Breathing cluster in complex neuron–astrocyte networks – It’s kind of funny how much work starts off with something equivalent to “We thought astrocytes merely supported neurons, boy were we wrong – but we don’t have the nuts yet to say neurons are support cells yet.” Really fascinating part about this is that it suggests a significant amount of neuron activity is just maintenance rather than actual processing.
Proteomics reveals differentially regulated pathways when comparing grade 2 and 4 astrocytomas – The interface is between immune and astrocyte networks is a current fascination, however this one jumped out at me for pointing out a huge issue with a lot of RNAseq work – “mRNA copies do not necessarily correlate with protein abundance”. This needs to be made into a giant poster and posted in every single lab in this domain.
Glial Cell Modulation of Dendritic Spine Structure and Synaptic Function – Another reminder that any processing neural circuits might do are an artifact of glial construction.
Deletion of voltage-gated calcium channels in astrocytes decreases neuroinflammation and demyelination in a murine model of multiple sclerosis – In real life this is a terrible thing to do, but apparently turning off the feedback circuit in astrocytes stops them doing astrocyte things. Who knew?
Nanometer-scale views of visual cortex reveal anatomical features of primary cilia poised to detect synaptic spillover (Preprint) – First, lets take a moment to appreciate how far and how fast imaging has advanced over the last decade. Before the 90’s brains were just lumps of meat for all we knew and we had no way to really see them in action. And now here we are. Makes sense that oligos don’t spam cilia since they maintain a reaction local to them (in a neuron for instance), and microglia also work exclusively in response to a limited signal set (e.g. astrocyte prune tags).
Contralateral Astrocyte Response to Acute Optic Nerve Damage Is Mitigated by PANX1 Channel Activity – It’s interesting that astrocytes may attempt to balance/average hemispheric effects, for “good” or “bad” effect.
The effects of methylphenidate and atomoxetine on Drosophila brain at single-cell resolution and potential drug repurposing for ADHD treatment – Every bit of random ass bullshit wrong with psychiatry is encapsulated by this blurb from the abstract: “The stimulant methylphenidate (MPH) and the non-stimulant atomoxetine (ATX) are frequently used for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); however, the function of these drugs in different types of brain cells and their effects on related genes remain largely unknown.” Like in any other field, whether shady vitamins/supplements or good old fashioned “drugs” official messaging is it’s so risky! You don’t know what it could do to you? But when it comes to these classes of drugs, which 60% of the time work 30% of the time it’s fucking YOLO. These guys also need to see the lab poster we are installing in all labs doing RNAseq.
Activation of mitophagy improves cognitive dysfunction in diabetic mice with recurrent non-severe hypoglycemia – That’s weird. And doesn’t make much sense. Are the assumptions about what constitutes cognitive dysfunction here valid? Edit: Yeah this one is bugging me. The only way I can think to make this work is if hypoglycemic states indicate overactive mitochondrial metabolism, and killing off some of that brings things more into balance (and an interesting example of immune cognition participation). If you have two processes running out of sync, you can speed up one or slow down the other, and this is the equivalent of slowing down the other. This also slots into the diabetes type III/”Alzheimer’s” symptomology, where over a long enough term this mitophagy is going to result in insufficient energy (rather than signalling) metabolism to sustain circuits.
Brain cholesterol homeostasis and its association with neurodegenerative diseases – Cholesterol is the substrate of “memory” or environmental response, whether it’s in creating the necessary products to digest food or facilitate the actin dynamics in dendrite shaping.
Astrocytes: new evidence, new models, new roles – A pretty decent overview.
Electroconvulsive therapy is associated with increased immunoreactivity of neuroplasticity markers in the hippocampus of depressed patients – Immune and astrocyte network interactions?