Scientists have unveiled an unprecedented “atlas” of the primate brain, imaging this organ at the scale of individual cells at higher resolution than ever before.
An American team used cutting-edge molecular biological methods to map the brain architecture of an adult rhesus macaque (Macaca hybrid), a monkey commonly used as a model to study human perception, cognition, aging, and neurological diseases. The main purpose of the research is to understand the differences between human and primate brains.
“Understanding the complex structure of brain cells is of great importance for understanding brain functions and potential disorders,” said Michel Thibault de Schotten, research director at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and group leader of the Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases. . A research collaboration between CNRS and the University of Bordeaux. He was not involved in the new study.
The new study “marks an important milestone for neuroscience by providing an unprecedented architectural representation of cell types in the macaque brain,” de Schotten told LiveScience in an email. “As we move forward, it is vital to investigate the connections between these cells, the variation among individuals, and the implications of these discoveries for understanding the human brain.”
The new atlas of the primate brain was published Oct. 12 in the journal Science Developments.
Previous studiesResearch aimed at mapping the primate brain has often used a single line of analysis to characterize most of its cells. For example, some simply used a technique called transcriptomics, which involves looking at all the RNA in a cell; Among other functions, RNA molecules help cells create proteins.
What sets the new study apart is the team’s “multi-omics” approach, which catalogs cells in a variety of ways, including transcriptomics and “epigogenomics,” which looks at chemical tags on top of a cell’s DNA. These tags help control which genes are on or off.
Using both methods on cells from 30 regions of the brain, the team created an atlas of 4.2 million macaque brain cells. For context, the macaque brain is predicted to have more than 6 billion cells. Based on these molecular data, the team identified 112 different cell types and subtypes and mapped the distribution of cells in the cerebellum, in the lower part of the brain, as well as in the cingulate cortex and subcortical brain regions.
“To our knowledge, these data represent the largest and most comprehensive multimodal molecular atlas of any nonhuman primate to date,” the study authors write. They stated that the atlas should serve as a valuable resource for studying the evolution of the human brain and improving our understanding of brain-related conditions, including degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and developmental disorders such as autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit and hyperactivity. irregularity. hyperactivity.
Macaque brain atlas published 20 additional articles, It was conducted as part of a multi-year international research study with support from the National Institutes of Health. This effort, known as the BRAIN Initiative Cell Counting Network (BICCN) project, focuses on mapping human, primate and mouse brains at the cellular level.
In addition to the monkey brain atlas, BICCN scientists have collectively published an equally detailed atlas of the human brain; this allowed researchers to identify previously unknown brain cell subtypes.
Source: Port Altele
