Eitan okun Ph.D.

Amazing!

During chronic stress, immune cells migrate to the brain’s borders and fuel fear responses. psychedelics like psilocybin and MDMA block this immune-brain chatterת calming neurons, but cooling inflammation at the brain's edge.
Link to report: www.nature.com/articles/d41...
#psychedelics #mentalhealth

Teen sleep shapes the brain. A 3,000+ teen study links later bedtimes & short sleep to weaker brain connectivity + lower cognition. Early, longer sleep? Stronger brains & better focus—lasting from age 9 to 14. Link to study: www.cell.com/cell.../full...

#SleepScience #BrainHealth #TeenCognition

Associations between chronotype, morbidity and mortality in the UK Biobank cohort Later chronotype (i.e. evening preference) and later timing of sleep have been associated with greater morbidity, including higher rates of metabolic dysfunction and cardiovascular disease (CVD). H...

Being a #NightOwl might come with a higher risk of Psychological disorders, Diabetes, Neurological issues and respiratory issues and early death according to a massive UK Biobank study tracking over 430,000 people for more than six years. Link to Study: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Phase I/II trial of iPS-cell-derived dopaminergic cells for Parkinson’s disease - Nature After transplantation into the brain of patients with Parkinson’s disease, allogeneic dopaminergic progenitors derived from induced pluripotent stem cells survived, produced dopamine and did not form ...

Two new “first-in-human” trials implanted lab-grown dopamine neurons into patients' brains—with signs of safety and symptom relief.

Links to studies:
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

#Parkinsons #StemCells #Neuroscience #ClinicalTrials

Human high-order thalamic nuclei gate conscious perception through the thalamofrontal loop Human high-order thalamic nuclei activity is known to closely correlate with conscious states. However, it is not clear how those thalamic nuclei and thalamocortical interactions directly contribute t...

Link to study: www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

New human intracranial data shows that certain thalamic nuclei may initiate awareness before the cortex even kicks in.
This shifts us from the usual “relay station” view of the thalamus, and redraw the map of consciousness.
#Neuroscience #Consciousness #BrainResearch #CognitiveScience #Awareness

Norepinephrine-mediated slow vasomotion drives glymphatic clearance during sleep - PubMed As the brain transitions from wakefulness to sleep, processing of external information diminishes while restorative processes, such as glymphatic removal of waste products, are activated. Yet, it is n...

Link to study: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39788123/

Slow arterial pumping, powered by norepinephrine waves during deep sleep, drives the brain’s glymphatic system to flush waste. The popular drug Zolpidem might induce sleep but block the cleanse.

#SleepResearch #GlymphaticSystem #MentalHealth #BrainHealth #Aging #Zolpidem #Longevity #SleepScience

Reversible reduction in brain myelin content upon marathon running - Nature Metabolism Using magnetic resonance imaging on marathon runners, Ramos-Cabrer, Cabrera-Zubizarreta et al. report that the signal detected as a surrogate of myelin content is significantly reduced after exercise,...

Marathons may reshape your brain. intense running causes up to 28% drop in brain myelin—but it recovers in 2 months. Your brain might burn myelin fat for fuel under stress. Not damage—adaptation.
Link to study: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

#Myelin #Running #BrainPlasticity #Marathon #Science

Immune evasion through mitochondrial transfer in the tumour microenvironment - Nature Mitochondria with mutations in their DNA from cancer cells can be transferred to T cells in the tumour microenvironment, which leads to T cell dysfunction and impaired antitumour immunity.

Link to study: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Cancer cells transfer mutated mitochondria to T cells—crippling their energy, memory, and function. They also sneaks in USP30 to block cleanup. A mitochondrial Trojan horse that helps explaining tumors resistance to immunotherapy.
#cancer #immunotherapy #oncology

New results from the DO-HEALTH trial suggest omega-3s can slow biological aging at the DNA level. Add vitamin D & exercise, and the effects stack up. Measured. Molecular.
Link to study: www.nature.com/articles/s43...
#Longevity #Aging #Epigenetics #DOHEALTH #Healthspan #Omega3 #Gerontology #Science

A humanized NOVA1 splicing factor alters mouse vocal communications - Nature Communications The neuron-specific RNA binding protein NOVA1 has a single amino acid substitution unique to modern humans. Here, the authors characterize the evolutional specificity and the function of the substitut...

