operate through functionally distinct synaptic sites.

This division likely enables the brain to maintain consistent background activity through spontaneous signaling while refining behaviourally relevant pathways through evoked activity. This dual system supports both homeostasis and Hebbian plasticity, the experience-dependent process that strengthens neural connections during learning.

“Our findings reveal a key organizational strategy in the brain,” said Yang. “By separating these two signaling modes, the brain can remain stable while still being flexible enough to adapt and learn.”

The implications could be broad. Abnormalities in synaptic signaling have been linked to conditions like autism, Alzheimer’s disease and substance use disorders. A better understanding of how these systems operate in the healthy brain may help researchers identify how they become disrupted in disease.

“Learning how the brain normally separates and regulates different types of signals brings us closer to understanding what might be going wrong in neurological and psychiatric conditions,” Yang said.

Source: University of Pittsburgh

Categories : Cancer Medical Research & TechnologyTags :

Cold Plasma Penetrates Deep into Tissue to Attack Tumours

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Researchers at the Leibniz Institute for Plasma Science and Technology (INP) have collaborated with partners at Greifswald University Hospital and University Medical Centre Rostock to demonstrate that cold plasma can effectively combat tumour cells even in deeper tissue layers. What is particularly noteworthy is that, by developing new tissue models, they were able to precisely investigate the effect of individual plasma components on tumour cells for the first time.

The results of the study were published in the journal Trends in Biotechnology.

What is cold plasma?

Plasma is an ionised gas that produces a large number of chemically reactive molecules known as reactive oxygen and nitrogen species. These short-lived molecules can have a strong influence on biological processes such as the growth or death of tumour cells.

New tissue models provide important insights

“The effect of plasma in tissue is very complex and little understood. We have therefore developed a 3D model made of hydrogels that mimics real tumour tissue. In this model, we were able to observe exactly how deep the molecules from the plasma penetrate – and which of these molecules are important for the effect on tumour cells,” explains Lea Miebach, first author of the study. Particularly short-lived molecules such as peroxynitrite penetrated several millimetres deep into the tissue. Hydrogen peroxide, which had previously been considered the main active ingredient in laboratory research, showed little effect: even when it was specifically removed, the effect of the plasma remained strong.

Use during surgery also conceivable

Another model investigated how well plasma could work in the follow-up treatment of tumour surgery. Residual tumour cells at the edge of an artificial surgical wound were specifically treated with plasma. The result: here too, a strong effect was observed, especially in cells that had already spread into the surrounding tissue. These findings could help to better prevent relapses after surgery.

Important step for plasma medicine

“Our results could significantly improve the medical application of plasma,” says Prof Dr Sander Bekeschus, head of the Plasma Medicine research programme at INP. “The better we understand which molecules are active in the tissue, the more precisely plasma devices can be used for specific types of cancer.”

The work was carried out using the medically approved plasma jet “kINPen”. In the long term, the method could help make therapies more effective and gentler.

Source: Leibniz-Institut für Plasmaforschung und Technologie e.V.

Categories : COVID Respiratory DiseasesTags :

COVID Infection Linked to Increased Risk of Asthma – Vaccination Offers Protection

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Respiratory tract. Credit: Scientific Animations CC4.0

People who have had COVID are at increased risk of developing certain inflammatory diseases of the airways, such as asthma, hay fever and chronic sinusitis. However, vaccination against the SARS-CoV-2 virus appears to reduce the risk, according to a comprehensive epidemiological study led by researchers at Karolinska Institutet.

The international research team used an electronic health database in the United States, TriNetX, to investigate the link between COVID and so-called type-2 inflammatory diseases, a group of chronic conditions in which the immune system overreacts to allergens or infections.

The researchers compared 973 794 people who had had COVID with 691 270 people who had been vaccinated against the SARS-CoV-2 virus and 4 388 409 healthy controls with no documented infection or vaccination.

Inflammation in the airways

The results are presented in The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. People who had had COVID had a 66% higher risk of developing asthma, a 74% higher risk of chronic sinusitis and a 27% higher risk of hay fever compared with healthy controls. However, no increased risk was seen for the skin disease atopic eczema or for eosinophilic oesophagitis, an inflammation of the oesophagus.

“Our results suggest that COVID-19 can trigger type-2 inflammation in the airways, but not in other organs,” says Philip Curman, a physician and researcher at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, who led the research.

Vaccination against the virus had the opposite effect. The risk of asthma was 32% lower among vaccinated individuals compared with healthy unvaccinated individuals. The risk of sinusitis and hay fever was also slightly lower.

More than twice the risk

When people who had had COVID were compared with vaccinated individuals, an even clearer effect was seen. Infected individuals had more than twice the risk of developing asthma or chronic sinusitis and a 40% higher risk of developing hay fever compared with those who had been vaccinated.

“It is interesting to see that vaccination not only protects against the infection itself, but also appears to provide good protection against certain respiratory complications,” says Philip Curman.

The study is retrospective, i.e. based on data that has already been collected. This means that the researchers cannot draw any firm conclusions about causal links. Another limitation is that some infections may have gone undiagnosed, especially if they were detected through self-testing.

