The Biology Thread

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Besides, it would allow me to drive all over Oregon and take pictures.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

To switch gears for a moment, Twid, I was wondering (what with the diversity of your research background) whether you have had occasion to learn much about Huntington's Disease? If I get into the Honors College I am thinking about researching some aspect it as part of my senior thesis. I'm not sure I can shoehorn it into the "urban" theme, but I can try!

I'm also considering seeing if I can document the disappearing small towns of Oregon as a side effect of the urbanization process for my thesis. It's a bit of a stretch but might be more directly applicable to the urban theme than Huntington's.

Not really. We technically collect data on it, I'm pretty sure, but I honestly can't remember any of the respondents reporting that they had it. I can fish around and see if we've ever put out any papers on it if you like.

[minuspace]

To switch gears for a moment, Twid, I was wondering (what with the diversity of your research background) whether you have had occasion to learn much about Huntington's Disease? If I get into the Honors College I am thinking about researching some aspect it as part of my senior thesis. I'm not sure I can shoehorn it into the "urban" theme, but I can try!

I'm also considering seeing if I can document the disappearing small towns of Oregon as a side effect of the urbanization process for my thesis. It's a bit of a stretch but might be more directly applicable to the urban theme than Huntington's.

It migt be possible to correlate HD neurodegeneration with the effects of stress caused by the process of urbanization:

Antidepressants are widely used in the treatment of HD patients (Sackley et al., 2011). Recent studies suggest that chronic treatment with the SSRIs fluoxetine or sertraline increased hippocampal neurogenesis, ameliorated cognitive deficits, and depression-like behavioral symptoms in R6/1 mice (Grote et al., 2005; Renoir et al., 2012) and increased BDNF levels and neurogenesis in R6/2 mice (Peng et al., 2008). Chronic antidepressant treatment in depressed patients resulted in upregulation of CREB protein expression (Nibuya et al., 1996), CREB phosphorylation (Saarelainen et al., 2003), BDNF (Chen et al., 2001), and TrkB (Bayer et al., 2000) in the hippocampus. BDNF has been proposed to be a mediator of the effects of antidepressants (Koponen et al., 2005), by augmenting the survival and differentiation of adult-born neurons in the dentate gyrus (Groves, 2007). These results led to the hypothesis that depression in HD coincides with decreased activity in the serotonin-CREB-BDNF-TrkB pathway, resulting in cellular dysfunction and reduced neurogenesis in the hippocampus.

So daily survival stress, jail, home displacement, poor living conditions...

The link between HPA-axis, depression, and BDNF has been explored in rodent models of depression and given much attention. Social stress has been widely used as a useful model of depression (Henn and Vollmayr, 2005). Stressors such as forced immobilization (Smith et al., 1995) and social defeat (Pizarro et al., 2004) were found to decrease BDNF expression in the hippocampus and cortical and subcortical regions of rodent models. Induced elevation of corticosterone, mimicking the effect of stress, has also been associated with reduced levels of BDNF mRNA and protein in the hippocampus and frontal cortex of rodent models (Schaaf et al., 1997, 1998; Chao et al., 1998; Dwivedi et al., 2006). Adrenalectomy surgery caused an increase of BDNF in the hippocampus (Chao et al., 1998), whilst chronic GR activation reduces both CREB phosphorylation and BDNF expression (Focking et al., 2003). This suggests regulatory ability of glucocorticoids on BDNF expression. GR was also found to interact with the BDNF receptor TrkB and corticosterone reduces TrkB-GR interaction, causing reduced BDNF-triggered glutamate release and BDNF-stimulated PLC-γ (Numakawa et al., 2009). Thus, taken together, increased HPA-axis activity may initiate a chain reaction, leading to altered 5-HT signaling, reduced CREB-mediated transcription of BDNF and damage to the hippocampus and other brain regions, which in turn, reduces negative feedback on the HPA-axis in a negative cycle  may be impacted by environmental modulators, such as the cognitive stimulation and physical exercise induced by environmental enrichment. Complex gene–gene interactions and associated gene-environment interactions are presumably responsible for the variable incidence of depression both within HD patients (where each tandem repeat expansion mutation is embedded in a genome possessing a range of genetic modifiers) and the general population. Elucidation of this complexity at molecular, cellular, and systems levels will require a new generation of sophisticated animal models and clinical investigations.​

https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2013.00081

Just some thoughts?

Sometime environmental factors of pathogenesis are neglected when we figure all the genetics have been solved, in principle.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

To switch gears for a moment, Twid, I was wondering (what with the diversity of your research background) whether you have had occasion to learn much about Huntington's Disease? If I get into the Honors College I am thinking about researching some aspect it as part of my senior thesis. I'm not sure I can shoehorn it into the "urban" theme, but I can try!

I'm also considering seeing if I can document the disappearing small towns of Oregon as a side effect of the urbanization process for my thesis. It's a bit of a stretch but might be more directly applicable to the urban theme than Huntington's.

Not really. We technically collect data on it, I'm pretty sure, but I honestly can't remember any of the respondents reporting that they had it. I can fish around and see if we've ever put out any papers on it if you like.

Nah, I just thought I'd ask in case you already knew something about it and had papers/resources you could recommend.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

To switch gears for a moment, Twid, I was wondering (what with the diversity of your research background) whether you have had occasion to learn much about Huntington's Disease? If I get into the Honors College I am thinking about researching some aspect it as part of my senior thesis. I'm not sure I can shoehorn it into the "urban" theme, but I can try!

