The Neuroscience Chronicles

While much of research progress has been achieved in last century on Alzheimer’s Disease (AD), the conclusive therapy for the same is still unachieved. Several lines of therapeutic regimes have been introduced, which basically act on slowing down the disease progression.

In the nightmare of the coronavirus pandemic that is spreading around the world, parents could take comfort in one thing - early reports that the virus mysteriously spares children, even though this often leads to critical illness in older people. An article published in the Journal “Pediatrics”, based on 2,143 young people in China, provides the most comprehensive evidence of the spread of the virus among children, and there is bad news and good news [1].

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, manifesting as a characteristic movement disorder with a number of additional non-motor features. The pathological hallmark of PD is the presence of intra-neuronal aggregates of a-synuclein (Lewy bodies). The movement disorder of PD occurs largely due to loss of dopaminergic neurons of the substantia nigra, resulting in striatal dopamine depletion.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a global health crisis currently afflicting ~6 million Americans (and ~40 million people worldwide). By the middle of the century, these numbers will stagger by ~16 million Americans (and ~152 million people worldwide) suffering from AD, if breakthrough disease-modifying treatments are not discovered.

Overcrowding is a growing problem that prevails in the urban areas of both developing and developed countries. It is considered as psycho-social stress that affects the behavior and physiology of individuals and societies [1]. 
Scientific awareness of overcrowding stress systematically started in the 1960s with the early experiments of John B. Calhoun using the so-called “rat utopia” and the theory of “behavioral sink” [2]. Depending on Calhoun’s experiments, connections between the model of rodent colonies and the arising problems of crowded cities were extrapolated [3].

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder characterized by cognitive impairments that might be accompanied by declines in activities of daily living, neuropsychiatric disorders and a loss of motor function [1,2]. At present, the prevalence of dementia of Alzheimer’s type (DAT) is approximately 4% among elderly people [3]. With the increase in the aging the population, the number of individuals with DAT is still increasing.

In recent years, stress and stress-coping mechanisms constitute a growing public healthcare issue concerning modern society. Experiencing stress engenders a great complex mechanism named stress response, which consists of a rapid release of catecholamines by the sympathetic nervous system, followed by a slower response in which hormones, mainly glucocorticoids (GCs), are synthesized and released to the bloodstream.

The COVID-19 pandemic has produced unprecedented conditions and difficulties for the global delivery of healthcare services. In this situation, all the healthcare employees, including neurosurgeons are facing many complexities. Telemedicine has decreased the spread of infection between neurosurgeons and patients.

Storage and periodic elimination of urine requires coordinated activity of the bladder and the urethral outlet. This coordination is provided by a complex neural control system in the brain and spinal cord. Experimental studies in animals show that urine storage is modulated by reflex mechanisms located in the sacral spinal cord, whereas urine release is mediated by pontine micturition center in the brainstem.

There is a seemingly endless list of compounds used by humans that may have psychoactive reinforcing properties underlying their repeated use; many have never been adequately studied. In a 2019 paper, the potential reinforcing properties of cotinine, a major nicotine metabolite, were investigated for the first time. To pursue this line of inquiry, cotinine was assessed using the planarian as an animal model in environmental place conditioning (EPC) also known as conditioned place preference (CPP).

Transfusion Medicine (TM) is a relatively young medical discipline supporting a large number of medical specialties on an almost daily basis. In de routine of TM large amounts of data are collected and processed in a standardized way and depending on the economy of scale practiced. Blood and its components are not without risk when transfused. 

Aside its function in locomotion, posture maintenance and respiration, the hSKM is reported to be a critical metabolic regulator [1]. The hSKM is acknowledged as the primary site of glucose metabolism and storage [1]. Additionally, it serves as a reserve for amino acids [1,2]. In recently times, the hSKM has also been described as an endocrine organ.

CNS myelination is a well-known biological phenomenon related to increase in action potential conduction speed and synaptic integration. Demyelination or abnormal myelination has been related to seizures and epilepsy either in patients or animal models. Although its role in fastening action potential propagation has been confirmed, few additional biological functions of CNS myelin has been described.

A close and contemplative look at the published neurology literature makes it clear to the reader that epilepsy research possesses more popularity and occupies a higher position in the plethora of scholarly medical writings. Perhaps the reason behind this is that epilepsy nowadays has become more than just transient seizures that are treated with drugs to put an end to seizure recurrence, but rather it is a disease that permeates all aspects of the patient’s life.

The article entitled “N,N-Dimethyltryptamine [DMT] attenuates spreading depolarization and restrains neurodegeneration by sigma-1 receptor activation in the ischemic rat brain” by Szabo et al. published recently in Neuropharmacology [1] is the last one in the series of studies on the potential benefits of DMT administration in different clinical forms of ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). The larger scope of the project – initiated and organized by Ede Frecska – is to collect support for a hypothesized biological function of this and related endogenous hallucinogen compounds such as 5-methoxy-N,N-dimethyltryptamine (5-MeO-DMT), 5-hydroxy-N,N-dimethyl-tryptamine (bufotenine) [2].

This paper discusses the interpretation of the measurement problem and Qbism in quantum mechanics using the Human Language based Consciousness (HLbC) model proposed by the author. The HLbC model holds that consciousness is generated from physical processes only. It adopts the position that consciousness is generated from physical processes only. 

Having studied and worked in the fields of pharmacology and structural biology my first reaction to reading an article or attending a lecture about a class of chemical compounds or biomolecules regardless of whether they are nucleotides, proteins or lipids is to look up their structure or sequence, as the chemical structure of molecules is what defines their character, that is their mechanism of action. Most cancer therapeutic agents such as Taxol (paclitaxel) which is widely used to target solid tumors are rich in aromatic structures. These patients are often depressed and are on psychotropic medications, which also contain two or more aromatics. It is unknown whether these two groups of compounds directly interact.

During the last few decades, the ribosome has been regarded primarily as a major cell player devoted to the catalysis of protein biosynthesis during translation [1-5]. It is therefore not surprising that several processes related to translation exploit the ribosome as a central hub. For instance, it is well-known that many events related to translational regulation are mediated by interactions between the ribosome and initiation, elongation or termination factors [6-9]. In addition, the ribosome is involved in mRNA-code recognition and proofreading [10-12] as well as in the control of translation rates via interactions with mRNA codons bearing high- and low-frequency [13-15] and associated with variable tRNA abundance within the translation machinery [16-18].

The significant metastatic potential of uveal melanoma (UVM) lends to high mortality. Even with successful local tumor treatment, many patients will develop metastatic disease. The present study aims to elucidate the relationship between tumor-infiltrating immune cell (TIIC) diversity and survival to identify potential therapeutic targets and improve UVM prognosis.

The HLbC model, as proposed by the author, has been utilized to interpret the varied behaviors manifested by individuals with split-brains. This paper initially provides a succinct overview of the function of the corpus callosum, pivotal to discussions concerning split-brains, along with the distinctive behaviors demonstrated by subjects with split-brains. Subsequently, it elucidates the application of the HLbC model in interpreting the behavior of such individuals. Comparative analyses with normal brain function are then conducted.