Medical Bulletin 31/August/2022

According to a study that was published in Radiology, a publication of the Radiological Society of North America, breast tissue characteristics that are visible on an MRI are associated with future second breast cancer risk in women who had a personal history of breast cancer.

The results suggest that BPE at postoperative surveillance breast MRI may indicate the response to breast cancer treatment and may be a predictor of the modified risk of second breast cancer after treatment in women with a personal history of breast cancer, according to researchers.

Ref:

Su Hyun Lee et al,Background Parenchymal Enhancement at Postoperative Surveillance Breast MRI: Association with Future Second Breast Cancer Risk,Radiology

Recent research has revealed a lot about Alzheimer's disease, but scientists have yet to paint a complete picture of how genetic risk for the illness causes brain damage that ultimately causes memory loss and cognitive decline.

A new study from the Keck School of Medicine, recently published in the Journal of Experimental Medicine documents, in real-time, that APOE4, the main susceptibility gene for Alzheimer's disease, leads to molecular changes in the brain's blood vessels, which are then followed by changes in the synapses that connect brain cells. The study also suggests potential targets in blood vessels for treatment early in the disease process - before cognitive decline occurs.

Ref:

Berislav Zlokovic et al,A 'multi-omics' analysis of blood-brain barrier and synaptic dysfunction in APOE4 mice,Journal of Experimental Medicine,10.1084/jem.20221137

Scientists have shown that uneven reinforcement and punishment learning can be used to explain obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). They demonstrated that disparities in brain calculations that relate present outcomes to prior actions can result in disordered behavior based on empirical tests of their theoretical model.

Specifically, this can happen when the memory trace signal for past actions decays differently for good and bad outcomes. In this case, "good" means the result was better than expected, and "bad" means that it was worse than expected. This work helps to explain how OCD develops.

Ref:

Yuki Sakai*, Yutaka Sakai*, Yoshinari Abe, Jin Narumoto ' Saori C. Tanaka,Memory trace imbalance in reinforcement and punishment systems can reinforce implicit choices leading to obsessive-compulsive behavior,Cell Reports,10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111275

The two populations of glia found in the brain, oligodendrocytes and astrocytes, are dysfunctional in Huntington's disease and may be the primary cause of much of the neuronal pathology observed in the condition, according to research from the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Glia cells play a critical role in maintaining the health of neurons and facilitating the chemical signaling between nerve cells. In Huntington's, glia are unable to perform these functions, leading to a breakdown in communication between neurons and, over time, cell death.

Ref:

Steve Goldman,A TCF7L2-reponsive suppression of both homeostatic and compensatory remyelination in Huntington disease mice,Cell Reports