Perineuronal nets: the extracellular matrix in memory

By Jhonata Lam Cells often sit in an environment consisting of an agglomeration of proteins and sugars termed the extracellular matrix. This can be fine-tuned to suit certain needs of specialised cell types in the body. Particularly, the human central nervous system, i.e. the brain and spinal cord, possesses a highly specialised extracellular matrix, whichContinue

The NPAS4-NuA4 complex: a novel regulator in neuronal DNA repair

By Shun Kit Leung Neuronal damage and loss are hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases and ageing in humans. This can occur through processes like reduced structural connectivity1 and oxidative damage, 2 the latter of which has been shown to accumulate throughout our lifetime. While most of our cells will undergo damage at some point in ourContinue

Molecules of motivation

By Naveesha Karunanayaka Motivation is the enthusiasm for doing something.1 It serves as a fundamental element of our being, influencing our interaction with the world and others. It is required for all animals to meet their basic needs, including shaping ambitions, building relationships, and ensuring wellbeing. Motivational drive arises from a synergy between internal statesContinue

The CA2 region: the underdog of the hippocampal formation

By Isabella Savin The hippocampus is located in the medial temporal lobe and is pivotal for learning, memory encoding and retrieval, and spatial navigation. The hippocampus and its surrounding structures are very well-characterised in terms of both connectivity and function. However, one hippocampal subregion – namely cornu ammonis 2(CA2, Figure 1) – has been woefullyContinue

Lying and what drives people to lie

By Naveesha Karunanayaka There is no one definition for a lie, however the Cambridge dictionary defines one as speaking falsely. The act of lying is to “say or write something that is not true in order to deceive someone”.1 It involves two parties: the deceiver and the deceived. Although the deceiver is the one activelyContinue

The link between viral infection and neurodegenerative disease

By Taylor Woetzel    In our rapidly evolving medical landscape, elucidation of many causal disease factors has declassed a myriad of diseases from heralds of death to minor inconveniences, easily treated by modern medicine. Once life-threatening diseases like smallpox and poliomyelitis have been virtually eradicated, owing to insights in virology that led to the production ofContinue

Oligodendrocyte precursor cells: beyond myelination

By Isabella Savin The canonical role of oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) in the brain is to mature into oligodendrocytes (OLs), the cells that produce the fatty myelin sheath enwrapping neurons. Upon recognition of damaged myelin, OPCs migrate to the site of damage and undergo a strict differentiation programme into OLs. OPCs persist throughout all 6Continue

Can COVID-19 aggravate Alzheimer’s Disease?

By Emmeleia Psyllaki Coronavirus disease 2019, widely known as COVID-19, is a very infectious disease that is caused by the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 or SARS-CoV-2 for short1.  The intensity of symptoms of infection can vary from those of a mild to moderate respiratory illness and relatively quick recovery without medical attention to thoseContinue

Myelin function and its implication in neurodegeneration

By Alice de Bernardy Myelin insulates neurons and enable a faster nerve conduction across the nervous system. This quite simplistic and straight forward definition presents myelin as an accessory helping us “think fast”. But Myelin’s fundamental role in health and implication in diseases presents it as a major regulator of nervous system integrity and fundamentalContinue

Metastasis to the brain and how to model it in vitro

By Alice de Bernardy Brain metastases are among the most critical diagnosis in the field of cancer therapies1. But the brain being a well-protected organ, we’ll try here to understand how cancer cells can metastase to the brain and how we can try to study this process in the lab.  But firstly, what is metastasis? It’sContinue