If humans want to travel in interstellar space, they have to solve some big logistical problems.
For example, it will take Voyager 1 73,000 years to reach Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun, at its current speed.
Voyager was launched more than 40 years ago and modern spacecraft are expected to move faster; But with our current technology, the journey would take thousands of years.
One potential solution is intergenerational vehicles that would see multiple generations of space travelers living and dying before reaching their final destination.
That’s what scientists from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology (SIAT) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences initiated. By chemically causing a state of hypothermia in monkeys, not humans.
“Here we show that activation of a subset of neurons in the preoperative area (POA) by a chemogenetic approach reliably induces hypothermia in anesthetized and freely moving macaques,” the researchers wrote in their paper. path of future application in clinical practice.”
Hibernation is a physiological state that allows animals to survive in adverse conditions such as extreme cold and low oxygen.
Body temperature drops, metabolism slows down, which keeps the body in ‘bone preservation’ mode – minimal for survival while preventing atrophy.
It is found in many animals, including warm-blooded mammals, but in very few primates. Neuroscientists Wang Hong and Dai Ji from SIAT wanted to see if they could induce a reduction in metabolism and even a state of hibernation in primates by chemically manipulating the neurons responsible for sleep and sleep processes. thermoregulatory in the hypothalamus – preoperative neurons.
The study was conducted on three baby crab-eating monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). The researchers administered drugs designed to activate certain modified receptors in the brain, known as designer receptors activated only by Designer Drugs, or DREADDs, to both anesthetized and non-anesthetized monkeys.
The scientists then analyzed the results using functional magnetic resonance imaging, behavioral changes, and physiological and biochemical changes.
“We performed fMRI scans to explore the network at the brain level as a result of preoperative area (POA) activation and identified multiple regions involved in thermoregulation and internalization,” said Day. Chemical activation links revealed.
The researchers found that a synthetic drug called clozapine N-oxide (CNO) reliably induced hypothermia in macaques in both anesthetized and awake states.
However, in anesthetized monkeys, CNO-induced hypothermia led to a decrease in core body temperature that prevented external rewarming. The researchers say this demonstrates the critical role POA neurons play in basic thermoregulation.
The researchers recorded behavioral changes in awake monkeys and compared them to hypothermic rats. Normally, mice reduce their activity and lower their heart rate to conserve heat.
In contrast, the monkeys showed an increase in heart rate and activity level, and in addition, they began to tremble. This indicates that thermoregulation in primates is more complex than in rodents. This should be considered by human hibernation (if possible).
“This work provides the first successful demonstration of hypothermia in a primate based on manipulation of target neurons. With the growing desire for human spaceflight, this hypothermic monkey model is a milestone on the long road to artificial hibernation,” said Wang.
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Source: ScienceAlert
Source: Arabic RT
