Our brains control pain perception

Pain perception is essential for survival, but how much something hurts can sometimes be amplified or suppressed: for example, soldiers who sustain an injury in battle often recall not feeling anything at the time. A new study published honed in on the brain circuitry responsible for upgrading or downgrading these pain signals, likening the mechanism to how a home thermostat controls room temperature.

The paper's senior author and a scientist for the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH), told AFP the region responsible was the central amygdala, which according to her work appeared to play a dual role.

Studying mice, researchers found that the activity in neurons that express protein kinase C-delta amplified pain, while neurons that express somatostatin inhibited the chain of activity in the nerves required to communicate pain. The central amygdala isn't completely responsible for pain itself: if it were removed entirely, then "the 'ouch' of things, or the protective pain, would remain intact," he said.

"It seems to be sitting there waiting for something to happen," for example responding to stress or anxiety that amplifies pain, or being forced to focus on a task that diverts your attention and reduces pain. Experiencing pain can be a vital warning to seek help, for example in a person experiencing appendicitis or a heart attack.

People who are born with insensitivity to pain, meanwhile, often do not realize the severity of injuries and are at greater risk of early death. But not all pain is useful. According to a 2012 survey, about 11 per cent of US adults have pain every day and more than 17 per cent have severe levels of pain.

Often this leads to dependence on potent painkillers like opioids, or attempting to self-medicate through counterfeit or illicit drugs which are increasingly laced with deadly fentanyl. By better understanding the brain mechanisms responsible for pain modulation, researchers hope to eventually find better cures: potentially ones that target only those forms of pain that are "bad" and not useful.

"The healthy response is you get pain, it tells you something is wrong, it heals, and the pain goes away," he said. "In chronic pain, that doesn't happen, the system gets stuck. If we can identify what makes the system gets stuck, then we can reverse it."

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New study highlights benefits of broccoli sprouts in battling schizophrenia

A chemical derived from broccoli sprouts can be used to manage schizophrenia symptoms, scientists have found, paving the way for treatments that reduce unwanted side effects of traditional medicines. Scientists  in the US characterised a set of chemical imbalances in the brains of people with schizophrenia-related to the chemical glutamate.

Supplementing with broccoli sprout extract, which contains high levels of the chemical sulphoraphane, may someday provide a way to tweak the level of chemical glutamate. Sulphoraphane is found in a variety of cruciferous vegetables, and was first identified as a "chemoprotective" substance decades ago, researchers said.

"It's possible that future studies could show sulphoraphane to be a safe supplement to give people at risk of developing schizophrenia as a way to prevent, delay or blunt the onset of symptoms," said  a professor. Schizophrenia is marked by hallucinations, delusions and the disordered thinking, feeling, behaviour, perception and speaking.

Drugs used to treat schizophrenia don't work completely for everyone, and they can cause a variety of undesirable side effects, including metabolic problems increasing cardiovascular risk, involuntary movements, restlessness, stiffness and "the shakes." In a study, researchers looked for differences in brain metabolism between people with schizophrenia and healthy controls.

They recruited 81 people within 24 months of their first psychosis episode, which can be a characteristic symptom of schizophrenia, as well as 91 healthy controls from the community. The participants were an average of 22 years old, and 58 per cent were men.

The researchers used a powerful magnet to measure and compare five regions in the brain between the people with and without psychosis. The researchers found on average four per cent significantly lower levels of the brain chemical glutamate in the anterior cingulate cortex region of the brain in people with psychosis compared to healthy people.

Glutamate is known for its role in sending messages between brain cells and has been linked to depression and schizophrenia, so these findings added to evidence that glutamate levels have a role in schizophrenia. Additionally, the researchers found a significant reduction of three per cent of the chemical glutathione in the brain's anterior cingulate cortex and eight per cent in the thalamus.

Glutathione is made of three smaller molecules, and one of them is glutamate. Next, the researchers asked how glutamate might be managed in the brain and whether that management is faulty in disease. They first looked at how it's stored.

Since glutamate is a building block of glutathione, the researchers wondered if the brain might use glutathione as a way to store extra glutamate. The researchers questioned if they could use known drugs to shift this balance to either release glutamate from storage when there is not enough or send it into storage if there is too much.

