Researchers map the brain during blood sugar changes
Brain regions mapped to aid future diabetes therapies and studies

Date:
May 24, 2023
Source:
University of Texas at El Paso
Summary:
Researchers have successfully mapped specific regions in the brain
that are activated in association with changes in blood sugar --
also known as glucose -- providing fundamental location information
that could ultimately lead to more targeted therapies for people
who struggle with conditions like diabetes.


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FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers at The University of Texas at El Paso have successfully
mapped specific regions in the brain that are activated in association
with changes in blood sugar -- also known as glucose -- providing
fundamental location information that could ultimately lead to more
targeted therapies for people who struggle with conditions like diabetes.

The landmark 13-year study, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, describes how the team used careful microscopic analysis to pinpoint
specific cell populations in the brain that appear responsive to rapid
changes in blood sugar.

Arshad M. Khan, Ph.D., UTEP associate professor in biological sciences,
and a team from his laboratory, led by doctoral student Geronimo
Tapia, spent the past decade continuing work first performed by student researchers at the University of Southern California (USC), where Khan
worked prior to joining the faculty at UTEP. Together with the help of
two additional team members -- UTEP Research Assistant Professor Sivasai Balivada, Ph.D., and USC's Richard H.

Thompson, Ph.D. -- the team discovered what they believe may be glucose- sensitive cell populations in the brain and carefully mapped their
locations in an open-access brain atlas.

The results of the study represent a significant step toward uniform
global brain mapping and the evaluation of cellular responses to blood
sugar in diabetic patients, Khan explained.

"I am grateful to all my contributors' hard work throughout the years,
both when I was at USC and now here at UTEP," Khan said. "Finally knowing
the exact coordinates for these structures in an open-access brain
atlas means this spatial knowledge can now be utilized by the scientific community for the refined targeting of future clinical or therapeutic interventions for individuals experiencing blood sugar fluctuations and prediabetes." Khan added, "Finding these cells is a bit like monitoring
the fuel sensors in a car when its fuel levels rise or fall. The next
step will be to find the wiring that connects these sensors to other
parts of the brain, a task for which we are already hard at work."
Khan's team was able to track blood sugar changes in responsive regions
of the brain in 15 minutes, a process that previously took hours due to limitations in the biomarkers used to detect these changes.

The locus coeruleus (Latin for "blue place") -- a brain region so
named because of its unique tissue color -- produces norepinephrine,
a neurotransmitter that plays an important role in arousal, attention
and the body's stress response.

In the study, the locus coeruleus was found to be one of the few regions responsive early on during the blood sugar changes, suggesting it is
an important arousal center for individuals with Type I and Type II
diabetes when they experience life-threatening alterations in their blood sugar. Such alterations often occur when diabetics self-inject insulin,
a hormone treatment which normalizes their high blood sugar levels, but
which can also send them to dangerously low levels if incorrectly dosed.

The new knowledge of that region of the brain could ultimately help
researchers monitor and intervene during the most dangerous effects
of variations in blood sugar that arise as a common complication of
diabetes management.

"This research is very important in our border region because there
is a high prevalence of obesity and diabetes in our communities,"
said Jessica Salcido Padilla, a UTEP graduate student from the Khan
lab and study co-author. "Our goal is to identify exactly where certain processes happen in the brain so we can develop therapies, technologies
or pharmaceuticals that help." Khan's research was supported by three
grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and by funds and
imaging facilities available from UTEP's Border Biomedical Research
Center, which focuses on biomedical research relevant to the Paso del
Norte region. The NIH funds included resources for microscopic imaging
and analysis, mapping software and computational tools used by graduate
student research assistants and research staff, and tuition support for students that produced the data for this study.

"This important work by Dr. Khan and his team exemplifies our college's
-- and our University's -- commitment to the advancement of discovery
of public value," said Robert Kirken, Ph.D., dean of the UTEP College
of Science. "I sincerely congratulate them on the fruitful conclusion
of their study, and I am hopeful and enthusiastic about the clinical
therapies their findings will enable."
* RELATED_TOPICS
o Health_&_Medicine
# Brain_Tumor # Diabetes # Hypertension # Nervous_System #
Blood_Clots # Anemia # Psychology_Research # Birth_Defects
* RELATED_TERMS
o Hyperglycemia o Blood_sugar o Diabetes o Diabetic_diet o
Glycemic_index o Glycogen o Insulin o Honey

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Texas_at_El_Paso. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Geronimo P. Tapia, Lindsay J. Agostinelli, Sarah D. Chenausky,
Jessica V.

Salcido Padilla, Vanessa I. Navarro, Amy Alagh, Gabriel Si,
Richard H.

Thompson, Sivasai Balivada, Arshad M. Khan. Glycemic Challenge Is
Associated with the Rapid Cellular Activation of the Locus Ceruleus
and Nucleus of Solitary Tract: Circumscribed Spatial Analysis of
Phosphorylated MAP Kinase Immunoreactivity. Journal of Clinical
Medicine, 2023; 12 (7): 2483 DOI: 10.3390/jcm12072483 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/05/230524182029.htm

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