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Originally published by Polytechnic University of Milan, on February 14, 2024 Nanogel—Scheme of selective drug treatment in the central nervous system. Credit: Politecnico di Milano—Istituto Mario Negri In a study published in Advanced Materials , researchers have demonstrated that an innovative nano-vector (nanogel) , which they developed, is able to deliver anti-inflammatory drugs in a targeted manner into glial cells actively involved in the evolution of spinal cord injury , a condition that leads to paraplegia or quadriplegia . Treatments currently available to modulate the inflammatory response mediated by the component that controls the brain's internal environment after acute spinal cord injury showed limited efficacy. This is also due to the lack of a therapeutic approach that can selectively act on microglial and astrocytic cells. The nanovectors developed by Politecnico di Milano , called nanogels, consist of polymers that can bind to specific target molecules ....

Originally published by University of Lausanne on September 6, 2023   Credit: Public Domain A research team from University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the Wyss Center, has discovered a new type of cell essential for brain function . Hybrid in composition and function, in between the two types of brain cells known so far—the neurons and the glial cells—these cells of a new order are present in several brain regions in mice and humans . The study published in the journal Nature shows that these cells promote the ability to memorize , the brain control of movements , and contrast the insurgence of epileptic seizures . Neuroscience is in great upheava l. The two major families of cells that make up the brain, neurons and glial cells, secretly hid a hybrid cell, halfway between these two categories. For as long as neuroscience has existed, it has been recognized that the brain works primarily thanks to the neurons and their ability to rapidly elaborate and transmit info...