I'm also considering seeing if I can document the disappearing small towns of Oregon as a side effect of the urbanization process for my thesis. It's a bit of a stretch but might be more directly applicable to the urban theme than Huntington's.

It migt be possible to correlate HD neurodegeneration with the effects of stress caused by the process of urbanization:

Antidepressants are widely used in the treatment of HD patients (Sackley et al., 2011). Recent studies suggest that chronic treatment with the SSRIs fluoxetine or sertraline increased hippocampal neurogenesis, ameliorated cognitive deficits, and depression-like behavioral symptoms in R6/1 mice (Grote et al., 2005; Renoir et al., 2012) and increased BDNF levels and neurogenesis in R6/2 mice (Peng et al., 2008). Chronic antidepressant treatment in depressed patients resulted in upregulation of CREB protein expression (Nibuya et al., 1996), CREB phosphorylation (Saarelainen et al., 2003), BDNF (Chen et al., 2001), and TrkB (Bayer et al., 2000) in the hippocampus. BDNF has been proposed to be a mediator of the effects of antidepressants (Koponen et al., 2005), by augmenting the survival and differentiation of adult-born neurons in the dentate gyrus (Groves, 2007). These results led to the hypothesis that depression in HD coincides with decreased activity in the serotonin-CREB-BDNF-TrkB pathway, resulting in cellular dysfunction and reduced neurogenesis in the hippocampus.

So daily survival stress, jail, home displacement, poor living conditions...

The link between HPA-axis, depression, and BDNF has been explored in rodent models of depression and given much attention. Social stress has been widely used as a useful model of depression (Henn and Vollmayr, 2005). Stressors such as forced immobilization (Smith et al., 1995) and social defeat (Pizarro et al., 2004) were found to decrease BDNF expression in the hippocampus and cortical and subcortical regions of rodent models. Induced elevation of corticosterone, mimicking the effect of stress, has also been associated with reduced levels of BDNF mRNA and protein in the hippocampus and frontal cortex of rodent models (Schaaf et al., 1997, 1998; Chao et al., 1998; Dwivedi et al., 2006). Adrenalectomy surgery caused an increase of BDNF in the hippocampus (Chao et al., 1998), whilst chronic GR activation reduces both CREB phosphorylation and BDNF expression (Focking et al., 2003). This suggests regulatory ability of glucocorticoids on BDNF expression. GR was also found to interact with the BDNF receptor TrkB and corticosterone reduces TrkB-GR interaction, causing reduced BDNF-triggered glutamate release and BDNF-stimulated PLC-γ (Numakawa et al., 2009). Thus, taken together, increased HPA-axis activity may initiate a chain reaction, leading to altered 5-HT signaling, reduced CREB-mediated transcription of BDNF and damage to the hippocampus and other brain regions, which in turn, reduces negative feedback on the HPA-axis in a negative cycle  may be impacted by environmental modulators, such as the cognitive stimulation and physical exercise induced by environmental enrichment. Complex gene–gene interactions and associated gene-environment interactions are presumably responsible for the variable incidence of depression both within HD patients (where each tandem repeat expansion mutation is embedded in a genome possessing a range of genetic modifiers) and the general population. Elucidation of this complexity at molecular, cellular, and systems levels will require a new generation of sophisticated animal models and clinical investigations.​

https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2013.00081

Just some thoughts?

Sometime environmental factors of pathogenesis are neglected when we figure all the genetics have been solved, in principle.

The epigenetics of Huntington's is certainly something I'd consider.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

There seem to be shockingly few articles or books that talk about the relationship between entropy and emergence... I don't even know what to make of it. Anybody have any recommendations?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

There have to be SOME books, because herp de derp. I just am not finding them.

[minuspace]

My K9 powers of golden retrieval need to hit the sack, but I was going to suggest including/substituting "chaos" to the "entropy" search string...  This 48 hr day too haws passed

[hirley0]

There have to be SOME books, because herp de derp. I just am not finding them.

Anyway If U are paying ATT. {whitch i doubt) Yesterday was Monday
Another day in the upcoming  Maids4PRimE.Time.TV doc U dramA
I call PR0.testEE {never mind Anyway the Ping Pong {akaTT)
WAS HELD {see map elsewhere | Butt i had a Dr appointMint
that i did go to. sat around 1/4 hour waiting for her to show.
No show so i left to go back to the game room. The paper
i took along | written in red } weight 157 temp 97.9 { i doubt it
BP 120/88 {{ really HaHaHar & P=100 | exactly why its always 1
i have no idea? any suggestions 4it? Now back to counts?

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

My K9 powers of golden retrieval need to hit the sack, but I was going to suggest including/substituting "chaos" to the "entropy" search string...  This 48 hr day too haws passed

Chaos isn't the same thing as entropy, and the writings I've seen about emergence and chaos don't address the specific chemical and physical conditions and phenomena I'm interested in.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I am really not asking other people to google it for me, because that's dumb.

[LMNO]

How many book on emergence are there, by the way?  I was under the assumption that as a "serious" line of research, it's fairly new.

I could be wrong, of course.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

How many book on emergence are there, by the way?  I was under the assumption that as a "serious" line of research, it's fairly new.

I could be wrong, of course.

I really don't know... as a student, this is all new to me.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

How many book on emergence are there, by the way?  I was under the assumption that as a "serious" line of research, it's fairly new.

I could be wrong, of course.

Ha, I posted my reply in the wrong thread! It looks like there are quite a few, based on a cursory Listmania Amazon search.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I can't see how emergent properties could be a new field of study, given that it underpins all of biology and also pretty much everything about geology and astrophysics.