Neural Cell News Volume 10.33 | Aug 24 2016

TOP STORY

There’s Hope for Reversing Stroke-Induced Long-Term Disability

Permanent brain damage from a stroke may be reversible thanks to a developing therapeutic technique. The novel approach combines transplanted human stem cells with a special protein that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration already approved for clinical studies in new stroke patients. [Press release from University of Southern California discussing online prepublication in Nature Medicine] Press Release | Abstract

(Ranked by impact factor of the journal)

The Retina as an Early Biomarker of Neurodegeneration in a Rotenone-Induced Model of Parkinson’s Disease: Evidence for a Neuroprotective Effect of Rosiglitazone in the Eye and Brain

Scientists showed that rosiglitazone can efficiently protect retinal neurons from the rotenone insult, and that systemic administration of liposome-encapsulated rosiglitazone has an enhanced neuroprotective effect on the retina and central nervous system. [Acta Neuropathol] Full Article | Press Release

Severe NDE1-Mediated Microcephaly Results from Neural Progenitor Cell Cycle Arrests at Multiple Specific Stages

Using in utero electroporation of NDE1 short hairpin RNA in embryonic rat brains, researchers observed cell cycle arrest of proliferating neural progenitors at three distinct stages: during apical interkinetic nuclear migration, at the G2-to-M transition and in regulation of primary cilia at the G1-to-S transition. [Nat Commun] Full Article | Press Release

LIN28A Enhances the Therapeutic Potential of Cultured Neural Stem Cells in a Parkinson’s Disease Model

Investigators observed that the culture-dependent changes of neural stem cells derived from the ventral midbrain coincided with loss of RNA-binding protein LIN28A expression. [Brain] Abstract

Curcumin Changes the Polarity of Tumor-Associated Microglia and Eliminates Glioblastoma

Researchers used the non-invasive strategy of intranasal delivery of a glioblastoma-directed adduct of curcumin (CC), CC-CD68Ab, into the brain of mouse glioblastoma GL261-implanted mice to study the effect of CC on tumor remission and on the phenotype of the tumor-associated microglial cells. [Int J Cancer] Abstract

Metalloproteinases ADAM10 and ADAM17 Mediate Migration and Differentiation in Glioblastoma Sphere-Forming Cells

Investigators isolated multipotent sphere-forming cells from human high grade glioma (glioma sphere-forming cells) to investigate the adhesive and migratory properties of these cells in vitro. [Mol Neurobiol] Full Article

Mfn2 Is Required for Mitochondrial Development and Synapse Formation in Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells/hiPSC Derived Cortical Neurons

By employing the human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) differentiation system, researchers fully characterized mitochondrial development, neurogenesis and synapse formation in hiPSCs-derived cortical neurons. [Sci Rep] Full Article

Parkinson Disease-Linked GBA Mutation Effects Reversed by Molecular Chaperones in Human Cell and Fly Models

Researchers treated fibroblast cells from Parkinson disease patients with heterozygous GBA mutations and Drosophila expressing human wild-type, N370S and L444P GBA with the molecular chaperones ambroxol and isofagomin [Sci Rep] Full Article

Transcriptome and In Vitro Differentiation Profile of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Derived NKX2.1-Positive Neural Progenitors

Investigators characterized the transcriptome of medial ganglionic eminence-like neural progenitors using RNA sequencing and demonstrate the capacity of these cells to differentiate into inhibitory interneurons in vitro using a neuron-astrocyte co-culture system. [Stem Cell Rev] Abstract

Ghrelin Gene Products Rescue Cultured Adult Rat Hippocampal Neural Stem Cells from High Glucose

Scientists investigated the role of these peptides on the survival of cultured hippocampal neural stem cells exposed to high glucose insult. [J Mol Endocrinol] Abstract

The ROCK/GGTase Pathway Are Essential to the Proliferation and Differentiation of Neural Stem Cells Mediated by Simvastatin

Scientists investigated the effects of different doses of simvastatin on the survival, proliferation, differentiation, migration, and cell cycle of neural stem cells as well as underlying intracellular signaling pathways. [J Mol Neurosci] Abstract

MicroRNA-506-3p Regulates Neural Stem Cell Proliferation and Differentiation through Targeting TCF3

Researchers predicted that microRNA-506-3p would target TCF3 and demonstrated that miR-506-3p negatively regulates TCF3 expression. The expression level of miR-506-3p was significantly increased during neural stem cell differentiation. [Gene] Abstract

Brain Repair and Reprogramming: The Route to Clinical Translation

The authors review the development of cell-replacement strategies for brain repair in Parkinson’s disease using the example of human fetal brain cells being successfully translated from preclinical findings to clinical trials. [J Intern Med] Abstract

Different Mechanisms Must Be Considered to Explain the Increase in Hippocampal Neural Precursor Cell Proliferation by Physical Activity

The authors review the evidence for and against several different hypotheses and discuss the implications for future research in the field. [Front Neurosci] Full Article

Visit our reviews page to see a complete list of reviews in the neural cell research field.

