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Parkinson's disease and the Brain's immune system
A new study by Dr Marine Krzisch has identified the role of the brain's immune system in Parkinson's disease. Microglia are brain cells that defend the brain against pathogens. In Parkinson’s disease, microglia get activated: they become hyper-alert, and it is thought they damage neurons. However, their exact role had remained unclear. In this study,...
Seeing inside Alzheimer’s disease brain
The Frank group investigating Alzheimer’s disease has determined the structure of molecules within a human brain for the very first time. Published in Nature, the study describes using cryo-electron tomography, guided by fluorescence microscopy, to explore deep inside an Alzheimer’s disease donor brain. This gave 3-dimensional maps in which they could observe proteins, the molecular building blocks of...
Body's own drug to tackle pain
A new collaborative study from the laboratories of Nikita Gamper (University of Leeds), Xiaona Du (Hebei Medical University) and Temugin Berta (University of Cincinnati) has uncovered a novel peripheral mechanism of pain processing. The team discovered that our body uses its own version of benzodiazepine-like drugs to control some types of pain. Benzodiazepines are a...