Team Discovers Previously Unknown Brain Component and Why It’s There

URMC researchers have discovered a previously unknown component of brain anatomy that acts as both a protective barrier and a platform from which immune cells monitor the brain for infection and inflammation.

Conditions as diverse as multiple sclerosis, central nervous system infections, and Alzheimer’s might be triggered or worsened by abnormalities in how this newly discovered component functions.

The work, described in the journal Science, comes from the labs of Maiken Nedergaard, MD, DMSc, co-director of the Center for Translational Neuromedicine at University of Rochester and the University of Copenhagen, and Kjeld Møllgård, MD, a professor of neuroanatomy at the University of Copenhagen.

“The discovery of a new anatomic structure that segregates and helps control the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in and around the brain now provides us much greater appreciation of the sophisticated role that CSF plays not only in transporting and removing waste from the brain but also in supporting its immune defenses,” said Nedergaard.

Traditional understanding of the brain’s meningeal layer identifies the three individual layers: dura, arachnoid, and pia matter. URMC’s researchers further divided the space between the arachnoid and pia layers—the subarachnoid space— into two compartments separated by the newly described layer, which the researchers named SLYM (Subarachnoidal LYmphatic-like Membrane).

This membrane is thin, delicate, and only a few cells thick. Yet SLYM is a tight barrier, and it also seems to separate “clean” from “dirty” CSF. This hints at the likely role played by SLYM in the glymphatic system, which requires a controlled flow and exchange of CSF—allowing the influx of fresh CSF while flushing away the toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer’s and other neurological diseases.

The SLYM also appears important to the brain’s defenses. The central nervous system maintains its own native population of immune cells, and the membrane’s integrity prevents outside immune cells from entering. In addition, the membrane appears to host its own population of central nervous system immune cells that use SLYM as an observation point, close to the surface of the brain, from which to scan passing CSF for signs of infection or inflammation.

CLINICAL INNOVATION

Skin Cancer Detection: New Device Seeks to Shorten Wait Time for Biopsy Results

A 3D imaging device invented by a young investigator at the Wilmot Cancer Institute can accurately detect two types of non-melanoma skin cancer and report results within minutes, according to a pilot study published in JAMA Dermatology

Michael Giacomelli, PhD, assistant professor of Biomedical Engineering, started working on the device when he was a doctoral student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since then, he’s been conducting research to test its efficiency. Of the 15 biopsies reported in JAMA, diagnosis of basal cell carcinoma displayed perfect accuracy, and diagnosis of squamous cell skin cancer displayed 89 percent sensitivity and 100 percent specificity.

The imaging system was designed to be rolled on a small cart into an operating room or other clinical space and provide real-time results to physicians who have taken biopsies of lesions suspected to be cancerous.