biocable

Every day that passes we are closer to understand better our own brain, but also something almost more exciting: being able to fix it. The neuroscience It is a very important field because it connects biology, health and behavior to better understand human beings and in recent years we have been developing tools that allow us to go where we could not before. Neuralink or the chinese alternatives are an example, but now researchers at Duke University have gone another route: that of rewiring brain circuits. And the key is a biological “wire.” In short. A few days ago, the researchers from the Faculty of Medicine of the American university published a study in Nature in which they presented LinCx. It is the abbreviation for ‘Long-term integration of Circuits using connexins’ and, under that complicated name, what is really hidden is something that acts as a biological bypass to repair damaged neuronal pathways. Until now, there were some drugs that allowed acting on cell populations, as well as electrical stimulation and optogenetic techniques, but what the researchers propose with LinCx is a way to create artificial electrical synapses in a very precise way and without any type of external stimulation. In this way, instead of affecting large populations of cells, the authors can take a closer look and decide which connections are made based on the needs of each person. How it works. The basis of LinCx is a fish, white perch or American Moronespecifically. The team built it from connexin proteins found naturally in this fish, where it naturally uses electrical synapses for rapid communication between cells. From them, the team designed two molecules and each of them couples only with its partner and not with natural brain proteins. This is the reason why they can fine-tune the cells to which they connect, avoiding those unwanted connections and forming that “cable” (in many quotes) that allows the synapse to be made. Researchers define it as “precise electrical connections at the cellular level.” The tests. At the moment, they have not tested it in humans, but they have tested it in both mice and nematode worms. In the worms, the installation of these connectors altered the temperature-seeking behavior with which they are regulated. In mice, the researchers focused on reorganizing specific circuits to measure both social interaction and stress response. There is still. As we said, it is a great advance in the field of neuroscience because, unlike drugs, this LinCx only connects the neurons that want to connect. It’s like precision aiming instead of shooting with a shotgun. Now, although the results are promising, the tests have been very limited to animals and the next step is to establish whether LinCx can be the answer to reversing synaptic deficits in disorders of genetic origin. It is the next step of research and, if the results are positive, it is what could bring this technology closer to use in humans. Without a doubt, this is something promising because it is the first time that there is a tool to precisely control communication between very specific cells, but there is still some way to go. In Xataka | Human beings are stopping having children on Earth. China is looking for the solution in space