Latest news with #CenterforIndividualizedMedicine
Web Release
6 days ago
- Health
- Web Release
Mayo Clinic uncovers brain cell changes that could explain Tourette syndrome
A new Mayo Clinic study finds that people with Tourette syndrome have about half as many of a specific type of brain cell that helps calm overactive movement signals as people without the condition. This deficit may be a key reason why their motor signals go unchecked, leading to the involuntary tics that define the disorder. The study, published in Biological Psychiatry, is the first to analyze individual brain cells from people with Tourette disorder. The findings also shed light on how different types of brain cells may interact in ways that contribute to the syndrome's symptoms. 'This research may help lay the foundation for a new generation of treatments,' says Alexej Abyzov, Ph.D., a genomic scientist in Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine and a co-author of the study. 'If we can understand how these brain cells are altered and how they interact, we may be able to intervene earlier and more precisely.' Tourette disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition that typically begins in childhood. It causes repeated, involuntary movements and vocalizations such as eye blinking, throat clearing or facial grimacing. While genetic studies have identified some risk genes, the biological mechanisms behind the condition have remained unclear. To better understand what's happening in the brain with Tourette syndrome, Dr. Abyzov and his team analyzed more than 43,000 individual cells from postmortem brain tissue of people with and without the condition. They focused on the basal ganglia, a region of the brain that helps control movement and behavior. In each cell, they looked at how genes were working. They also analyzed how changes in the brain's gene-control systems might trigger stress and inflammation. First, they found in people with Tourette syndrome a 50% reduction in interneurons, which are brain cells that help calm excess signals in the brain's movement circuits. They also observed stress responses in two other brain cell types. Medium spiny neurons, which make up most of the cells in basal ganglia and help send movement signals, showed reduced energy production. Microglia, the brain's immune cells, showed inflammation. The two responses were closely linked, suggesting the cells may be interacting in Tourette disorder. 'We're seeing different types of brain cells reacting to stress and possibly communicating with each other in ways that could be driving symptoms,' says Yifan Wang, Ph.D., co-author of the study. The study also provides evidence that the underlying cause of brain cell changes in Tourette disorder may be linked to parts of DNA that control when genes turn on and off. 'Tourette patients seem to have the same functional genes as everyone else but the coordination between them is broken,' Dr. Abyzov says. Next, the researchers plan to study how these brain changes develop over time and look for genetic factors that may help explain the disorder.
Mid East Info
6 days ago
- Health
- Mid East Info
Mayo Clinic uncovers brain cell changes that could explain Tourette syndrome - Middle East Business News and Information
Dubai, United Arab Emirates; June , 2025 — A new Mayo Clinic study finds that people with Tourette syndrome have about half as many of a specific type of brain cell that helps calm overactive movement signals as people without the condition. This deficit may be a key reason why their motor signals go unchecked, leading to the involuntary tics that define the disorder. The study, published in Biological Psychiatry, is the first to analyze individual brain cells from people with Tourette disorder. The findings also shed light on how different types of brain cells may interact in ways that contribute to the syndrome's symptoms. 'This research may help lay the foundation for a new generation of treatments,' says Alexej Abyzov, Ph.D., a genomic scientist in Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine and a co-author of the study. 'If we can understand how these brain cells are altered and how they interact, we may be able to intervene earlier and more precisely.' Tourette disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition that typically begins in childhood. It causes repeated, involuntary movements and vocalizations such as eye blinking, throat clearing or facial grimacing. While genetic studies have identified some risk genes, the biological mechanisms behind the condition have remained unclear. To better understand what's happening in the brain with Tourette syndrome, Dr. Abyzov and his team analyzed more than 43,000 individual cells from postmortem brain tissue of people with and without the condition. They focused on the basal ganglia, a region of the brain that helps control movement and behavior. In each cell, they looked at how genes were working. They also analyzed how changes in the brain's gene-control systems might trigger stress and inflammation. First, they found in people with Tourette syndrome a 50% reduction in interneurons, which are brain cells that help calm excess signals in the brain's movement circuits. They also observed stress responses in two other brain cell types. Medium spiny neurons, which make up most of the cells in basal ganglia and help send movement signals, showed reduced energy production. Microglia, the brain's immune cells, showed inflammation. The two responses were closely linked, suggesting the cells may be interacting in Tourette disorder. 'We're seeing different types of brain cells reacting to stress and possibly communicating with each other in ways that could be driving symptoms,' says Yifan Wang, Ph.D., co-author of the study. The study also provides evidence that the underlying cause of brain cell changes in Tourette disorder may be linked to parts of DNA that control when genes turn on and off. 'Tourette patients seem to have the same functional genes as everyone else but the coordination between them is broken,' Dr. Abyzov says. Next, the researchers plan to study how these brain changes develop over time and look for genetic factors that may help explain the disorder. The study was conducted in collaboration with the lab of Flora M. Vaccarino, M.D., at Yale University. For a complete list of authors, disclosures and funding, review the study.
Mid East Info
10-02-2025
- Health
- Mid East Info
OmicsFootPrint: Mayo Clinic's AI tool offers a new way to visualize disease
Mayo Clinic researchers have pioneered an artificial intelligence (AI) tool, called OmicsFootPrint, that helps convert vast amounts of complex biological data into two-dimensional circular images. The details of the tool are published in a study in Nucleic Acids Research. Omics is the study of genes, proteins and other molecular data to help uncover how the body functions and how diseases develop. By mapping this data, the OmicsFootPrint may provide clinicians and researchers with a new way to visualize patterns in diseases, such as cancer and neurological disorders, that can help guide personalized therapies. It may also provide an intuitive way to explore disease mechanisms and interactions. 'Data becomes most powerful when you can see the story it's telling,' says lead author Krishna Rani Kalari, Ph.D., associate professor of biomedical informatics at Mayo Clinic's Center for Individualized Medicine. 'The OmicsFootPrint could open doors to discoveries we haven't been able to achieve before.' Genes act as the body's instruction manual, while proteins carry out those instructions to keep cells functioning. Sometimes, changes in these instructions — called mutations — can disrupt this process and lead to disease. The OmicsFootPrint helps make sense of these complexities by turning data — such as gene activity, mutations and protein levels — into colorful, circular maps that offer a clearer picture of what's happening in the body. In their study, the researchers used the OmicsFootPrint to analyze drug response and cancer multi-omics data. The tool distinguished between two types of breast cancer — lobular and ductal carcinomas — with an average accuracy of 87%. When applied to lung cancer, it demonstrated over 95% accuracy in identifying two types: adenocarcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. The study showed that combining several types of molecular data produces more accurate results than using just one type of data. The OmicsFootPrint also shows potential in providing meaningful results even with limited datasets. It uses advanced AI methods that learn from existing data and apply that knowledge to new scenarios — a process known as transfer learning. In one example, it helped researchers achieve over 95% accuracy in identifying lung cancer subtypes using less than 20% of the typical data volume. 'This approach could be beneficial for research even with small sample size or clinical studies,' Dr. Kalari says. To enhance its accuracy and insights, the OmicsFootPrint framework also uses an advanced method called SHAP (SHapley Additive exPlanations). SHAP highlights the most important markers, genes or proteins that influence the results to help researchers understand the factors driving disease patterns. Beyond research, the OmicsFootPrint is designed for clinical use. It compresses large biological datasets into compact images that require just 2% of the original storage space. This could make the images easy to integrate into electronic medical records to guide patient care in the future. The research team plans to expand the OmicsFootPrint to study other diseases, including neurological diseases and other complex disorders. They are also working on updates to make the tool even more accurate and flexible, including the ability to find new disease markers and drug targets.
