X-ray emissions from black hole jets vary unexpectedly, challenging leading model of particle acceleration

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE COUNTY

 

IMAGE: EILEEN MEYER IS THE LEAD AUTHOR ON A NEW SURPRISING STUDY IN NATURE ASTRONOMY. THE PAPER APPEARS TO RULE OUT A LEADING THEORY FOR HOW BLACK HOLE JETS FORM X-RAYS. BLACK HOLE JETS ARE KNOWN TO EMIT X-RAYS, BUT HOW THEY ACCELERATE PARTICLES TO THIS HIGH-ENERGY STATE IS STILL A MYSTERY. ONE MODEL OF HOW JETS GENERATE X-RAYS EXPECTS THE JETS’ X-RAY EMISSIONS TO REMAIN STABLE OVER LONG TIME SCALES. HOWEVER, THE NEW PAPER FOUND THAT THE X-RAY EMISSIONS OF A STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANT NUMBER OF JETS VARIED OVER JUST A FEW YEARS. THE FINDINGS OPEN THE DOOR TO REIMAGINING HOW PARTICLE ACCELERATION WORKS. “HOPEFULLY THIS WILL BE A REAL CALL TO THE THEORISTS,” MEYER SAYS, “TO BASICALLY TAKE A LOOK AT THIS RESULT AND COME UP WITH JET MODELS THAT ARE CONSISTENT WITH WHAT WE’RE FINDING.” view more 

CREDIT: MARLAYNA DEMOND/UMBC

Researchers discovered only relatively recently that black hole jets emit x-rays, and how the jets accelerate particles to this high-energy state is still a mystery. Surprising new findings in Nature Astronomy appear to rule out one leading theory, opening the door to reimagining how particle acceleration works in the jets—and possibly also elsewhere in the universe.

One leading model of how jets generate x-rays expects the jets’ x-ray emissions to remain stable over long time scales (millions of years). However, the new paper found that the x-ray emissions of a statistically significant number of jets varied over just a few years.

“One of the reasons we’re excited about the variability is that there are two main models for how x-rays are produced in these jets, and they’re completely different,” explains lead author Eileen Meyer, an astronomer at University of Maryland, Baltimore County. “One model invokes very low-energy electrons and one has very high-energy electrons. And one of those models is completely incompatible with any kind of variability.”

For the study, the authors analyzed archival data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory, the highest-resolution x-ray observatory available. The research team looked at nearly all of the black hole jets for which Chandra had multiple observations, which amounted to 155 unique regions within 53 jets.

Discovering relatively frequent variability on such short time scales “is revolutionary in the context of these jets, because that was not expected at all,” Meyer says.

Rethinking particle acceleration

In addition to assuming stability in x-ray emissions over time, the simplest theory for how jets generate x-rays assumes particle acceleration occurs at the center of the galaxy in the black hole “engine” that drives the jet. However, the new study found rapid changes in x-ray emissions all along the length of the jets. That suggests particle acceleration is occurring all along the jet, at vast distances from the jet’s origin at the black hole.       

“There are theories out there for how this could work, but a lot of what we’ve been working with is now clearly incompatible with our observations,” Meyer says.

Interestingly, the results also hinted that jets closer to Earth had more variability than those much farther away. The latter are so far away, that by the time the light coming from them reaches the telescope, it is like looking back in time. It makes sense to Meyer that older jets would have less variability. Earlier in the universe’s history, the universe was smaller and ambient radiation was greater, which researchers believe could lead to greater stability of x-rays in the jets.

Critical collaboration

Despite Chandra’s outstanding imaging resolution, the data set posed significant challenges. Chandra observed some of the pockets of variability with only a handful of x-ray photons. And the variability in x-ray production in a given jet was typically tens of percent or so. To avoid unintentionally counting randomness as real variability, Meyer collaborated with statisticians at the University of Toronto and the Imperial College of London.

“Pulling this result out of the data was almost like a miracle, because the observations were not designed to detect it,” Meyer says. The team’s analysis suggests that between 30 and 100 percent of the jets in the study showed variability over short time scales. “While we would like better constraints,” she says, “the variability is notably not zero.”

