Previously unknown pain-sensing organ discovered in human body

Swedish researchers have discovered a new sensory organ in the skin that is sensitive to painful mechanical damage such as pricks and pressure.

The new pain-sensitive organ is organised together with pain-sensitive nerves in the skin, says researchers.

"Our study shows that sensitivity to pain does not occur only in the skin's nerve fibres, but also in this recently-discovered pain-sensitive organ," said a professor.

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"The discovery changes our understanding of the cellular mechanisms of physical sensation and it may be of significance in the understanding of chronic pain," the Prof. said. 

In experiments, the researchers also blocked the organ and saw a resultant decreased ability to feel mechanical pain.

Almost one person in every five experiences constant pain and there is a considerable need to find new painkilling drugs, according to research published. The discovery of the previously unknown pain-sensing organ could lead to the development of new painkilling drugs.

The team found that these Schwann cells—main "supporting cells" of the peripheral nervous system which wrap around axons of motor and sensory neurons—are octopus-shaped. The body of the cells lies beneath the outer layer of the skin, and there are longer extensions around the edge of the nerve cells that are pain sensitive, extending  up into the epidermis, the outer layer of the skin. Thus it collectively go to make up a mesh-like organ within the skin and remains sensitive to painful mechanical damage such as pricks and pressure.

Sensitivity to pain is required for survival and it has a protective function. It prompts reflex reactions that prevent damage to tissue, such as pulling your hand away when you feel a jab from a sharp object or when you burn yourself.

Activation of the organ results in electrical impulses in the nervous system that result in reflex reactions and an experience of pain, the researchers said.

Breathing Pure Oxygen Could Repair Brain Damage Years After a Concussion

Researchers have revisited hyperbaric oxygen sessions as a possible treatment for brain damage sustained after a concussion. According to a report compiled for experts, in a single year, approximately 2.2 million emergency room visits were for traumatic brain injuries (TBI). The majority of these injuries are considered mild and are commonly called concussions. These injuries are common in contact sports and in soldiers.

Most individuals who suffer a concussion are able to heal back to normal brain activity, yet up to five percent of sufferers can experience long-term symptoms. This is called post-concussion syndrome and it can manifest with headaches, mood changes, and other cognitive problems. The symptoms are caused by damage to blood vessels in the brain, making it more difficult for the organ to receive adequate oxygen.

A study published in 2013 showed that treating post-concussion syndrome patients with pure oxygen significantly improved cognitive function and quality of life for participants. Research  shows exactly how this treatment heals the brain. The lead researcher explained that “Once the extra oxygen diffuses into damaged areas, it supplies energy and the regenerative process can happen.” The extra oxygen helped to regrow blood vessels and nerve fibers.

This treatment was previously tested in 2015 by researchers. They concluded that the treatment was not effective. However, their conclusions were based on a faulty interpretation of their supposed “sham” treatment. The researchers subjected a group of participants to a pressurized chamber with normal levels of oxygen. These patients also showed improved cognitive function, so the researchers concluded that the treatment was no more effective than breathing normally.

However, the researchers did not account for the higher pressure actually allowing more oxygen to enter the brain, thus performing along the same lines as the patients who were actually receiving the active treatment. “It was meant to be a sham treatment, but it was actually an active treatment,” says the researcher.

Using hyperbaric oxygen treatments for post-concussion syndrome still needs to be approved by the FDA. More research is needed to confirm its safety and efficacy. However, should the treatment prevail, it will be the first to tackle the underlying causes of the syndrome, as opposed to treating individual symptoms.

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The Connection Between Your Appendix and Parkinson's

Scientists have discovered a new clue that Parkinson's disease may get its start not in the brain, but in the gut - and possibly in the appendix. It was found that people who had their appendix removed early in life had a lower risk of getting the tremor-inducing brain disease decades later. 

The appendix, which is often considered to be useless, seems to be a storage depot for an abnormal protein. Which, if it somehow makes its way into the brain, becomes a hallmark of Parkinson's. But, before you do go rushing to a surgeon, a neuroscientist and geneticist who led the research team, stressed: "we're not saying to go out and get an appendectomy." Furthermore, there are plenty of people who have no appendix yet still develop Parkinson's. In addition, plenty of others harbor the protein but never get sick. 

