Researchers have discovered a potential treatment target for Down syndrome, Th17 cells could mitigate microbiome-linked diseases and electroacupuncture in Parkinson’s disease.
Researchers have discovered a potential treatment target for Down syndrome, Th17 cells could mitigate microbiome-linked diseases and electroacupuncture shows promise in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease.
New Potential Target for Down Syndrome
Researchers have found a potential treatment target for cognitive deficits in patients with Down syndrome.
Altered gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) secretion in patients with similar diseases, like Kallmann syndrome, presents as olfactory defects, gonadal immaturity and infertility. In the case of hypothalamic GnRH, there are projections to areas of the brain involved in intellectual functioning as well. Due to the symptom overlap, the researchers hypothesized that the maturation of the GnRH system may impact Down syndrome (DS).
To test this, they used a trisomic mouse model that displayed similar characteristics to humans with DS. The researchers were able to manipulate the microRNA involved in the GnRH developmental switch. When they did this, they saw an abolishment of altered gene expression as well as deficits in neuronal activity, olfaction and cognition.
With these promising results, the researchers moved on to a pilot study where they tested this process on human patients with DS. The treatment was found to be safe and is currently being used to treat patients with Kellman’s syndrome. Over the course of six months of pulsatile GnRH treatment, the patients showed improvement in cognitive performance and functional brain activity.
It appears that the GnRH system plays a developmental role in brain maturation and higher-order functioning, and therapy for the hormonal pathway may play an important part in the improvement of cognitive deficits in DS.
Depletion of Th17 Cells could Mitigate Microbiome-Linked Diseases
Researchers have discovered a contributing factor as to why high-sugar, high-fat diets may hurt the gut microbiome.
The gut microbiome is the system of bacteria that lives in the gastrointestinal tract. The microbiota in the gut are correlated to and thought to regulate metabolic syndromes, but how they do so is not completely understood. In the study led by Columbia University, the researchers showed that the intestinal microbiome protects against the development of obesity, metabolic syndrome and pre-diabetes by inducing Th17 cells.
High levels of fat and sugar contribute to the depletion of Th17 cells. It is known that Th17 cells are what help protect us from metabolic syndromes. Therefore, the researchers hypothesize that this diet-induced depletion of Th17 cells is a linking factor between diet and microbiome-linked diseases. They expressed optimistic that this information can be used for future studies to help prevent such diseases from developing in the first place.
Using Electroacuppuncture to Treat Parkinson’s Disease
Researchers succeeded in using scalp-abdominal electroacupuncture as a supplementary treatment for Parkinson’s Disorder (PD).
The randomized and controlled study examined electroacupuncture targeting the gut-brain axis. The researchers found PD patients who received electroacupuncture rather than their typical drug treatment showed marked improvement in their PD symptoms. The control group, which continued with their usual drug treatments, had expected results with little worsening and little improvement. After 8 weeks of scalp-abdominal electroacupuncture, PD patients had improved motor and non-motor PD symptoms, though there was no change in their disease stage.
Based on these results, the researchers concluded that electroacupuncture treatments may be useful not just on their own in early-stage patients, but also in conjunction with typical drug treatments in later-stage patients.
Blood Cancer Patients Generate Specialized T cells Against SARS-COV-2
In a new study from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, researchers report that blood cancer patients who don’t produce detectable antibodies after COVID-19 vaccination may have T cells specialized to protect against the virus.
Findings from the LLS National Patient Registry showed that 45% of blood cancer patients who had no detectable antibodies after full vaccination generated these specialized T-cells. Instead of preventing infection in the first place, these T-cells work to attack the virus once it has taken root inside cells, they found.
Newly Identified Biomarkers can Predict Onset and Severity of Eczema
Researchers led by Dr. Anne-Sofie Halling at Bispebjerg Hospital at the University of Copenhagen have discovered an immune biomarker in newborns that can predict the onset and severity of pediatric atopic eczema.
The study analyzed 450 babies to examine whether skin barrier and immune biomarkers could predict the onset and severity of eczema during the first two years of life. The researchers found that babies with elevated levels of Thymus and Activation-Regulated Chemokine (TARC) at two months were more than twice as likely to develop eczema by the age of two.
This risk was still present after adjusting for mediating factors, such as parental atopy (when the immune system is more sensitive to allergic diseases) and filaggrin gene mutations, both predispositions for eczema.
The test is painless and easy to perform and Halling said there is a “window of opportunity to develop targeted trials and prevent cases of eczema from occurring.”