The new findings poke significant holes in one of the major theories for x-ray production in black hole jets, and Meyer hopes the paper spurs future work. “Hopefully this will be a real call to the theorists,” she says, “to basically take a look at this result and come up with jet models that are consistent with what we’re finding.”

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JOURNAL

Nature Astronomy

DOI

10.1038/s41550-023-01983-1 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Data/statistical analysis

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Variability of extragalactic X-ray jets on kiloparsec scales

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

29-May-2023

Medical "microrobots" could one day treat bladder disease, other human illnesses

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO AT BOULDER

 

IMAGE: MEDICAL "MICROROBOTS" COULD ONE DAY DELIVER PRESCRIPTION DRUGS THROUGHOUT THE HUMAN BODY. view more 

CREDIT: SHIELDS LAB

A team of engineers at the University of Colorado Boulder has designed a new class of tiny, self-propelled robots that can zip through liquid at incredible speeds—and may one day even deliver prescription drugs to hard-to-reach places inside the human body.

The researchers describe their mini healthcare providers in a paper published last month in the journal Small.

“Imagine if microrobots could perform certain tasks in the body, such as non-invasive surgeries,” said Jin Lee, lead author of the study and a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering. “Instead of cutting into the patient, we can simply introduce the robots to the body through a pill or an injection, and they would perform the procedure themselves.”

Lee and his colleagues aren’t there yet, but the new research is big step forward for tiny robots. 

The group’s microrobots are really small. Each one measures only 20 micrometers wide, several times smaller than the width of a human hair. They’re also really fast, capable of traveling at speeds of about 3 millimeters per second, or roughly 9,000 times their own length per minute. That’s many times faster than a cheetah in relative terms. 

They have a lot of potential, too. In the new study, the group deployed fleets of these machines to transport doses of dexamethasone, a common steroid medication, to the bladders of lab mice. The results suggest that microrobots may be a useful tool for treating bladder diseases and other illnesses in people.

“Microscale robots have garnered a lot of excitement in scientific circles, but what makes them interesting to us is that we can design them to perform useful tasks in the body,” said C. Wyatt Shields, a co-author of the new study and assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering.

Fantastic Voyage

If that sounds like something ripped from science fiction, that’s because it is. In the classic film Fantastic Voyage, a group of adventurers travels via a shrunken-down submarine into the body of a man in a coma.

“The movie was released in 1966. Today, we are living in an era of micrometer- and nanometer-scale robots,” Lee said.

He imagines that, just like in the movie, microrobots could swirl through a person’s blood stream, seeking out targeted areas to treat for various ailments.

The team makes its microrobots out of materials called biocompatible polymers using a technology similar to 3D printing. The machines look a bit like small rockets and come complete with three tiny fins. They also include a little something extra: Each of the robots carries a small bubble of trapped air, similar to what happens when you dunk a glass upside-down in water. If you expose the machines to an acoustic field, like the kind used in ultrasound, the bubbles will begin to vibrate wildly, pushing water away and shooting the robots forward. 

Other CU Boulder co-authors of the new study include Nick Bottenus, assistant professor of mechanical engineering; Ankur Gupta, assistant professor of chemical and biological engineering; and engineering graduate students Ritu Raj, Cooper Thome, Nicole Day and Payton Martinez.

To take their microrobots for a test drive, the researchers set their sights on a common problem for humans: bladder disease.

Microrobot seen under a scanning electron microscope.

CREDIT

Shields Lab

Bringing relief

Interstitial cystitis, also known as painful bladder syndrome, affects millions of Americans and, as its name suggests, can cause severe pelvic pain. Treating the disease can be equally uncomfortable. Often, patients have to come into a clinic several times over a period of weeks where a doctor injects a harsh solution of dexamethasone into the bladder through a catheter. 

Lee believes that microrobots may be able to provide some relief.

In laboratory experiments, the researchers fabricated schools of microrobots encapsulating high concentrations of dexamethasone. They then introduced thousands of those bots into the bladders of lab mice. The result was a real-life Fantastic Voyage: The microrobots dispersed through the organs before sticking onto the bladder walls, which would likely make them difficult to pee out.

