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Chemogenetics
Chemogenetics is the process by which macromolecules can be engineered to interact with previously unrecognized small molecules. Chemogenetics as a term was originally coined to describe the observed effects of mutations on chalcone isomerase activity on substrate specificities in the flowers of ''Dianthus caryophyllus''. This method is very similar to optogenetics; however, it uses chemically engineered molecules and ligands instead of light and light-sensitive channels known as opsins. In recent research projects, chemogenetics has been widely used to understand the relationship between brain activity and behavior. Prior to chemogenetics, researchers used methods such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and deep brain stimulation to study the relationship between neuronal activity and behavior. Comparison to optogenetics Optogenetics and chemogenetics are the more recent and popular methods used to study this relationship. Both of these methods target specific brain circuits ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gene Therapy For Epilepsy
Gene therapy is being studied for some forms of epilepsy. It relies on viral or non-viral vectors to deliver DNA or RNA to target brain areas where seizures arise, in order to prevent the development of epilepsy or to reduce the frequency and/or severity of seizures. Gene therapy has delivered promising results in early stage clinical trials for other neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, raising the hope that it will become a treatment for intractable epilepsy. Overview Epilepsy refers to a group of chronic neurological disorders that are characterized by seizures, affecting over 50 million people, or 0.4–1% of the global population. There is a basic understanding of the pathophysiology of epilepsy, especially of forms characterized by the onset of seizures from a specific area of the brain ( partial-onset epilepsy). Although most patients respond to medication, approximately 20%–30% do not improve with or fail to tolerate antiepileptic drugs. For such patient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Receptor Activated Solely By A Synthetic Ligand
A receptor activated solely by a synthetic ligand (RASSL) or designer receptor exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADD), is a class of artificially engineered protein receptors used in the field of chemogenetics which are selectively activated by certain ligands. They are used in biomedical research, in particular in neuroscience to manipulate the activity of neurons. Originally differentiated by the approach used to engineer them, RASSLs and DREADDs are often used interchangeably now to represent an engineered receptor-ligand system. These systems typically utilize G protein-coupled receptors (GPCR) engineered to respond exclusively to synthetic ligands, like clozapine N-oxide (CNO), and not to endogenous ligands. Several types of these receptors exists, derived from muscarinic or κ-opioid receptors. Types of RASSLs / DREADDs One of the first DREADDs was based on the human M3 muscarinic receptor (hM3). Only two point mutations of hM3 were required to achieve a mu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neurophysiology
Neurophysiology is a branch of physiology and neuroscience that studies nervous system function rather than nervous system architecture. This area aids in the diagnosis and monitoring of neurological diseases. Historically, it has been dominated by electrophysiology—the electrical recording of neural activity ranging from the molar (the electroencephalogram, EEG) to the cellular (intracellular recording of the properties of single neurons), such as patch clamp, voltage clamp, extracellular single-unit recording and recording of local field potentials. However, since the neurone is an electrochemical machine, it is difficult to isolate electrical events from the metabolic and molecular processes that cause them. Thus, neurophysiologists currently utilise tools from chemistry (calcium imaging), physics (functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI), and molecular biology (site directed mutations) to examine brain activity. The word originates from the Greek word meaning "nerve" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neurotechnology
Neurotechnology encompasses any method or electronic device which interfaces with the nervous system to monitor or modulate neural activity. Common design goals for neurotechnologies include using neural activity readings to control external devices such as neuroprosthetics, altering neural activity via neuromodulation to repair or normalize function affected by neurological disorders, or augmenting cognitive abilities. In addition to their therapeutic or commercial uses, neurotechnologies also constitute powerful research tools to advance fundamental neuroscience knowledge. Some examples of neurotechnologies include deep brain stimulation, photostimulation based on optogenetics and photopharmacology, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and brain–computer interfaces, such as cochlear implants and retinal implants. Background The field of neurotechnology has been around for nearly half a century but has only reached maturity in the last twenty years. The advent of brain ima ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neurology Procedures
