Professor Julian Paton and his team have published two Nature Communications papers over the last two months both of which have received a lot of media attention. The two papers are listed below with a short summary.
Abu-Hassan K, Taylor JD, Morris PG, Donati E, Bortolotto ZA, Indiveri G, Paton JFR, Nogaret A have published a paper entitled ‘Optimal solid state neurons’ Nature Commun 2019 Dec 3;10(1):5309.
In a multi-disciplinary international study, Abu-Hassan et al. have produced software that can interrogate voltage signals from intracellular recordings of neurones and predict with very high accuracy the membrane ion channels that are needed to generate this electrical behaviour.
Based on this software, a number of silicon neurones were made from semi-conductor material with identical properties to hippocampal and brainstem respiratory neurones. These neurons have utility for new cardiac pacemakers that respond to bio-feedback signals (currently being tested in the Department of Physiology, University of Auckland) as well as future neural interfaces allowing the brain to drive prosthetic limbs as well as sense touch in quadriplegic patients.
The discovery may one day also allow transfer of information from computers using machine learning to re-programme brains with dementia.
Read the paper
Marina N, Christie IN, Korsak A, Doronin M, Brazhe A, Hosford PS, Wells JA, Sheikhbahaei S, Humoud I, Paton JFR, Lythgoe MF, Semyanov A, Kasparov S, Gourine AV. (2020) have published a paper entitled ‘Astrocytes monitor cerebral perfusion and control systemic circulation to maintain brain blood flow’ Nature Commun. 2020 Jan 9;11(1):131.
Using a number of cutting edge techniques, Marina et al have discovered that the brain can sense blood pressure within its own arteries. These are a specialised group of astrocytes that are juxta-positioned between brain blood vessels and the nerve cells that regulate the circulation. These astrocytes appear to have stretch activated channels and respond to falls in blood perfusion to the brain. When this occurs, intracellular calcium is raised and adenosine triphosphate is released that activates nearby neurones that are connected to sympathetic nervous system circuits that innervate the heart and peripheral arterioles. Once activated, arterial blood pressure is raised that increases blood perfusion of the brain.
This discovery explains the Cushing Response described over 118 years ago by Dr Harvey Cushing. The study is the world’s first to find that astrocytes also function to sense and preserve blood flow to the brain. These cells now provide a novel target to increase brain blood flow in conditions of stroke and dementia, for example.
Read the paper
For further details please contact Nicola Shepherd