The team used the drug L-Buthionine sulfoximine in rat brain cells to block an enzyme that turns glutamate into glutathione, allowing it to be used up. The researchers found that these nerves were more excited and fired faster, which means they were sending more messages to other brain cells.

Shifting the balance this way is akin to shifting the brain cells to a pattern similar to one found in the brains of people with schizophrenia. Next, the researchers wanted to see if they could do the opposite and shift the balance to get more glutamate stored in the form of glutathione.

They used the chemical sulphoraphane found in broccoli sprouts, which is known to turn on a gene that makes more of the enzyme that sticks glutamate with another molecule to make glutathione. 

When they treated rat brain cells with glutathione, it slowed the speed at which the nerve cells fired, meaning they were sending fewer messages. The researchers said this pushed the brain cells to behave less like the pattern found in brains with schizophrenia.

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New Drug Combo Could Repair the Brains of Alzheimer’s Patients

Neurons receive, process, and transmit all the impulses in our brains. Essentially, they’re the building blocks of the human nervous system, and once they’re damaged by Alzheimer’s disease or some other brain injury, they’re done for — they have no regenerative abilities.

In contrast, the glial cells that support and insulate neurons do have regenerative abilities, and now, researchers think they've found an efficient way to actually transform glial cells into neurons — a discovery that could lead to a pill to repair brain damage.

Molecular Report

Based on a previous study, the team knew it was possible to convert human glial cells into neurons using a sequence of nine tiny molecules. However, the large number of molecules and specific sequence made transitioning the research from the lab to something that could work in a clinical environment difficult.

In a study published on Thursday, the  team describes how it found a way to streamline the process of creating neurons out of a type of glial cells called astrocytes with remarkable success.

“We identified the most efficient chemical formula among the hundreds of drug combinations that we tested,” a researcher said in a press release. “By using four molecules that modulate four critical signaling pathways in human astrocytes, we can efficiently turn human astrocytes — as many as 70 percent — into functional neurons.”

Dream Delivery

 The team acknowledged in the press release that it still has a long road ahead before its latest research will be able to help people with brain damage, but it’s extremely optimistic about the future.
“The most significant advantage of the new approach is that a pill containing small molecules could be distributed widely in the world, even reaching rural areas without advanced hospital systems,” research leader said.

“My ultimate dream is to develop a simple drug delivery system, like a pill, that can help stroke and Alzheimer's patients around the world to regenerate new neurons and restore their lost learning and memory capabilities,” he continued. “Our years of effort in discovering this simplified drug formula take us one step closer to reaching our dream.”

 

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The US Surgeon General just issued a rare advisory about e-cigs like the Juul - here's why vaping is so dangerous

In a rare national advisory, the top US public health official warned Americans of the dangers of e-cigarettes like the Juul, a popular device that lets users inhale nicotine vapor without burning tobacco.

US Surgeon General  said in a new advisory on Tuesday that e-cigs like the Juul are a particular danger to kids and teens, and called for fresh measures to halt their rising popularity.

"We need to protect our kids from all tobacco products, including all shapes and sizes of e-cigarettes" he said in a statement. "We must take action now to protect the health of our nation's young people."

The advisory singles out Juul by name multiple times, saying that the sleek devices are particularly popular among teens because they're easy to conceal and don't emit much odor. It tells parents, health professionals, and teachers to be on the look out for all forms of nicotine-delivery devices, including e-cigs.

His announcement comes on the heels of warnings from several other federal agencies about an explosion of e-cig use, including from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration.

In November, after new CDC data pointed to a 78% increase in e-cig use among high schoolers, FDA commissioner announced moves to further restrict sales of e-cigarettes to ensure they don't get into the hands of young people. That included a crackdown on flavoured offerings, which researchers say appeal strongly to youth.

Several days before the FDA's announcement, the startup behind the most popular e-cig in the US, temporarily halted it sales  of its falvoured varieties in stores until they agree to adopt the company's new age restrictions and a stronger system for making sure customers are at least 21 years old.

'E-cigs and youth don't mix'

Although smoking conventional cigarettes is uniquely deadly, and vaping appears to be somewhat healthier ( especially for adults looking to switch), public health experts are concerned about how e-cigarettes impact young people.

