through discovery could have major implications for the nation ' s opioid epidemic by becoming a relapse prevention agent for people trying to quit using opioids . While research reveals Opioid Use Disorder ( OUD ) is treatable , an estimated 80 % of those dependent on the drug suffer a relapse .
The findings , published in the journal Pharmaceutics , could not be timelier or more in demand : Over 150 people die every day from overdoses of synthetic opioids including fentanyl , which is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine . Consumption of about 2 milligrams of fentanyl ( the size of two grains of rice ) is likely to be fatal depending on a person ' s size .
The vaccine is able to generate anti-fentanyl antibodies that bind to the consumed fentanyl and prevent it from entering the brain , allowing it to be eliminated out of the body via the kidneys . Thus , the individual will not feel the euphoric effects and can ' get back on the wagon ' to sobriety .
In another positive finding , the vaccine did not cause any adverse side effects in the immunized rats involved in lab studies . The team plans to start manufacturing clinical-grade vaccine in the coming months with clinical trials in humans planned soon .
BRAIN CHANGES IN AUTISM ARE COMPREHENSIVE THROUGHOUT THE CEREBRAL CORTEX
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BRAIN CHANGES IN AUTISM ARE COMPREHENSIVE throughout the cerebral cortex rather than just particular areas thought to affect social behavior and language , according to a new UCLA-led study that significantly refines scientists ' understanding of how autism spectrum disorder ( ASD ) progresses at the molecular level .
The study , published today in Nature , represents a comprehensive effort to characterize ASD at the molecular level . While neurological disorders like Alzheimer ' s disease or Parkinson ' s disease have well-defined pathologies , autism and other psychiatric disorders have had a lack of defining pathology , making it difficult to develop more effective treatments .
The new study finds brain-wide changes in virtually all of the 11 cortical regions analyzed , regardless of whether they are higher critical association regions — those involved in functions such as reasoning , language , social cognition and mental flexibility — or primary sensory regions .
" This work represents the culmination of more than a decade of work of many lab members , which was necessary to perform such a comprehensive analysis of the autism brain ," said study author Dr . Daniel Geschwind , the Gordon and Virginia MacDonald Distinguished Professor of Human Genetics , Neurology and Psychiatry at UCLA .
Just over a decade ago , Geschwind led the first effort to identify autism ' s molecular pathology by focusing on two brain regions , the temporal lobe and the frontal lobe . Those regions were chosen because they are higher order association regions involved in higher cognition — especially social cognition , which is disrupted in ASD .
For the new study , researchers examined gene expression in 11 cortical regions by sequencing RNA from each of the four main cortical lobes . They compared brain tissue samples obtained after death from 112 people with ASD against healthy brain tissue .
While each profiled cortical region showed changes , the largest drop off in gene levels were in the visual cortex and the parietal cortex , which processes information like touch , pain and temperature . The researchers said this may reflect the sensory hypersensitivity that is frequently reported in people with ASD . Researchers found strong evidence that the genetic risk for autism is enriched in a specific neuronal module that has lower expression across the brain , indicating that RNA changes in the brain are likely the cause of ASD rather than a result of the disorder .
One of the next steps is to determine whether researchers can use computational approaches to develop therapies based on reversing gene expression changes the researchers found in ASD , Geschwind said , adding that researchers can use organoids to model the changes in order to better understand their mechanisms . #
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