 

Understanding the gut connection
Doctors and patients have long suspected a connection between the gastrointestinal tract and Parkinson's. It was also noticed that constipation and other GI troubles are very common for a number of years before patients experience tremors and movement difficulty that lead to a Parkinson's diagnosis. 

A Parkinson's specialist , who wasn't part of the study, but has many of her patients ask about the gut link says "This is a great piece of the puzzle. It is a fundamental clue."

A chief scientific officer, who too wasn't involved agreed that "there's a lot of tantalizing potential connections." Furthermore, he noted that despite its reputation, the appendix appears to play a role in immunity which may influence gut inflammation. In addition, the type of gut bacteria that live in the gut may also affect Parkinson's. 

However, if it truly is common to harbor that Parkinson's-linked protein, "what we don't know is what starts it, what gets this whole ball rolling," the Dr. says. 

Scientists have for many years hypothesized about what might cause the gut-Parkinson's connection. One main theory included the possibility of bad "alpha-synuclein" protein which can travel from nerve fibers in the GI tract up the vagus nerve. This connects the body's major organs to the brain. Abnormal alpha-synuclein is toxic to brain cells involved with movement. There have also been other clues. Decades ago, people who have had their vagus nerve cut as part of a now-abandoned therapy had a reduced risk of Parkinson's. Smaller studies have suggested appendectomies, too, might be protective - but the results were conflicting.

Consequently, the team set out to find stronger evidence. Firstly, the researchers analyzed Sweden's national health database. They examined medical records of nearly 1.7 million people tracked since 1964. It was discovered that the risk of Parkinson's was 19% lower among those who had their appendix surgically removed decades earlier. What was found to be puzzling was that people living in rural areas appeared to get the benefit. The Dr. said that it is possible that the appendix plays a role in environmental risk factors for Parkinson's, including pesticide exposure. In addition, further analysis suggested that people who developed Parkinson's despite an early-in-life appendectomy tended to have symptoms appear a few years later than similarly aged patients. 
 
A common protein
A Dr. who wasn't involved in the research says that kind of study doesn't prove that removing the appendix is what reduces the risk. Consequently, the team examined tissue from 48 Parkinson's-free people. It was found that in 46 of them, the appendix harbored the abnormal Parkinson's-linked protein. So did some Parkinson's patients. Whether the appendix was inflamed or not also did not affect their findings. 

This is a crucial finding because it means merely harboring the protein in the gut isn't enough to trigger Parkinson's, the Dr. said. There has to be another step that makes it dangerous only for certain people. She says, "the difference we think is how you manage this pathology," she said, about how the body handles the buildup. 

Her team plans additional studies. The findings are compelling , however, another key question is if the abnormal protein collects in healthy people's intestines. In addition, a Dr. adds another caution: There are other unrelated risks for Parkinson's disease, this includes suffering a traumatic brain injury. "This could be one of many avenues that lead to Parkinson's disease, but it's a very exciting one," she said.

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Living in sunny climate may cut multiple sclerosis risk

People living in areas which receive more of the Sun's rays are less likely to develop multiple sclerosis (MS) later in life, says a study.

In MS, the immune system attacks the protective sheath that covers nerve fibres and causes communication problems between the brain and the rest of your body. Ultimately, the disease can cause the nerves themselves to deteriorate or become permanently damaged, according to the doctors.

The findings suggest that adequate exposure to the Sun in childhood and young adulthood may especially be beneficial in terms of reduced MS risk. 

While ultraviolet B (UV-B) rays from the Sun can cause sunburn and play a role in the development of skin cancer, they also help the body produce vitamin D. 

Lower levels of vitamin D have been linked to an increased risk of MS.

"We found that where a person lives and the ages at which they are exposed to the Sun's UV-B rays may play important roles in reducing the risk of MS," said study author.

The study involved 151 women with MS and 235 women of similar age without MS. 