Because of their runaway popularity, e-cigs could create a new generation of Americans hooked on nicotine, one of the world's most addictive substances and the key ingredient in e-cigs like the Juul, these experts warn. Their concern comes in part from a host of studies which suggest that teens who vape are significantly more likely to go on to smoke regular cigarettes, compared to teens who never vape.
 

This finding could be related to the way nicotine impacts the developing brains of young people. Although the research on e-cigs is still limited because the devices are so new, researchers have a wealth of data on the negative impacts of nicotine on teens who start smoking early.

In brain imaging studies of adolescents who start smoking in their teens, researchers have found signs of reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex - the part of the brain tied to planning and decision-making. The same teens perform worse on memory and attention tasks compared with teens who don't smoke.

A clinical pediatrics , spoke about the Juul at the American Society of Addiction Medicine's annual conference this spring. He described some anecdotal effects of nicotine vaping that he'd seen among teens in and around his hospital.

"After only a few months of using nicotine," the Dr. said, the teens "describe cravings, sometimes intense ones." He continued: "After only a few hundred cigarettes - or whatever the equivalent amount of vaping pods - some start showing irritability or shakiness when they stop."

Most e-cigs contain toxic metals, and using them may increase the risk of a heart attack

Beyond e-cigs' impact on the developing brain, a host of health issues related to e-cigs is beginning to emerge.

This spring, scientists took a look at the compounds in several popular brands of e-cigs aside from the Juul and found some of the same toxic metals found in conventional cigarettes, such as lead.

A study published this month showed that people who vape tend to have high concentrations of some of these toxic chemicals in their bodies.

In another study published this summer, scientists concluded that there was substantial evidence  tying daily e-cig use to an increased risk of heart attack. And this fall, a small study in rats suggested that vaping could have a negative effect on wound healing that's similar to the effect of regular cigarettes.

But teens may not be aware of these health risks. Researchers say that could be because so little research has focused specifically on the Juul - the e-cig which currently captures 80% of the market share.

So for a study published in October, researchers  surveyed young people who vaped and asked them whether they used the Juul or another e-cigarette.

Based on their sample of 445 high-school students, the researchers observed that teens who used the Juul tended to say they vaped more frequently compared with those who used other devices. Juul users also appeared to be less aware of how addictive the devices could be compared with teens who vaped other e-cigs.

"I was surprised and concerned that so many youths were using Juul more frequently than other products," a professor of pediatrics who was a lead author of the study, said in a statement.

"We need to help them understand the risks of addiction," she added. "This is not a combustible cigarette, but it still contains an enormous amount of nicotine - at least as much as a pack of cigarettes."

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New eye test may detect signs of Alzheimer’s disease

The scientists have developed a new eye test that non-invasively scans the retina and detects beta-amyloid protein — a hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. Amyloid beta are amino acids and main component of the amyloid plaques found in the brains of Alzheimer patients. The experimental technology scans the retina using techniques that can identify beta-amyloid protein deposits that mirror those in the brain. The findings revealed a 4.7-fold increase in retinal plaque burden in patients with Alzheimer’s, compared to controls.  “As a developmental outgrowth of the central nervous system that shares many of the brain’s characteristics, the retina may offer a unique opportunity to easily and conveniently detect and monitor Alzheimer’s disease,” said a scientist. Accumulations of neurotoxic beta-amyloid protein can be detected with positron emission tomography, or PET scans, and analysis of cerebrospinal fluid, but these are invasive, inconvenient and costly, making them impractical for routine screening and follow-up evaluation.

However, the new technique uses an auto-fluorescence imaging system that includes a specialised ophthalmic camera and sophisticated image processing software.  The tests non-invasively detects presumed amyloid deposits in retinas of living patients. In addition, the tests showed retinal plaque clusters, or “hot spots”, containing the most toxic forms of beta-amyloid with specific distribution patterns in superior peripheral regions that were previously unexplored. “Findings from this study strongly suggest that retinal imaging can serve as a surrogate biomarker to investigate and monitor Alzheimer’s disease (early in the process),” noted the Associate Professor.

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