Once there, the machines slowly released their dexamethasone over the course of about two days. Such a steady flow of medicine could allow patients to receive more drugs over a longer span of time, Lee said, improving outcomes for patients. 

He added that the team has a lot of work to do before microrobots can travel through real human bodies. For a start, the group wants to make the machines fully biodegradable so that they would eventually dissolve in the body. 

“If we can make these particles work in the bladder,” Lee said, “then we can achieve a more sustained drug release, and maybe patients wouldn’t have to come into the clinic as often.”

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JOURNAL

Small

DOI

10.1002/smll.202300409 

ARTICLE TITLE

Bubble-Based Microrobots with Rapid Circular Motions for Epithelial Pinning and Drug Delivery

Use of AI: Placebo effect increases risk-taking

Peer-Reviewed Publication

LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS-UNIVERSITÄT MÜNCHEN

Human augmentation technologies refer to technological aids that enhance human abilities. They include things like exoskeletons, but also augmented reality headsets. A study at the Chair of Human-Centered Ubiquitous Media at LMU has now shown that users have high expectations of the effects of these technologies. As soon as they believe that AI is enhancing their cognitive abilities, they increase their risk-taking. And they do this independently of whether the AI is actually assisting them.

 

“The hype around AI applications affects the expectations of users. This can lead to riskier behavior,” says Steeven Villa, doctoral researcher at the Chair of Human-Centered Ubiquitous Media and lead author of the study.

 

Ruling out placebo effects

 

In the study, participants were informed they would be assisted by an AI application that augments their cognitive abilities during a virtual card game. In reality, there was no such AI enhancement. Nevertheless, the participants exhibited higher risk-taking as soon as they believed they were benefiting from AI.

 

The study points to the possible existence of a placebo effect in technical applications of this nature, akin to the well-established placebo effect for medication. “At a time when people are increasingly interacting with intelligent systems, it’s important to understand a possible placebo effect so that we can build systems that offer genuine support,” says Albrecht Schmidt, Professor of Computer Science at LMU. The researchers recommend assessing the actual benefit of AI applications before releasing them, taking possible placebo effects into account. In addition, they advise tech companies to involve users and their expectations to a greater extent in the development process.

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JOURNAL

Computers in Human Behavior

DOI

10.1016/j.chb.2023.107787 

ARTICLE TITLE

The placebo effect of human augmentation: Anticipating cognitive augmentation increases risk-taking behavior

New research finds dramatic increase in illegal ketamine seized by authorities, sparking concern about potential dangers of rising recreational use

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NYU LANGONE HEALTH / NYU GROSSMAN SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

A new analysis led by NYU Grossman School of Medicine and the National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS) at the University of Florida found a 349 percent rise in seizures of illicit ketamine by drug enforcement throughout the United States from 2017 through 2022.

The study findings suggest that rising use of ketamine, a short-acting dissociative anesthetic commonly prescribed off-label to treat chronic pain and depression, can increase the likelihood that people who use recreationally or who use inadvertently may encounter an adulterated and potentially harmful version of the drug. The study publishes online May 24 in JAMA Psychiatry.

“This dramatic rise in ketamine seizures by law enforcement may be indicative of rising nonmedical and recreational use,” said study author Joseph J. Palamar, PhD, MPH, an associate professor in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone Health and a researcher in the Center for Drug Use and HIV/HCV Research at NYU School of Global Public Health. “Unlike illegal ketamine years ago, most illegally obtained ketamine today is not pharmaceutical grade and is sold in powder form which may increase the risk that it contains other drugs such as fentanyl.” He further added, “Unintentional exposure to fentanyl can lead to overdose.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government eased prescribing practices for controlled substances so that more patients could use telemedicine and retain access to vital medications. While many patients benefited, the loosened restrictions also gave rise to an industry of pop-up clinics prescribing ketamine online and off label for a variety of mental health conditions, with little oversight of side effects.

“Though the risk of overdose from ketamine alone is low, some people who use the drug report negative dissociative side effects, such as feeling dizzy or nauseous.” In addition, Palamar, who has published extensively on the use of “club drugs” such as ketamine, MDMA (commonly known as ecstasy), and gamma-hydroxybutyric acid (GHB), among others, warns that people who use ketamine recreationally should be concerned about more than the drug’s dissociative side effects.

