Inflammation modifies risk and/or severity of a variety of brain diseases through still elusive molecular mechanisms. Tomasoni et al. (open access article available at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5370184/) show that hyperactivation of the interleukin 1 pathway, through either removal of the interleukin 1 receptor 8 (IL-1R8,) or activation of IL-1R, leads to up-regulation of the mTOR pathway and […]
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Posts with tag 'synaptic plasticity'
Central Serotonin Receptor 7 constitutes a potential therapeutic target for Rett Syndrome
Rett syndrome is a neurodevelopment disorder affecting around 1 out of 10,000 girls, usually due to de novo mutations in the X-located gene MECP2. It is a complex disorder, both clinically and at a molecular level, and is typically characterized by a neurodevelopment regression starting at age 6 to 18 months after a normal early […]
Small-molecule cocktails can convert fibroblasts into functional neurons
Last August, the cover of the prestigious journal Cell Stem Cell, was dedicated to a pioneering discovery made by two independent groups that obtained functional neuron cells from human and mouse fibroblasts cultured with a cocktail of several small molecules. This finding may position these Chinese researchers at the cutting edge of translational and regenerative […]
Cholinergic neurotransmission and the developing brain
What do you know about acetylcholine? What about its role in the developing brain? Are there diseases of the central nervous system due to abnormal cholinergic transmission in paediatrics? Our current knowledge about disorders of neurotransmission in children is focused on transmitters such as dopamine, serotonin or GABA. By contrast little is known about the […]
