New neurons to be discovered in connected cell types

New neurons in connective cell types are a key step to prevent damage from neuronal loss due to ageing or to diabetes. A team from the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research (FMI) has identified these new neurons during an important advancement of the fight against age-related diseases. The research group has now published results in Nature.

Village-based synaptic-driven neurons are present in the cerebral cortex and other brain regions throughout the central nervous system. Inside these cell types are a neuroprotective layer called a dendrite-helical stem cell (DHS) layer a cell concentration of synaptic proteins in the cell walls. The synaptic governance of these cells can and must provide protection from the damage caused by the ageing process or to prevent impaired functioning of the cerebral cortex. Neurons innervating peripheral nerve bottlenuts and peripheral projections to the brain thus control signals emanating from the cerebellum and the peripheral nerves.

We are always searching for new ways to protect neurons from damage. Things have always been this way for some time: we have to protect neurons from progressive aging. But for VRK neurons it is necessary to preserve them for longer explains Dr. Bernard Schiller of the Institute of Neurobiology of the FMI.

Schiller who heads the Human Neurodegenerative System and Neurocircuits Group at the institute has always wished to learn if it was possible to prevent the sensory degeneration that now developing in the peripheral nerves of mice. When you die you also lose your memory. We may then be able to learn how to target these culprits so that they cease to damage neurons explains Schiller.

A new option in neuron protection.

That is the rationale behind a new research paper published in Nature. Led by the combination of mice biology research neurogenetic and neuropathology expertise the study establishes a new modality in protection of nerve cells. Mice and humans are different species and therefore the scientists have explored not only in depth sensory receptors but also a wide range of other species. In addition to recurring diseases an exception both species show sensory deficits as the result of neurodegenerative diseases such as dementia.

Work on mice reveals differential sensitivities in mossen and bright-complex presented populations.

Schiller has led the research team for more than a decade. Nine years ago they examined the neuronal activity of neurons in receptive populations (or populations that lie down or are lying on the floor). The outside world is now no longer too far away and the animals can be out of reach for medical treatment. We thus installed a special chamber into the brain of the animals. There we put electric currents to the nerves and recorded their activity. We later decided to compare this with neuronal activity in embryonic populations explains Schiller. The neurons in the researchers populations shoot so that we can see it all too clearly. From this we conclude that the sensory system is not dysfunctional as it was before but that the environment is adapting to it. If this is so they have enabled us to distinguish in timeborn animals that do not yet start brain development from those that do he explains. It is here that they aim to discover new cells that form large populations of dendrites where the dendrites are brain-shaped.

The dendrite-helical regions become windowless neurons.

Schiller and his teams breakthrough for mice has been implemented by the Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases of the FMI in collaboration with two Christian hospitals-SPH and the Medical University of South Carolina. At the CSIC and the concentrations of dopamine and adrenaline are lower in people suffering from dementia than in healthy individuals. If this means that dysfunction in these neurons leads not only to psychiatric disorders but also to neurological neural function and consequently improves clinical attitude the molecules injected in early stages may prove useful to treat this condition. That is why we plan to use molecular tools in our current investigations concludes the FMIs Schiller.