LiveScience article: Strange, two-faced brain cells confirmed to exist, and they may play a role in schizophrenia

[Ravn]

Don't know if this could have any relevance for ME [eta: or, more likely, FND] but posting because
a) it demonstrates how little we know about the brain, or anything really (after yesterday stumbling across another paper where they found 10,000 - yes, ten thousand - previously unknown viruses in baby faeces), and
b) it may be of interest to members with autism or schizophrenia.

Researchers have confirmed the existence of an odd type of brain cell that other neuroscientists once thought might be only a technical quirk or error.

A strange class of brain cell has two features that seem to contradict each other, leading scientists to question whether it really exists. But now, a new study of mouse and human brains not only supports these paradoxical cells' existence but also hints that they could help explain the neurological underpinnings of conditions like autism and schizophrenia.

Cells with both PV and CCK more heavily activate genes related to oxidative phosphorylation, a process by which cells use oxygen and enzymes to create adenosine triphosphate (ATP), the body's main source of cellular energy. This suggests that the cells require a lot of energy to run.

However, these genes' expression seemed altered in the tissue from people with autism and schizophrenia, pointing to a potential role for the neurons in the conditions. The findings could also support the potential link between these conditions and oxidative stress, and may align with previous research linking the conditions to dysfunction in the brain's inhibitory neurons and a resulting overload of electrical activity.

https://www.livescience.com/health/...ist-and-they-may-play-a-role-in-schizophrenia

Refers to this extremely technical paper (open access but haven't read)

Anatomical and molecular characterization of parvalbumin-cholecystokinin co-expressing inhibitory interneurons: implications for neuropsychiatric conditions, 2023, Grieco et al

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-023-02153-5

 

[RedFox]

it demonstrates how little we know about the brain, or anything really (after yesterday stumbling across another paper where they found 10,000 - yes, ten thousand - previously unknown viruses in baby faeces)

The study your referenced discussed here: https://www.sciencealert.com/astonishing-discovery-finds-10000-mostly-unknown-viruses-in-baby-poo

 

[CRG]

Caveat - In Mice !

"We find that CCK&Dlx5/6 driven expression overlaps heavily with PV expression in GABAergic interneurons in mouse hippocampus and neocortex. We extend this finding to monkey hippocampus and find PV/CCK co-expression. For most of our subsequent work, we focus on the mouse hippocampus because of our extensive prior work there and because of its regular anatomical and neuronal structure."

 

[Ravn]

Caveat - In Mice !

...and men

In conclusion, our present work characterizes CCK-expressing PV+ interneurons. We demonstrate that in PV+ interneurons CCK is consistently co-expressed with OXPHOS associated genes in mouse hippocampus and cortex, and we extend these results to human brain samples. In human samples, OXPHOS genes are strongly expressed in PV+ interneurons. Finally, we demonstrate that the OXPHOS gene module is dysregulated in human brain sample from patients with an ASD or SCZ neuropsychiatric condition.