The research was conducted in close collaboration with the University of Lübeck and the Lübeck Institute of Experimental Dermatology in Germany, the Technical University of Madrid in Spain and Bar-Ilan University in Israel. It was mainly funded by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft), Region Stockholm and Karolinska Institutet. Two researchers received travel grants from TriNetX, which provides the database used in the study, and one of the authors is employed by the company.

Source: Karolinska Institutet

Categories : Obstetrics & GynaecologyTags :

Prenatal Paracetamol Use May Be Linked to Increased Risk of Autism and ADHD

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Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that prenatal exposure to paracetamol may increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in children. The study, published in BMC Environmental Health, is the first to apply the rigorous Navigation Guide methodology to systematically evaluate the rigour and quality of the scientific literature.

Paracetamol (known as acetaminophen in the US and Canada) is the most commonly used over-the-counter pain and fever medication during pregnancy and is used by more than half of pregnant women worldwide. Until now, acetaminophen has been considered the safest option for managing headache, fever, and other pain. Analysis by the Mount Sinai-led team of 46 studies incorporating data from more than 100 000 participants across multiple countries challenges this perception and underscores the need for both caution and further study.

The Navigation Guide Systematic Review methodology is a gold-standard framework for synthesising and evaluating environmental health data. This approach allows researchers to assess and rate each study’s risk of bias, such as selective reporting of the outcomes or incomplete data, as well as the strength of the evidence and the quality of the studies individually and collectively.

“Our findings show that higher-quality studies are more likely to show a link between prenatal acetaminophen exposure and increased risks of autism and ADHD,” said Diddier Prada, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Population Health Science and Policy, and Environmental Medicine and Climate Science, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. “Given the widespread use of this medication, even a small increase in risk could have major public health implications.”

The paper also explores biological mechanisms that could explain the association between acetaminophen use and these disorders. Paracetamol is known to cross the placental barrier and may trigger oxidative stress, disrupt hormones, and cause epigenetic changes that interfere with foetal brain development.

While the study does not show that paracetamol directly causes neurodevelopmental disorders, the research team’s findings strengthen the evidence for a connection and raise concerns about current clinical practices.

The researchers call for cautious, time-limited use of paracetamol during pregnancy under medical supervision; updated clinical guidelines to better balance the benefits and risks; and further research to confirm these findings and identify safer alternatives for managing pain and fever in expectant mothers.

“Pregnant women should not stop taking medication without consulting their doctors,” Dr Prada emphasised. “Untreated pain or fever can also harm the baby. Our study highlights the importance of discussing the safest approach with health care providers and considering non-drug options whenever possible.”

With diagnoses of autism and ADHD increasing worldwide, these findings have significant implications for public health policy, clinical guidelines, and patient education. The study also highlights the urgent need for pharmaceutical innovation to provide safer alternatives for pregnant women.

Source: Mount Sinai

Categories : Antibiotics PaediatricsTags :

Study Suggests No Link Between Antibiotic Exposure and Autoimmune Diseases in Children

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Korean children with early life exposure to antibiotics were not diagnosed with autoimmune diseases at higher rates

Photo by Chayene Rafaela on Unsplash

The global incidence of autoimmune diseases among children has increased over the past few decades. A study published August 21st in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine by Ju-Young Shin at Sungkyunkwan University, Republic of Korea, and colleagues suggests that early life antibiotic exposure is not associated with an increased risk of autoimmune diseases in children.

Previous research has suggested that exposure to antibiotics as a foetus or infant may contribute to the development of autoimmune diseases among children. However, confounding variables limit the validity of prior studies and the association of antibiotics to autoimmune disease remains poorly understood.

In order to investigate whether antibiotics may increase risk of autoimmune diseases, researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study comprised of over 4 million children born in the Republic of Korea between April 1, 2009, and December 31, 2020. They accessed a mother-child linked insurance claims database from the South Korea National Health Insurance Service-National Health Insurance Database (NHIS-NHID) to identify children whose mothers had received antibiotic prescriptions during pregnancy or while breastfeeding their infant. The researchers then retrospectively analysed the health outcomes of each cohort for a period of over 7 years, tracking all diagnoses of Type 1 diabetes, Juvenile idiopathic arthritis, Inflammatory bowel disease (ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease), Systemic lupus erythematosus, and Hashimoto’s thyroiditis.

The researchers found no relationship between antibiotic exposure during pregnancy or early infancy and the overall incidence of autoimmune diseases in children. Future research is needed, however, to replicate the outcomes in other populations and to further investigate potential effects on subgroups.

According to the authors, “Our findings suggest no association between antibiotic exposure during the prenatal period or early infancy and the development of autoimmune diseases in children. This observation contrasts with several previous studies reporting increased risks and underscores the importance of carefully considering the underlying indications for antibiotic use and genetic susceptibility when interpreting such associations. While the potential benefits of antibiotic treatment in managing infections during pregnancy or early infancy likely outweigh the minimal risk of autoimmune outcomes, our findings also highlight the need for cautious and clinically appropriate use of antibiotics during these critical developmental periods in specific subgroups.”

The authors note, “Exposure to antibiotics during pregnancy or early infancy was not associated with an increased risk of autoimmune diseases in children. Nevertheless, the importance of follow-up studies to confirm and extend these findings cannot be overstated.”

Provided by PLOS