Cantabio Pharmaceuticals to Present Results from its DJ-1 Protein Targeting Therapeutic Programs

Cantabio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced that Dr. Gergely Toth, Chief Executive Officer, will present results of the company’s DJ-1 protein targeting small molecule pharmacological chaperone therapeutic programs. [Press release from Cantabio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. discussing research presented at 4^th World Parkinson’s Congress, Portland] Press Release

Brain’s Chemical Signals Seen in Real Time

Neuroscientists have invented a way to watch the ebb and flow of the brain’s chemical messengers in real time. They were able to see the surge of neurotransmitters as mice were conditioned — similarly to Pavlov’s famous dogs — to salivate in response to a sound. [Press release from the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai discussing research presented at the American Chemical Society’s meeting, Philadelphia] Press Release

Louisiana Tech University Professor Receives NSF Grant to Advance Brain Research

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded a team led by Dr. Leonidas Iasemidis, the Rhodes Eminent Scholar Chair and professor of biomedical engineering at Louisiana Tech University, a $6 million grant over four years to investigate the origins and impacts of brain seizures associated with epilepsy. [Louisiana Tech University] Press Release

$1.3 Million NIH Grant Funds Brain Development, Cancer Research

Richard Cerione, Cornell professor of molecular medicine and chemistry and chemical biology in the colleges of Veterinary Medicine and Arts and Sciences, has received a four-year, $1.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the roles of two closely related signaling proteins in the growth and development of nerve cells (neurogenesis) and brain cancer. [Cornell University] Press Release

CU Researchers Win National Science Foundation Grant to Study Brain

Researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the University of Colorado Boulder have won an $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to try and reconnect neural communication between parts of the brain where it has been severed. [University of Colorado Boulder] Press Release

Putin Appoints Church Historian as Science Minister

Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed a church historian as the country’s new science and education minister. The president announced that Olga Vasilyeva would succeed the current science minister, Dmitry Livanov, who will become presidential envoy on trade and economic relations with Ukraine, according to the Russian news agency Interfax. [Nature News] Editorial

Obama’s Science Legacy: Betting Big on Biomedical Science

Ambitious bids to map the brain and cure cancer have not boosted overall research funding. [Nature News] Editorial

US Personalized-Medicine Industry Takes Hit from Supreme Court

Rejections for US patents related to personalized medicine have spiked after recent Supreme Court decisions tightened the rules for such claims, an analysis of more than 39,000 patent applications reveals. [Nature News] Editorial

Updated: Companies Settle Gene Technology Patent Fight That Was Shrouded in Mystery

Illumina Inc. and Oxford Nanopore Technologies have reached a settlement in this legal battle, according to a U.S. International Trade Commission document released last week. Oxford has agreed not to import or sell any product containing a pore with an amino acid sequence at least 68% similar to Mycobacterium smegmatis porin — the protein at the heart of Illumina’s infringement claim — and to destroy any inventory of such products. [ScienceInsider] Editorial

Obama’s Science Legacy: Uneven Progress on Scientific Integrity

Many researchers who watched Barack Obama’s inauguration in 2009 were thrilled by his pledge to “restore science to its rightful place”. But scientists and legal scholars say that, in many ways, Obama has failed to live up to that lofty promise. [Nature News] Editorial

NEW 28^th European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Symposium
November 29-December 2, 2016
Munich, Germany

Visit our events page to see a complete list of events in the community.

NEW Faculty – Developmental Neurobiology (St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)

Postdoctoral Position/Academic Advisor – Neural Engineering (University of Freiburg)

Research Group Leader – Neuroscience (Chica and Heinz Schaller Foundation)

Postdoctoral Fellow – Sensorimotor Neuroscience (Western University)

Postdoctoral Position – Neural Substrates of Taste-Guided Behaviors (University of Illinois)

Faculty Positions – Neural Engineering (University of Pittsburgh)

Postdoctoral Fellow – Stem Cell Biology (Stanford University)

Postdoctoral Fellow – Neuroscience (University of California Riverside)

Postdoctoral Researcher – Neuroscience/Stem Cell Biology (State University of New York)

Postdoctoral Researcher – Neuroscience (Max Planck Society)

Faculty Positions – Brain Research (IDG/McGovern Institute for Brain Research at Peking University)

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