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Category: neuroscience – Page 84

UCLA discovers first stroke rehabilitation drug to repair brain damage

A new study by UCLA Health has discovered what researchers say is the first drug to fully reproduce the effects of physical stroke rehabilitation in model mice, following from human studies.

The findings, published in Nature Communications, tested two candidate drugs derived from their studies on the mechanism of the brain effects of rehabilitation, of which one resulted in significant recovery in movement control after stroke in the mouse model.

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability because most patients do not fully recover from the effects of stroke. There are no drugs in the field of stroke recovery, requiring stroke patients to undergo physical rehabilitation which has shown to be only modestly effective.

Synaptic architecture of a memory engram in the mouse hippocampus

Memory engrams are formed through experience-dependent plasticity of neural circuits, but their detailed architectures remain unresolved. Using three-dimensional electron microscopy, we performed nanoscale reconstructions of the hippocampal CA3-CA1 pathway after chemogenetic labeling of cellular ensembles recruited during associative learning. Neurons with a remote history of activity coinciding with memory acquisition showed no strong preference for wiring with each other. Instead, their connectomes expanded through multisynaptic boutons independently of the coactivation state of postsynaptic partners. The rewiring of ensembles representing an initial engram was accompanied by input-specific, spatially restricted upscaling of individual synapses, as well as remodeling of mitochondria, smooth endoplasmic reticulum, and interactions with astrocytes.

Scientists Discover Lung Cancer Cells That Function Like Brain Neurons

Scientists found that aggressive lung cancer cells create their own electrical network, helping them spread. This unique trait may reveal new treatment opportunities. Researchers at the Francis Crick Institute have discovered that certain aggressive lung cancer cells can form their own electrical

Levodopa may improve motivation in depression linked to high inflammation

A study from Emory University suggests that levodopa, a medication that increases dopamine levels in the brain, may help treat individuals with depression who experience motivational impairments due to high inflammation. Researchers found that a common blood test measuring C-reactive protein (CRP), a blood biomarker of inflammation produced by the liver, could help determine which patients are most likely to respond to repeated doses of levodopa.

The findings, published in the March 2025 print edition of Brain, Behavior and Immunity, show that in participants with CRP levels above 2 mg/L, daily administration of levodopa improved connectivity within a key brain reward pathway—the to the —after just one week of treatment across a range of doses.

While about half of the participants responded best to a lower dose of 150 mg/day, the other half required up to 450 mg/day for levodopa to effectively overcome the effects of inflammation on this dopamine-rich reward circuit.

Stem Cell Injection May Soon Reverse Vision Loss Caused By Age-Related Macular Degeneration

Contact: Cara Martinez | Email: [email protected]

Los Angeles — April 14, 2015 – An injection of stem cells into the eye may soon slow or reverse the effects of early-stage age-related macular degeneration, according to new research from scientists at Cedars-Sinai. Currently, there is no treatment that slows the progression of the disease, which is the leading cause of vision loss in people over 65.

“This is the first study to show preservation of vision after a single injection of induced neural progenitor stem cells into a AMD-like rat model for retinal degeneration,” said Shaomei Wang, MD, PhD, lead author of the study published in the journal STEM CELLS and a research scientist in the Eye Program at the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute.