The Rhyothemis princeps Brain Externalization Project

Read a bit about lipid metabolism in PD https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6099649/ "Since oligomers seem to be the toxic species rather than fibrils, we believe that the increasing DHA concentration in the cell could worsen toxicity rather than having a protective role." oh dear Eating fish is associated with reduced risk of PD - but maybe the benefit is from beta parvalbumin?? ~ A clinical trial published in 2019 found omega-3 from flax plus vitamin E to be beneficial in PD - though of course flax does not contain DHA, but ALA which may be converted to DHA - but not very efficiently & there are sex differences (reproductive age women do so more efficiently than others) https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0303846718304633 ~ Seems like fibrates would be helpful, but one study in a rat models says no https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28403913/ but brilliant blue G, a P2X7R anatgonist, was beneficial ~ Cereblon - "Our study reveals a novel

These notes are to keep track of things I am reading up on and thinking about and perhaps may write a post on in future. I making them public because - why not? Also, I may never get a chance to write a full post on them. ~~~ MSA, glycine & EPO    Related references are tagged MSA-EPO-Gly on my zotero account and listed below. Lithium trial for multiple system atrophy (MSA) had to be stopped as it caused harm - quite severe harm. One proposed MOA for lithium for biopolar and other disorders where it has been found to be therapeutic is that it increases glycine levels in the brain. However, this hypothesis appears to have been abandoned in recent years and does not have much empirical support - though nothing in the way of  disconfirming findings has turned up so far in literature searches, either. Elevated levels of glycine in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) have been found in DLB, ALS and MS. Results of studies on PD patients has been conflicting, but the bulk of evidence indicates no d

Is it possible that machine learning-assisted anthropometric analysis could provide better risk assessment than genetic screening for cancer or other conditions (e.g., connective tissue disorders, heart failure, etc.)?  Relative proportions are reflective of relative growth rates of organs and tissues which in turn are the product of both genes and environment and are dependent on factors such as the balance of growth hormones and nutrient intakes. It seems that if a large number of individuals were scanned photographically - or much better with MRI (since more interesting measurements could be taken, e.g. width of the aorta) and the scans were provided as input, along with data from their health records, to an appropriately designed  machine learning algorithm, it may be possible to  predict risk of various diseases based on anthropometric parameters alone. This occurred to me just prior to learning that a new company, Ezra, is offering whole body MRI scans for early cancer d

Since March, I have been hoping someone would study whether covid-19 patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D) on metformin fare better than those on other types of anti-diabetes medications. Many of the risk factors associated with severe covid-19 (e.g., obesity, diabetes, hypertension, older age) relate to AMPK signalling and metformin, a drug that improves AMPK signalling, has been found to benefit these conditions.  My question has finally been answered  - T2D patients on metformin have a 70% reduced  risk of death as compared with those on other anti-diabetic medications [1,2]. Unfortunately the study did not control for other important factors such as age, degree of blood sugar control, BMI, and time since diagnosis; a future study designed specifically to examine metformin in covid-19 should be conducted that controls for these factors. The study authors discuss the potential role of AMPK signalling in covid-19, delineating a number of possible mechanisms by which it could impact the