The fear, according to Palamar, is that any illegal powder in the U.S. may be contaminated with fentanyl, just as it is now turning up in heroin and cocaine. He also warns that media and medical promotion of prescription ketamine in recent years is fueling black-market use and availability.  

In addition to describing the rapid rise in ketamine seizures from 2017 to 2022, Palamar and colleagues found that the total weight of ketamine seized in the U.S. increased from 127 pounds in 2017 to about 1,550 pounds in 2022, an increase of more than 1,100 percent. The highest numbers of seizures were reported in Tennessee, Florida, and California, but it is unclear if these states have the highest usage since the location of seizures does not necessarily reflect the final destination of the drug shipments.

Palamar hopes these latest findings will better inform prevention and harm reduction strategies to protect the public from increased exposure to illegal ketamine and possible adverse effects from use. NDEWS continues to monitor the use and effects of ketamine and many novel drugs to alert the public about alarming trends in a timely manner.

In addition to Palamar, co-investigators include senior author Linda B. Cottler, PhD, MPH, at the University of Florida in Gainesville; Samuel T. Wilkinson, at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.; Thomas H. Carr, at the University of Baltimore in Maryland; and Caroline Rutherford, at Columbia University in New York City.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health under grant numbers U01DA051126 and R01DA044207. The content of this research is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

 

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JOURNAL

JAMA Psychiatry

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Not applicable

ARTICLE TITLE

Trends in Illicit Ketamine Seizures in the U.S. from 2017 to 2022

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-May-2023

A look into the heart of cellular waste disposal

Researchers reveal how a nanomachine takes care of cleaning up inside the cell

Peer-Reviewed Publication

MAX-PLANCK-GESELLSCHAFT

 

IMAGE: FLUORESCENT LIPIDS SHOW HOW THE NANOMACHINE ACCELERATES LIPID TRANSFER WHEN NECESSARY. view more 

CREDIT: ANH NGUYEN / MAX PLANCK INSTITUTE FOR MULTIDISCIPLINARY SCIENCES & POUYA HOSNANI / UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTRE GÖTTINGEN

To prevent our body’s cells from overflowing with garbage and to keep them healthy, the waste inside them is constantly being disposed of. This cleaning process is called autophagy. Scientists have now, for the first time, rebuilt the complex nanomachine in the laboratory that starts this process – and it works quite differently from other cellular machines. The researchers’ new insights could help open up new approaches for the treatment of cancer, immune disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases in the future, and possibly even delay aging.

Have you ever put off cleaning the house or decluttering the overflowing basement? Living cells cannot afford this procrastination when it comes to clearing the decks. Tiny garbage chutes are constantly active there to capture worn-out proteins, faulty cell components, or defective organelles. These garbage chutes, called autophagosomes, pick out the discarded components before they accumulate in the cell and cause damage. The cellular waste is then passed on to the cell’s own recycling machinery, the lysosome, where it is digested and recycled. Thus, building blocks for new cellular components are quickly available again. The autophagy process, literally self-eating, thus also helps cells to survive stress or periods of starvation.

Autophagy also serves another important purpose. It renders harmless viruses and bacteria that successfully bypass the immune system’s defenses and reach the cell plasma. The consequences are correspondingly fatal if the autophagy process is faulty, too slow, or too fast. Neurodegenerative diseases and cancer can develop or disorders of the immune system may occur. Aging processes also appear to accelerate.

“Autophagy is a highly complex process involving many different proteins and protein complexes. We know many of them, but there are still fundamental gaps in our knowledge,” reports Alex Faesen, research group leader at the Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences in Göttingen. “How do the protein components work together? How is the process of autophagy started and stopped? When and where is the autophagosome assembled? That is what we want to find out.”

