Dr. Giuseppe Faraco publishes a paper titled, "Dietary salt promotes cognitive impairment through tau phosphorylation" in Nature, 2019 Oct 23. doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1688-z.
“Our study proposes a new mechanism by which salt mediates cognitive impairment and also provides further evidence of a link between dietary habits and cognitive function,” This study finds that decreased nitric oxide production in blood vessels affects the stability of tau proteins in neurons. Tau provides structure for the scaffolding of neurons. This scaffolding, also called the cytoskeleton, helps to transport materials and nutrients across neurons to support their function and health.
https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2019/10/high-salt-diet-promotes-cogn...
A high-salt diet reduces resting blood flow to the brain and causes dementia in mice. The study, published Jan. 15 in Nature Neuroscience, is the first to unveil a gut-brain connection linking high dietary salt intake to neurovascular and cognitive impairment. The findings illuminate a potential future target for countering harmful effects to the brain caused by excess salt consumption.
Nature Neuroscience (2018) doi: 10.1038/s41593-017-0059-z
Dietary salt promotes neurovascular and cognitive dysfunction through a gut-initiated TH17 response
Authors:
Giuseppe Faraco, David Brea, Lidia Garcia-Bonilla, Gang Wang, Gianfranco Racchumi, Haejoo Chang, Izaskun Buendia, Monica M. Santisteban, Steven G. Segarra, Kenzo Koizumi, Yukio Sugiyama, Michelle Murphy, Henning Voss, Joseph Anrather & Costantino Iadecola
https://news.weill.cornell.edu/news/2018/01/a-high-salt-diet-produces-dementia-in-mice
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/hold-salt-gut-reaction-may-impair-brains-mice
Daniel Thengone
The study provides the first measurements of brain structure and function before and after communication resumed. A severely brain injured woman, who recovered the ability to communicate using her left eye, restored connections and function of the areas of her brain responsible for producing expressive language and responding to human speech.
The study, published Dec. 7 in Science Translational Medicine, began 21 months after Margaret Worthen suffered massive strokes, and her continuing recovery was tracked for nearly three years. The research signifies the first time that scientists have captured the restoration of communication of a minimally conscious patient by measuring aspects of brain structure and function before and after communication resumed. It also raises the question of whether other patients in chronic care facilities who appear to be minimally responsive or unresponsive may harbor organized, higher-level brain function.
"From the beginning of Margaret's attempt to communicate, through the course of our study, we were able to show reorganization of the areas of her brain responsible for expressive language, as well as an exceptionally large change in the correlation across the brain areas in response to human speech," said study lead author Daniel Thengone, the Fred Plum Fellow in Systems Neurology and Neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute at Weill Cornell Medicine. Adds senior study author Dr. Nicholas D. Schiff, the Jerold B. Katz Professor of Neurology and Neuroscience in the Feil Family Brain and Mind Research Institute: "This is a unique demonstration of plastic change in the brain of an adult starting years after a severe brain injury. We showed a convergence of measurements over years and at multiple time points, revealing an evolving biological process of recovery."
