Ученые выявили закономерный механизм потери синапсов при шизофрении

Here at Top Comments we strive to nourish community by rounding up some of the site’s best, funniest, most informative commentary, and we depend on your help!! Here’s how to submit nominations in DK6: If you see a comment by another Kossack that deserves wider recognition, please send it either to topcomments at gmail dot com or via kosmail to topcomments- either search for user @topcomments, or click that link then click “send message”!) by 9:30pm Eastern for inclusion in that day’s diary. Please, please include a few words about why you sent it in as well as your user name (even if you think we know it already :-)), so we can credit you with the find! It’s especially helpful if you include a link to the comment you’re nominating… hover over the comment and you’ll see Share and Report options. Click Share, then choose ”copy url” and paste that into your message to us. Schizophrenia is, of course, a serious, often debilitating, psychological condition that results in a serious mismatch between reality and a person’s perception of it. A recent report describes efforts to understand what, precisely, has happened to the brains of schizophrenia patients, and also at what locations in the brain these changes occur. It appears that synaptic connections between neurons (nerve cells) in the brain are reduced in patients with schizophrenia. The synapses are the gaps between neurons where neurotransmitters jump from one neuron to the next to cause the next neuron to “fire,” and so carry a signal to the next neuron down the line. What we do and what we think is all tied up in this kind of synaptic signaling. The method used to observe these synapses is positron emission tomography, or PET. In this technique, the patient takes a pharmaceutical which has a radionuclide (a radioactive isotope of some sort) attached to it. The pharmaceutical attaches itself to the organ of interest. The radionuclide in the case of PET is one that emits a positron, which is an anti electron. Of course, this positron, once it’s emitted, is surrounded by electrons, so it positron will annihilate one of these electrons and produce two gamma rays that propagate in exact opposite directions. A detector will detect both of these gamma rays, and use their detection locations to determine the precise location of the organ where the annihilation took place, which is also where the pharmaceutical attached itself to the location of interest for research. Researchers used PET on 122 subjects, 29 or which were diagnosed with schizophrenia. What they observed was a pattern of reduction in synaptic connections in certain parts of the brain. The team also discovered that the brain regions showing the greatest synaptic losses tended to contain high concentrations of receptors for important neurotransmitters, including serotonin, gamma-aminobutyric acid and glutamate. The finding suggests that the molecular characteristics of individual brain regions may influence how vulnerable they are to changes associated with schizophrenia. To explore how synaptic loss might move through the brain, the researchers used computer simulations based on the brain’s structural connections. Their modeling identified an area in the left frontal lobe as a likely starting point from which synaptic loss could spread into connected regions. “These findings suggest that in schizophrenia, synaptic loss is not random,” Chopra said. “Rather, it follows the brain’s molecular and connectivity architecture, which could eventually help identify where and how to intervene.” “This detailed mapping of synaptic vulnerability could eventually help identify where and how to intervene to preserve or restore brain function, such as emerging therapies to prevent and regrow synapses,” Holmes added. This is a remarkable and exciting result. The better we understand the problems with the brain that give rise to schizophrenia, the more likely effective treatments can be developed to restore the brain to being fully functional. On to the Comments: From njm5000: Thought this comment by A Pagan in Arizona told the whole story in just a few words. From 10 Gems from Bluesky Today — Day 441 by OzPerspective.