Nanomachine at work

His team has now succeeded, for the first time, in producing all the proteins involved in the autophagy process in the laboratory and observing them directly as the autophagosomes assemble. This was a mammoth task for the entire research group, taking several years, for which they cooperated with the teams led by Björn Stork from the University of Düsseldorf and Michael Meinecke, previously at the University Medical Center Göttingen now at the Heidelberg University Biochemistry Center. “There were many challenges,” recalls Faesen. In the first step, the scientists produced each individual protein component in the laboratory. The standard approach is to use bacteria that are genetically reprogrammed to produce the desired protein in large quantities. “But protein production with bacteria did not work for any of our proteins,” the Göttingen biochemist says. Instead, the researchers switched to insect cells as molecular helpers – the breakthrough.

In the next step, the team brought the individual protein complexes together. “The complexes self-assembled into a protein supercomplex, the autophagy initiation complex. In fact, autophagy involves a sophisticated cellular nanomachine – and it works quite differently than previously thought,” the group leader says.

To make autophagosomes, the autophagy initiation complex first creates a junction between a particular structure of the cell, the endoplasmic reticulum, and the autophagosome that forms. Under stress or in times of starvation, such as during endurance sports, this occurs within just a few minutes. “From this point on, there is no turning back: The waste disposal is assembled and collects the cellular waste,” explains Anh Nguyen, one of the two first authors of the study. Co-first author Fancesca Lugarini adds, “Via the contact site, fat-like molecules called lipids are transported to a precursor stage of autophagosomes, where they are incorporated.” These grow and, in the process, enclose the cell material to be disposed of – the finished mini-organelle is formed. Within barely 20 minutes of its formation, the autophagosome is already delivering its waste to the lysosome by fusing with it.

Protein origami for “on” and “off”

But what starts the assembly of the autophagy machine, what starts it and what stops it? The researchers did not find a molecular “on” and “off” switch as in other molecular machines. Instead, the switch uses a highly unusual behavior of proteins: metamorphosis. ” Certain molecules, called ATG13 and ATG101, have the ability to fold in different 3D structures, thereby changing its ability to bind to proteins in the machine. “This protein metamorphosis also gives the go-ahead for the assembly of the autophagy initiation complex at the right time and in the right place,” says Faesen, describing the special features of the nanomachine. Without metamorphosis, the initiation machine does not assemble.

The scientists hope that the new findings will advance the development of future drugs that can be used to treat diseases that are based on a faulty autophagy process.

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JOURNAL

Molecular Cell

DOI

10.1016/j.molcel.2023.04.026 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

Cells

ARTICLE TITLE

Metamorphic proteins at the basis of human autophagy initiation and lipid transfer.

Enhancing patient care by improving electronic health records: Plan outlines 3 'essential' steps

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA HEALTH SYSTEM

 

IMAGE: THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA SCHOOL OF MEDICINE’S DON DETMER, MD, MA, WAS AN EARLY ADVOCATE FOR THE ELECTRONIC HEALTH RECORDS NOW FOUND IN HOSPITALS ACROSS THE COUNTRY. HE HAS NOW DEVELOPED A PLAN TO IMPROVE THEIR USE, LIGHTEN CLINICIANS’ WORKLOAD AND ENHANCE PATIENT CARE. view more 

CREDIT: COURTESY DON DETMER

An early advocate for the electronic health records now found in hospitals across the country has developed a plan to improve their use, lighten clinicians’ workload and enhance patient care.

The University of Virginia School of Medicine’s Don Detmer, MD, MA, designed the improvement plan in collaboration with Andrew Gettinger, MD, of Dartmouth’s Geisel School of Medicine. Detmer oversaw UVA’s adoption of electronic physician order entry in the early 1990s while vice president for health sciences. That move made UVA one of the first academic health centers in the country to embrace electronic records.

In the new proposal, published in the Journal of American Medical Association, Detmer and Gettinger outline what they are calling “essential electronic health reforms for this decade.” 

Electronic health records, commonly called EHRs or EMRs, were introduced to improve record-keeping and assist doctors and other health professionals in providing the best care possible. But with their implementation came increased documentation responsibilities that added to an already heavily workload for clinicians and that can contribute to provider burnout. Further, many argue that the required documentation can distract from focusing on patients during visits.

Detmer and Gettinger seek to tackle these problems head-on. “Lack of action by national leaders saps the energy and motivation of health workers," Detmer said. "Health and safety should count for more, and action on our recommendations could improve both.”

