Changing the Way We View Brains and Hair

New Progress in Epilepsy Treatment

Epilepsy is a disorder that produces seizures as a result of the brain’s nerve cell activity being disrupted. Around 1.2% of the entire world has experience with epilepsy. This may not sound like a lot, but this percentage turns out to be around 65 million people. Although there are multiple anti epilepsy drugs, (AEDs) some patients become resistant to these treatments.

To combat this issue, researchers from Trinity College Dublin looked at the connection between blood vessels in the brain and epilepsy. Our brains use around 20% of the energy we produce daily, which we produce from the blood-brain-barrier (a web of capillaries that transport blood to the brain and spinal cord tissue, and prevents harmful substances from passing). The researchers found that a protein called claudin-5 was reduced in people with temporal lobe epilepsy (the most common type), and that the loss of this protein can produce seizures. They conjecture that restoring claudin-5 could prevent seizures. Additionally, these findings can be applied to other neurological disorders! Relief could soon be at hand for millions of people.

New discovery from Trinity College Dublin could lead to new treatments in preventing seizures. Epilepsy Ireland. April 4, 2022. https://www.epilepsy.ie/content/new-discovery-trinity-college-dublin-could-lead-new-treatments-preventing-seizures.

Does COVID-19 Impact the Brain?

COVID-19 has been widely studied since it spread around the world in 2020, but most scientists were focused on how it affects the lungs, even though COVID actually affects the entire body. COVID’s impact on the brain has remained a mostly under researched area until more recent studies conducted by a group of scientists including Avindra Nath of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke found damages to the brain in patients who had died of COVID.

The damages include harmed blood vessels, inflammatory cells (heal damaged tissue or attack bacteria) around the brain, immune cells (help the body fight off infections/diseases) in the brain itself, antibodies (proteins that act against an invader and produce an immune response) attacking the blood vessels, and even a small number of people have reported a tiny amount of virus in the brain itself. Patients reported brain fog, feeling as though their skin is abnormal, or suffering from headaches. And, a very small group of people experienced psychiatric issues of delusion or psychosis syndrome (losing touch with reality) as well. Keep in mind that those who were studied had severe cases of COVID.

Serena Spudich, a neurologist at Yale University has three hypotheses for why these symptoms are happening:

1. The virus is directly infecting cells in the nervous system or the brain’s supportive structures.
2. Autoimmune responses are attacking the brain
3. The lung has distal inflammation that can prompt cells in the brain to trigger long term changes of the cells.
   

Researchers around the world are racing to find answers and treatments to these impactful neurological symptoms.

M. Cantwell. Here’s what we know about Covid-10’s impact on the brain. Science. April 15, 2022. https://www.science.org/content/article/here-s-what-we-know-about-covid-19-s-impact-brain.

How Does Hair Grow Back?

A recent study conducted by researchers at Yale University looked at the connection between molecular signals and growth of hair follicles. Let’s first look at how hair follicles are formed: dermal condensates (cells under the skin) send signals to the outer layer of skin, directing hair follicles to form. The formation of dermal condensates has so far been unknown, and the team at Yale hoped to change that. Dr. Peggy Myung, Yuval Kluger, and her other colleagues looked at single-cell RNA-sequencing data from the skin of a mouse; from this, they were able to investigate the molecular signals involved in the formation and combine this information with other findings from in vivo genetic experiments (experiments in living things).

They found that the signals included in dermal condensate formation were Wnt (transduction pathways for immune cell renewal and upkeep) and SHH (informs how to make the protein Sonic hedgehog, a crucial signal for embryonic development). Genetically adjusting these signals changes the speed of dermal condensate formation. This finding is key for hair regrowth therapies and will most definitely be a tool used in regeneration. FInding a cure for baldness has been close to a holy grail for sufferers around the world. Any progress on this front is super exciting.

J. Shelton. One step closer to creating new hair follicles. April 13, 2022. https://news.yale.edu/2022/04/13/one-step-closer-creating-new-hair-follicles?utm_source=YaleToday&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=YT_YaleToday-Public_4-21-2022.