Two studies published this week have reported new insights into the role of the nervous system in tumors outside of the brain. Researchers at the Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine have identified a role for pain-sensing neurons in helping oral carcinomas cope with nutrient starvation, and that this interaction could be blocked by the calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP)-targeting migraine drug Nurtec ODT (rimegepant; Biohaven Pharmaceutical Holding Co. Ltd.).
Neurons are specialized cells with a high metabolic demand to fulfill their function, survive or keep a healthy half-life. In this sense, the anabolism and catabolism of proteins and lipids could be associated to different neurodegenerative diseases. At the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, scientists reported the latest discoveries on neuron metabolic needs at a session on 'Powering Thoughts: The Regulation of Neuronal Energy Metabolism and Mitochondria.'
Sensorium Therapeutics Inc. closed a $30 million series A round to fund the discovery and development of new psychiatric drugs, inspired by human ethnobotanical practices that date back hundreds or even thousands of years.
Self-organizing organoids resembling specific regions of the nervous system, including human cortical organoids (hCO), can be generated and used as disease models. However, the application of hCOs is precluded by several limitations, including the lack of integration into in vivo circuits that generate behavioral outputs. To overcome these issues, transplantation of hCOs into intact living brains has been proposed.
The tumor microenvironment is critical for the ability of cancers to survive and grow, and some aspects of the microenvironment are studied, and targeted, accordingly. Tumor immunology is one of the most active areas of cancer research and has become a pillar of treatment. Others, not so much. “The nervous system is the last component of the microenvironment that people have left completely unrecognized,” Humsa Venkatesh told BioWorld. Even in brain tumors and metastases, where the presence of neurons is glaringly obvious, there has been little attention to how the two interact until recently.
Investigators at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine have used a new mouse model of Parkinson’s disease to confirm a causal role for mitochondrial dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease. More surprisingly, the same model has called into question previously uncontroversial notions about the motor features that are PD’s most conspicuous feature.
Monitoring the electrical activity within and between cells on a large scale in a living animal may seem like a task that's next to impossible. But that's precisely what researchers at Cambridge, Mass.-based Harvard University aim to do with the next iteration of nanoscale sensors in the shape of wires.