Enhancing Electronic Health Records

The authors call for three key changes they say could be implemented fairly easily:

• Removing all administrative and regulatory documentation obligations for care providers during their “clinical time” with patients, except for matters pertaining directly to the reason for the patient’s visit. This would effectively separate care provision from payment and billing, cutting through red tape. For example, Detmer and Gettinger suggest streamlining all insurance approval and authorization practices to eliminate, as much as possible, the need to get “pre-approval” from insurers for treatments. 
• Adding the ability for patients to enter information in their electronic health record, making them more active participants in their care.
• Reinventing the “clinical note,” one of the most common records providers create, to better support patient care. These notes, Detmer and Gettinger say, should directly address expected or desired results from each visit and could include timelines, when possible.

“What will be the effect of these interventions?” the authors ask in their article. “A major move in these directions will allow far greater creativity and innovation between clinicians and patients to transcend the traditional boundaries of what constitutes care. The focus of care can broaden to consider all the social determinants of health [the external factors that affect outcomes] that may be relevant to a particular patient.”

In addition to those proposals, Detmer and Gettinger argue that the most urgently needed change is the least likely to be implemented. They say there is a desperate need for “unique personal safety identifiers” that would let hospitals, employers, health plans, insurance companies and other healthcare organizations streamline operations by jointly identifying individual patients. That idea was originally mandated in 1996’s Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) but has not been implemented at the national level because of concerns about patient privacy and other issues. The lack of such consistent identifiers, Detmer and Gettinger maintain, “presents a continuing threat to privacy, safety, cost reduction and administrative errors.”

Next Steps

While the doctors acknowledge that national identifiers are likely off the table, they say that enacting the other changes they suggest could make a big difference for both care providers and patients.

“Although addressing shortcomings in EHRs will not cure all that ails our current health care system, implementing these recommendations should positively affect patients and clinicians and move us toward the original vision of a patient-centered, technology-enhanced health care ecosystem that is designed to significantly improve outcomes at a lower cost, with more satisfied patients and clinicians,” the authors conclude.  

To keep up with the latest medical research news from UVA, subscribe to the Making of Medicine blog.

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JOURNAL

JAMA

DOI

10.1001/jama.2023.3961 

UMD study finds brain connectivity, memory improves in older adults after walking

School of Public Health research adds to growing evidence that exercise slows cognitive impairment and may delay onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND

A new University of Maryland School of Public Health study reveals how walking strengthens connections within and between three of the brain’s networks, including one associated with Alzheimer’s disease, adding to the growing evidence that exercise improves brain health.

Published this month in the Journal for Alzheimer’s Disease Reports, the study examined the brains and story recollection abilities of older adults with normal brain function and those diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment, which is a slight decline in mental abilities like memory, reasoning and judgment and a risk factor for Alzheimer’s.

“Historically, the brain networks we studied in this research show deterioration over time in people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease,” said J. Carson Smith, a kinesiology professor with the School of Public Health and principal investigator of the study. “They become disconnected, and as a result, people lose their ability to think clearly and remember things. We're demonstrating that exercise training strengthens these connections.”

The study builds upon Smith’s previous research, which showed how walking may decrease cerebral blood flow and improve brain function in older adults with mild cognitive impairment.

Thirty-three participants, who ranged between 71 and 85 years old, walked while supervised on a treadmill four days a week for 12 weeks. Before and after this exercise regimen, researchers asked participants to read a short story and then repeat it out loud with as many details as possible.

Participants also underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) so researchers could measure changes in communication within and between the three brain networks that control cognitive function:

• Default mode network - Activates when a person isn’t doing a specific task (think daydreaming about the grocery list) and is connected to the hippocampus - one of the first brain regions affected by Alzheimer’s disease. It’s also where Alzheimer's and amyloid plaques, a prime suspect for Alzheimer's disease found around nerve cells, show up in tests.
• Frontoparietal network - Regulates decisions made when a person is completing a task. It also involves memory.
• Salience network - Monitors the external world and stimuli and then decides what deserves attention. It also facilitates switching between networks to optimize performance.

