Researchers from the Chinese Institute for Brain Research, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and their collaborators have identified adenosine as the driving force behind the rapid, fast-acting antidepressant effects of ketamine and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT). “Our journey into this area of research began over a decade ago, around 2013, when the clinical world was buzzing with excitement about ketamine's remarkably rapid antidepressant effects,” Minmin Luo, co-senior author of the study, told BioWorld.

Researchers from the Baylor College of Medicine have characterized 100 conserved Alzheimer’s disease (AD) risk orthologue genes in Drosophila and found several with unknown roles in brain structure, function and stress resilience. The implication of this finding is that new pathways of neurodegeneration have been revealed, offering new insights into the genetic complexity of AD.

Transition Bio Inc. and Voyager Therapeutics Inc. have entered into a drug discovery collaboration and license option agreement for novel, selective small molecules for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) with TDP-43 pathology.

In Alzheimer’s disease, microglia act as a double-edged sword. They can either protect the brain or worsen the damage, depending on their activation state. Inflammatory activation harms healthy neurons. However, a study reveals that a special type of microglia expressing specific receptors and behaving like T cells may help mitigate this neurodegenerative condition.

A collaborative effort is trying to construct the cell atlas of the developing brains of humans and animal models. Using advanced single-cell and spatial technologies, they mapped how brain cell types emerge, diversify and organize over time, offering new insights into the origins of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric conditions. These breakthroughs in genomics and imaging will allow scientists to study complex developmental processes with high resolution.