Withdrawal, experienced by people when they stop using addictive drugs such as cocaine, induces states of anxiety and depression. This process makes the individual want to take the substance again, and thus plays a role in the establishment of drug addiction. The depressive syndrome thus represents an additional obstacle to be overcome when addicts are […]
Segmented filamentous bacteria (SFB) are bacteria from the Clostridiaceae family that colonize the intestines of many species, likely including humans, without causing disease; they live in symbiosis with epithelial cells and are involved in the maturation of intestinal immunity. Despite the vital role of SFB in establishing gut immune homeostasis in vivo in mice, scientists, […]
Macrophages are key cells of the innate immune system. By capturing and ingesting microbes in a process known as phagocytosis, they play an important role in defending host tissues against infection. There are two types of macrophage: tissue-resident macrophages, and bone marrow monocytes that circulate in the bloodstream and are recruited in tissues during infection […]
Until the 2000s, the only established risk factor for thyroid cancer was exposure to moderate or high doses of ionising radiation during childhood or early adulthood. In order to better understand all the other factors that may be involved in thyroid cancer risk, a case-control study was conducted in eastern France. The study included 805 […]
Some activities, such as walking or breathing, are unusual in that they can be carried out voluntarily or automatically. For example, every one of us can decide to take a deep breath and keep our lungs inflated for a few seconds, and then exhale slowly. However, most of the time we breathe without thinking about […]
Precisely how do we distinguish the texture of objects by touch? This is what has just been decoded by a study led by Clément Léna, research director at Inserm and Daniela Popa, a researcher at Inserm in Mixed Research Unit 1024: Biology Institute, École Normale Supérieure (Inserm, ENS, CNRS) and published in the journal Nature […]
Patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease complain of severe sleep disturbances such as inability to fall asleep or, in contrast, periods of drowsiness during the day. While dopaminergic treatment dramatically improves the disease’s motor symptoms (calming tremors, for instance), its effects on sleep continued to be challenged, suggesting that the alteration of other (non-dopaminergic) neurons might […]
An international team involving researchers from INSERM, CEA and APHP in France have successfully modelled the risk factors for alcohol abuse during adolescence. The results of the study were published on Nature Magazine’s website on 2 July. In France, alcohol consumption most often begins in adolescence. Today, 80% of 17-year-olds admit to having consumed alcohol […]
It has been known for about ten years that some oestrogen/progestin menopausal hormone therapies (MHT) are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer. Studies have nonetheless suggested that this risk is rapidly attenuated or even eliminated in 2-5 years if the patients stop their treatment. However, questions remain regarding this attenuation, and its relationship […]
One of the major challenges for therapeutic science is to optimise the accurate distribution of drugs in the affected organs. Targeted delivery methods are needed to accomplish this. In a new study published in The American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, Olivier Meilhac’s team (Inserm Unit 1148, the “Laboratory for Vascular Translational Science,” […]