After 12 weeks of exercise, researchers repeated the tests and saw significant improvements in participants’ story recall abilities. 

“The brain activity was stronger and more synchronized, demonstrating exercise actually can induce the brain’s ability to change and adapt,” Smith said. “These results provide even more hope that exercise may be useful as a way to prevent or help stabilize people with mild cognitive impairment and maybe, over the long term, delay their conversion to Alzheimer's dementia.”

Researchers also observed stronger activity within the default mode network, within the salience network and in the connections between the three networks. 

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JOURNAL

Journal of Alzheimer s Disease Reports

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Experimental study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Large-Scale Network Connectivity and Cognitive Function Changes After Exercise Training in Older Adults with Intact Cognition and Mild Cognitive Impairment

Multivitamin improves memory in older adults, study finds

Taking a daily multivitamin may help slow age-related memory decline, a study has found.

Peer-Reviewed Publication

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY IRVING MEDICAL CENTER

NEW YORK, NY (May 24, 2023)--Taking a daily multivitamin supplement can slow age-related memory decline, finds a large study led by researchers at Columbia University and Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard.

“Cognitive aging is a top health concern for older adults, and this study suggests that there may be a simple, inexpensive way to help older adults slow down memory decline,” says study leader Adam M. Brickman, PhD, professor of neuropsychology at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons.

Many older people take vitamins or dietary supplements under the assumption that they will help maintain general health. But studies that have tested whether they improve memory and brain function have been mixed, and very few large-scale, randomized trials have been done. 

Study methods

In the current study, more than 3,500 adults (mostly non-Hispanic white) over age 60 were randomly assigned to take a daily multivitamin supplement or placebo for three years. At the end of each year, participants performed a series of online cognitive assessments at home designed to test memory function of the hippocampus, an area of the brain that is affected by normal aging. The COSMOS-Web study is part of a large clinical trial led by Brigham & Women’s Hospital and Harvard called the COcoa Supplement and Multivitamin Outcomes Study (COSMOS).

By the end of the first year, memory improved for people taking a daily multivitamin, compared with those taking a placebo. The researchers estimate the improvement, which was sustained over the three-year study period, was equivalent to about three years of age-related memory decline. The effect was more pronounced in participants with underlying cardiovascular disease. 

The results of the new study are consistent with another recent COSMOS study of more than 2,200 older adults that found that taking a daily multivitamin improved overall cognition, memory recall, and attention,  effects that were also more pronounced in those with underlying cardiovascular disease.

“There is evidence that people with cardiovascular disease may have lower micronutrient levels that multivitamins may correct, but we don’t really know right now why the effect is stronger in this group,” says Brickman.

Good nutrition important for aging brain

Though the researchers did not look at whether any specific component of the multivitamin supplement was linked to the improvement in memory, the findings support growing evidence that nutrition is important for optimizing brain health as we age.

“Our study shows that the aging brain may be more sensitive to nutrition than we realized, though it may not be so important to find out which specific nutrient helps slow age-related cognitive decline,” says Lok-Kin Yeung, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher in Columbia’s Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain and first author of the study.

“The finding that a daily multivitamin improved memory in two separate cognition studies in the COSMOS randomized trial is remarkable, suggesting that multivitamin supplementation holds promise as a safe, accessible, and affordable approach to protecting cognitive health in older adults,” says co-author JoAnn Manson, MD, chief of the Division of Preventive Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

“Supplementation of any kind shouldn’t take the place of more holistic ways of getting the same micronutrients,” adds Brickman. “Though multivitamins are generally safe, people should always consult a physician before taking them.”

More information

The study, titled “Multivitamin supplementation improves memory in older adults: A randomized clinical trial,” was published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 

All authors: Lok-Kin Yeung (Columbia), Daniel M. Alschuler (New York State Psychiatric Institute), Melanie Wall (Columbia), Heike Luttman-Gibson (Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard), Trisha Copeland (Brigham and Women’s/Harvard), Richard P. Sloan (Columbia), Howard D. Sesso (Brigham and Women’s/Harvard), JoAnn E. Manson (Brigham and Women’s/Harvard), and Adam M. Brickman (Columbia). 

