New Research Makes Promising Discoveries in Neuroscience

By Dr. Arthur L Burnett
Updated 2021-01-12 16:41:23 | Published 2021-01-12 16:40:25
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New Research Makes Promising Discoveries in Neuroscience

There are all kinds of stories in the news every day about diseases that take a tremendous toll on our health. There are new diseases popping up left and right that are able to kill us if we’re not careful. Everywhere we turn there are medical stories that we run into. Some of them are good news – new research or cures that have been discovered for one or another disease.

Whatever the story, there is no denying that it’s interesting since we all want to know more about things concerning our health. We want to know what’s happening with medical science that has been relentlessly trying to make new medical inventions and deter diseases.

LTP MECHANISM

New findings on a mechanism in the brain that controls the way nerve cells communicate with each other to regulate our learning and long-term memory could have major implications for the understanding of such neurodegenerative disorders as epilepsy and dementia.

In the brain, there is a type of synapse that intensifies the connectivity of our cells to make information transfer more efficiently. The LTP mechanism, as it’s called, is how the brain runs at the cellular level to allow us to learn and remember things. Problems arise when these processes don’t function the way they should.

The researches of the study say the new data will make it possible to find out the way synapses are controlled and how they communicate, which will help a lot in developing new ways of treating diseases like dementia and epilepsy. The findings include a multitude of information that helps scientists understand memory, cognition, developmental plasticity and neuronal networks formation. The researchers claim that they have even discovered new possible pathways to cure consequences of different forms of dementia, Alzheimer’s disease included.

MUTATION AND SUMO PROTEIN

Another discovery made recently by the medical community revealed the role a mutation in the brain plays in autism and epilepsy by impairing some biochemical processes. The study promises to offer a new way of treating these conditions in the near future. Researchers have found a protein called SUMO that changes some chemical processes. They also determined a mutation in synapses that is already associated with epilepsy and autism. This particular mutation interferes with the protein’s ability to function properly, which contributes to autism and epilepsy and, possibly, other diseases.

The new findings are believed to lead to new treatment options for Alzheimer’s, autism and epilepsy. And it’s really exciting to realize that these diseases that affect millions of people can be defeated once and for all in the near future.

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