Participants lived across the US in a variety of climates and locations. Of those with MS, the average age at onset was 40. All of the women had completed questionnaires about summer, winter and lifetime Sun exposure.

The researchers found that women who lived in sunnier climates with the highest exposure to UV-B rays had 45 per cent reduced risk of developing M.

When looking at specific age groups, those who lived in areas with the highest levels of UV-B rays between ages 5 to 15 had a 51 per cent reduced risk of MS compared to the lowest group. 

In addition, those who spent more time outdoors in the summer at ages 5 to 15 in locations where exposure to UV-B rays was the highest had a 55 per cent reduced risk of developing the disease compared to those in the lowest-exposure group.

"Our findings suggest that a higher exposure to the Sun's UV-B rays, higher summer outdoor exposure and lower risk of MS can occur not just in childhood, but into early adulthood as well," said the author.
 
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Multiple sclerosis can be detected through new blood test

Researchers have found that multiple sclerosis (MS), a disease of the brain and spinal cord, can be detected by simply analysing blood samples. The current procedure for detection of the disease requires the invasive, often painful, process of collecting fluid from the brain and spine. The research identified two natural biomarker compounds, which have been linked to multiple sclerosis. The compounds, sphingosine and dihydrosphingosine, were found to be at significantly lower concentrations in blood samples from multiple sclerosis patients. As well as offering a diagnostic tool to identify MS, the discovery will aid the investigation of the role of the compounds in the disease and assist potential new drug development, the researchers said.

For the study,  the researchers used advanced mass spectrometry techniques. “Sphingosine and dihydrosphingosine have been previously found to be at lower concentrations in the brain tissue of patients with multiple sclerosis. The detection of these sphingolipids in blood plasma allows the non-invasive monitoring of these and related compounds,” the study said.

In MS, the immune system attacks the protective sheath that covers nerve fibres and causes communication problems between the brain and the rest of your body. Ultimately, the disease can cause the nerves themselves to deteriorate or become permanently damaged. Severe MS may lead some people to lose the ability to walk independently or at all. 

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Child Abuse May Alter Neurons in Brain

Adults who were victims of child abuse tend to have thinner layers of myelin coating in the brain, according to a new study.

Myelin is the protective fatty coating that covers the long thread-like parts of nerve cells called axons and helps them conduct electrical signals more efficiently. Myelin builds up progressively (in a process known as myelination) primarily during childhood, and then continues to mature until early adulthood.

Earlier research has shown significant white matter abnormalities in the brains of people who had experienced child abuse. (White matter is mostly made up of billions of myelinated nerve fibers stacked together.)

However, because these observations were made in the brains of living people through MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), it was impossible to gain a clear picture of the affected white matter cells and molecules.

To better study the microscopic changes which occur in the brains of adults who have experienced child abuse, the researchers compared post-mortem brain samples from three different groups of adults: people who had committed suicide who suffered from depression and had a history of severe childhood abuse (27 individuals); people with depression who had committed suicide but who had no history of being abused as children (25 individuals); and brain tissue from a third group of people who had neither psychiatric illnesses nor a history of child abuse (26 people).

The findings reveal that the thickness of the myelin coating in a significant proportion of the nerve fibers was reduced only in the brains of those who had suffered abuse as children. The researchers also found underlying molecular changes that selectively affect the cells responsible for myelin generation and maintenance. In addition, increases were found in the diameters of some of the largest axons among only this group.

The researchers speculate that together, these changes may alter functional coupling between the cingulate cortex and subcortical structures such as the amygdala and nucleus accumbens (areas of the brain linked respectively to emotional regulation and to reward and satisfaction). These changes may also contribute to altered emotional processing in adult victims of child abuse.

The researchers conclude that early life abuse may result in long-term disruption of a range of neural functions in the anterior cingulate cortex. They are planning to conduct more research that will help determine exactly how these effects impact the regulation of emotions and attachment.

Severe childhood abuse is tied to an increased risk of psychiatric disorders such as depression, as well as high levels of impulsivity, aggressiveness, anxiety, more frequent substance abuse, and suicide.

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