New type of brain cell discovered

Researchers have discovered a strange new type of brain cell that sends signals by bypassing the cell body altogether.

Neurons come in different shapes and sizes but the basic blueprint consists of a cell body, from which protrudes spindly appendages called dendrites and axons.

Dendrites are branchlike structures that receive signals from other nerve cells and deliver them to the cell body. The neuron then processes the signals and zaps along information to the next cell via a long projection called the axon.

The newly discovered cells, however, have a different, and until now, unknown process. In these cells, the signals skip the cell body altogether, instead traveling along an axon that projects directly from one of the dendrites.

"We found that in more than half of the cells, the axon does not emerge from the cell body, but arises from a lower dendrite," said study researcher Christian Thome, a neuroscientist at Heidelberg University and the Bernstein Center Heidelberg-Mannheim.

The new cells were discovered in the hippocampus of a mouse.

Humans have the same general brain structure and types of hippocampus cells as mice.

The hippocampus is home to extensively branched neurons called pyramidal cells because of their triangular cell bodies, 'Live Science' reported.

To map out the connections between these cells, researchers used a fluorescent red protein that stuck to the origin of each axon protruding from a cell.

They expected the axons to extend from the cell bodies. Instead, they saw that in many cases, the axons emerged from the branching dendrites instead.

The base of the hippocampus is divided into areas labelled CA1, CA2, CA3 and CA4. The most common site for strangely shaped cells was in the CA1 region, where about 50 per cent of cells had dendrite-originating axons.

About 28 per cent of cells in the CA3 region were the newly discovered shape, researchers said.

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Low cholesterol in immune cells slows HIV progression

Why some HIV-infected people experience much slower disease progression, even without medication? It has to do with cholesterol levels in specific immune cells, scientists have found.

"A fascinating aspect of the AIDS epidemic is that a small percentage of HIV-1-infected persons maintain a relatively normal number of CD4 T cells (Th cells) and low viral load for many years without receiving antiviral therapy," said Giovanna Rappocciolo from University of Pittsburgh. 

Knowing how these individuals naturally control their HIV-1 infection and prevent the virus from progressively destroying their Th cells could be critically important to developing effective therapeutic and prevention strategies for HIV-1/AIDS, she added.

When HIV enters the body, it is typically picked up by immune system cells, called antigen-presenting cells (APCs), including dendritic cells and B lymphocytes. 

Those cells then transport the virus to lymph nodes where the APCs pass it to other immune system cells, including Th cells, via a process known as trans infection. 

HIV then uses Th cells as its main site of replication.
"It is through replication in the Th cells that levels of HIV increase and overwhelm the immune system," she noted.

In the study Rappocciolo and her colleagues compared the ability of APCs from nonprogessors, progressors and uninfected control subjects to trans infect T cells.


They found that while the cells from progression and control subjects were highly effective at mediating trans infection, those from non-progression lacked the ability.

The researchers took a closer look and discovered that the APCs from non-progression had low levels of cholesterol, even though the patients had regular levels of cholesterol in their blood. 

This defect in cholesterol metabolism is not a direct consequence of virus infection. 

Rather, it is likely present as an inherited trait in a low percentage of individuals.


"Understanding how this works could be an important clue in developing new approaches to prevent progression of HIV infection," Rappocciolo said.

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