Neuroscientists from Novosibirsk State University have discovered cyclical changes in the total number of informational RNA molecules in the brain. Such changes can reach 10-15% of their total number. This was reported to socialbites.ca at NSU.
Previously, scientists proposed to evaluate changes in the number of healthy and diseased cells in organs for the diagnosis of tumors by violating the number of certain informative RNA molecules. As detected in NSU, these changes in the number of RNA molecules do not lead to the death of brain cells. This result refuted the previously dominant hypothesis.
“Moreover, the number of information molecules in the brain can change temporarily under the influence of severe stress, for example, after a single episode of insomnia. All these changes in the cells of the nervous system occurred within a few hours and were obviously not related to the change in the number of brain cells. Otherwise, several sleepless people during the session after the night, any student can be diagnosed with severe irreversible damage to their brain and psyche, ”explained neurobiologist Petr Menshanov, Department of Physiology at the NSU Faculty of Natural Sciences.
The scientists also stressed that changes in the number of informative RNA molecules not exceeding 20-25% cannot be interpreted as an indicator of a change in the number of brain cells.
“There is a dynamic balance of informational RNA molecules in living cells, in which the synthesis of large numbers of additional molecules is impossible without destroying those previously produced. This makes the cells of the body look like more complex economic systems with limited production possibilities,” concluded the authors.