Neurology (from el, νεῦρον (neûron), "string, nerve" and the suffix -logia, "study of") is the branch of medicine dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of conditions and disease involving the brain, the spinal cord and the peripheral nerves. Neurological practice relies heavily on the field of neuroscience, the scientific study of the nervous system. A neurologist is a physician specializing in neurology and trained to investigate, diagnose and treat neurological disorders. Neurologists treat a myriad of neurologic conditions, including stroke, seizures, movement disorders such as Parkinson's disease, autoimmune neurologic disorders such as multiple sclerosis, headache disorders like migraine and dementias such as Alzheimer's disease. Neurologists may also be involved in clinical research, clinical trials, and basic or translational research. While neurology is a nonsurgical specialty, its corresponding surgical specialty is neurosurgery. Histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chemical Engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials into useful products. Chemical engineering uses principles of chemistry, physics, mathematics, biology, and economics to efficiently use, produce, design, transport and transform energy and materials. The work of chemical engineers can range from the utilization of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in the laboratory to large-scale industrial processes that convert chemicals, raw materials, living cells, microorganisms, and energy into useful forms and products. Chemical engineers are involved in many aspects of plant design and operation, including safety and hazard assessments, process design and analysis, modeling, control engineering, chemical reaction engineering, nuclear engineering, biological engineering, construction specificatio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neuropsychiatry
Neuropsychiatry or Organic Psychiatry is a branch of medicine that deals with psychiatry as it relates to neurology, in an effort to understand and attribute behavior to the interaction of neurobiology and social psychology factors. Within neuropsychiatry, the mind is considered "as an emergent property of the brain", whereas other behavioral and neurological specialties might consider the two as separate entities. Neuropsychiatry preceded the current disciplines of psychiatry and neurology, which previously had common training, however, those disciplines have subsequently diverged and are typically practiced separately. Currently, neuropsychiatry has become a growing subspecialty of psychiatry as it closely relates the fields of neuropsychology and behavioral neurology, and attempts to utilize this understanding to better treat illnesses that fall under both neurological and mental disorder classifications (e.g., autism, ADHD, Tourette's syndrome). The case for the rapprochemen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neurodegeneration
A neurodegenerative disease is caused by the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, in the process known as neurodegeneration. Such neuronal damage may ultimately involve cell death. Neurodegenerative diseases include amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, multiple system atrophy, and prion diseases. Neurodegeneration can be found in the brain at many different levels of neuronal circuitry, ranging from molecular to systemic. Because there is no known way to reverse the progressive degeneration of neurons, these diseases are considered to be incurable; however research has shown that the two major contributing factors to neurodegeneration are oxidative stress and inflammation. Biomedical research has revealed many similarities between these diseases at the subcellular level, including atypical protein assemblies (like proteinopathy) and induced cell death. These similarities suggest t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rhinal Cortex
The rhinal cortex is the cortex surrounding the rhinal fissure, including the entorhinal cortex and the perirhinal cortex. It is a cortical region in the medial temporal lobe that is made up of Brodmann areas 28, 34, 35 and 36. Input from all sensory cortices flows to the perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices, whence it continues to the entorhinal cortex and then the hippocampus. After feedback from the hippocampus, information then returns in the reverse sequence to the sensory cortices. Explicit memory The rhinal cortex is proposed to be part of the neural circuit for explicit memory. Studies comparing the results of selective lesions of the hippocampus and of the rhinal cortex found that lesions of the hippocampus alone did not impair performance on object recognition tests, but that lesions of the rhinal cortex alone caused severe anterograde and retrograde impairments on these tests. The conclusion was that object recognition (semantic memory Semantic memory re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Orbitofrontal Cortex
The orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) is a prefrontal cortex region in the frontal lobes of the brain which is involved in the cognitive process of decision-making. In non-human primates it consists of the association cortex areas Brodmann area 11, 12 and 13; in humans it consists of Brodmann area 10, 11 and 47. The OFC is functionally related to the ventromedial prefrontal cortex.Phillips, LH., MacPherson, SE. & Della Sala, S. (2002). 'Age, cognition and emotion: the role of anatomical segregation in the frontal lobes: the role of anatomical segregation in the frontal lobes'. in J Grafman (ed.), Handbook of Neuropsychology: the frontal lobes. Elsevier Science, Amsterdam, pp. 73-98. Therefore, the region is distinguished due to the distinct neural connections and the distinct functions it performs.Barbas H, Ghashghaei H, Rempel-Clower N, Xiao D (2002) Anatomic basis of functional specialization in prefrontal cortices in primates. In: Handbook of Neuropsychology (Grafman J, ed), p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Parkinson's Disease
Parkinson's disease (PD), or simply Parkinson's, is a long-term degenerative disorder of the central nervous system that mainly affects the motor system. The symptoms usually emerge slowly, and as the disease worsens, non-motor symptoms become more common. The most obvious early symptoms are tremor, rigidity, slowness of movement, and difficulty with walking. Cognitive and behavioral problems may also occur with depression, anxiety, and apathy occurring in many people with PD. Parkinson's disease dementia becomes common in the advanced stages of the disease. Those with Parkinson's can also have problems with their sleep and sensory systems. The motor symptoms of the disease result from the death of cells in the substantia nigra, a region of the midbrain, leading to a dopamine deficit. The cause of this cell death is poorly understood, but involves the build-up of misfolded proteins into Lewy bodies in the neurons. Collectively, the main motor symptoms are also k ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