Dr. Manson and Dr. Sesso are co-leaders of the parent COSMOS trial.

The study was supported by grants from Mars Edge, a segment of Mars Inc., and the National Institutes of Health (AG050657, AG071611, EY025623, and HL157665).

Multivitamins were supplied by Pfizer. Dr. Sesso reported receiving investigator-initiated grants from Pure Encapsulations and Pfizer and/or travel funds for lectures from the Council for Responsible Nutrition, BASF, NIH, and the American Society of Nutrition during the study.

No other conflicts have been reported.

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Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) is a clinical, research, and educational campus located in New York City, and is one of the oldest academic medical centers in the United States. CUIMC is home to four professional colleges and schools (Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Mailman School of Public Health, College of Dental Medicine, and School of Nursing) that are global leaders in their fields. CUIMC is committed to providing inclusive and equitable health and medical education, scientific research, and patient care, and working together with our local upper Manhattan community—one of New York City's most diverse neighborhoods. For more information, please visit cuimc.columbia.edu.  

 

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JOURNAL

American Journal of Clinical Nutrition

DOI

10.1016/j.ajcnut.2023.05.011 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Randomized controlled/clinical trial

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Multivitamin supplementation improves memory in older adults: A randomized clinical trial

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

24-May-2023

COI STATEMENT

Multivitamins were supplied by Pfizer. Dr. Sesso reported receiving investigator-initiated grants from Pure Encapsulations and Pfizer and/or travel for lectures from the Council for Responsible Nutrition, BASF, NIH, and the American Society of Nutrition during the study. No other conflicts have been reported.

Fibromyalgia changes the brain

Neuroscience

Peer-Reviewed Publication

RUHR-UNIVERSITY BOCHUM

 

IMAGE: USING DATA FROM MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING, THE RESEARCHERS WERE ABLE TO COMPARE THE BRAINS OF HEALTHY AND FIBROMYALGIA SUFFERERS. view more 

CREDIT: © BENJAMIN MOSCH

Changes in the pain network

The team surrounding Professor Martin Diers and Benjamin Mosch analysed the magnetic resonance imaging data of 23 female patients with fibromyalgia and 21 healthy control subjects. They wanted to examine the volume of the grey matter, i.e. the nerve cells, in various pain-processing areas of the brain, and the so-called white matter, which mainly consists of the fibre connections between the nerve cells through which signals are transmitted. “One of our goals was to find out whether the directionality of the diffusion of water molecules differs in certain areas of the brain, in other words: whether we can identify any regional differences in signal transmission,“ explains Benjamin Mosch.

The researchers found changes of the grey matter volume mainly in the pain network of the brain, i.e. in the regions responsible for processing and evaluating pain. “In certain regions responsible for the inhibition of pain, we found a decrease in grey matter in the patients compared to the healthy individuals,” explains Benjamin Mosch. “In patients, the volume of these regions was significantly reduced.”

Regarding the transmission of signals, changes were found in the thalamus. The thalamus is considered as an important node in neuronal pain processing. The deviations of the white matter in patients with fibromyalgia compared to healthy controls indicate an altered conduction of pain signals in patients with fibromyalgia.

Relationships between brain structure, perception and behaviour

The team finally related the results of the structural brain changes to perceptional and behavioural characteristics of the study participants. The amount of decreased volume in a number of relevant brain regions is inversely related with the amount of perceived pain the patients report. The researchers made an interesting observation when analysing the correlation between depressiveness or activity levels with the change in the volume of certain brain areas. The volume of the so-called putamen correlated negatively with the expression of depressive symptoms and positively with the activity level of the participants. “This indicates that changes in the brain may not be permanent, but that they can be influenced; in other words they might be reversible, for example through an active everyday life,” concludes Benjamin Mosch.

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JOURNAL

Arthritis Research & Therapy

DOI

10.1186/s13075-023-03064-0 

METHOD OF RESEARCH

Observational study

SUBJECT OF RESEARCH

People

ARTICLE TITLE

Brain morphometric changes in fibromyalgia and the impact of psychometric and clinical factors: A volumetric and diffusion-tensor imaging study