Link to study: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Could a single amino acid change in our genome have nudged us toward language?
New study humanizes the NOVA1 gene in mice—and subtly rewires their vocal behavior.
Is this how speech began?

#Genetics #Neuroscience #Evolution #Language #RNA #SciComm #FOXP2 #MouseModel

Molecule-MCP is a very cool tool connecting PyMOL and ChimeraX directly to Claude through the Model Context Protocol for prompt-assisted molecule modelling. Great stuff by Jinyuan Sun et al
github.com/ChatMol/mole...

Hippocampal encoding of memories in human infants Humans lack memories for specific events from the first few years of life. We investigated the mechanistic basis of this infantile amnesia by scanning the brains of awake infants with functional magne...

Link to study: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Babies form memories, but retrieving them later in life is challenging! A new fMRI research shows that by 12 months, hippocampal activity already predicts recognition. This shifts the debate in infants recognition from encoding to retrieval failures. #Neuroscience #InfantileAmnesia #MemoryResearch

Aging activates escape of the silent X chromosome in the female mouse hippocampus Aging activates the silent X chromosome, increasing escape expression, and potentially cognitive resilience, in the female mouse.

Link to study: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Why do women live longer and show greater cognitive resilience in aging? Aging can “reactivate” silent genes on the X chromosome—especially in the hippocampus—boosting brain function. Potential for new cognitive therapies? #AgingResearch #CognitiveResilience #XChromosome #Neuroscience

Link to study: alz-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdfdirec...

New research shows that exercise may help protect the brain's white matter by supporting myelin integrity—especially in those with higher levels of 'good' cholesterol (HDL). This may help explain the effect of exercise in MS.

#BrainHealth #Neuroscience #Exercise #Myelin #HealthyAging #Science

A short-term, high-caloric diet has prolonged effects on brain insulin action in men - Nature Metabolism Short-term overeating with calorie-rich snacks is shown to disrupt insulin action in the brain of men, which outlasted the time-frame of overeating.

Link to study: www.nature.com/articles/s42...

Just 5 days of consuming an extra 1,500 kcal of a daily high-calorie, ultra-processed diet, can disrupt brain insulin signaling, affecting appetite control & metabolism—long after returning to normal eating habits.

#BrainHealth #Metabolism #InsulinResistance #UltraProcessedFood

Risdiplam for Prenatal Therapy of Spinal Muscular Atrophy | NEJM The alternate splicing small molecule risdiplam, administered to a fetus with spinal muscular atrophy, had an apparent ameliorating effect on the disorder through 30 months.

Link to study: www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/...

Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) treatment before birth! For the first time, researchers administered Risdiplam (Evrysdi) prenatally, preventing symptoms in an infant diagnosed with SMA type 1.

#Medicine #SMA #PrenatalTreatment #Biotech #Neuroscience #GeneTherapy #Innovation #MedicalBreakthrough

Differential impact of lymphatic outflow pathways on cerebrospinal fluid homeostasis This study investigates how different lymphatic drainage pathways from the central nervous system regulate cerebrospinal fluid homeostasis, highlights the

Link to study: rupress.org/jem/article/...

Movement boosts brain detox! Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) clearance is linked to physical activity. Walking, breathing & posture shifts help flush brain waste, through deep and superficial cervical lymph nodes, reducing neurodegenerative risk. #BrainHealth #Neuroscience #Exercise #CSF #Alzheimers

Link to study: www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1...

Microplastics can enter the bloodstream, block brain capillaries, causing cognitive impairments. Immune cells attempt to tackle these particles but end up worsening the problem.
#Microplastics #BrainHealth #PlasticPollution #EnvironmentalHealth #HealthRisks #Neuroscience #EcoAwareness #ClimateAction