With the increase in the prevalence of neurological disorders in society is also coming an increase in advanced technology that allows us to better understand the brain.Tools with which to observe the cerebral cortex, the central lobe, and overcome the fluid that makes up the brain to reach the neuronal cells and their connections and to be able to understand how information travels through the nervous system, and how the damage of a neurological disease.Until recently, observing these elements was impossible and even today it is still difficult.But more and more, digital health technology is making it possible to see images of whole brains in 3D and zoom in to the places where a protein is expressed.These digital brain maps are made possible by brain clarification techniques and light sheet fluorescence microscopy.[banner-DFP_1]"We make the organs we want to study transparent and then use light sheet technology to take a photo of the entire brain in its original shape and structure at the time of death," explains Eloisa Herrera, a researcher at the Neurosciences Institute of the Miguel Hernández University (UMH).“After these steps we enter the data into the computer, where digital maps are created where we can observe each part of the brain, the neuron that interests us, see where a protein is expressed…”, adds Augusto Escalante, also a researcher at the Instituto de la UMH.This is one of the few centers in Spain that has the necessary equipment to carry out these techniques that require microscopy instruments, high-power and high-resolution computers, protocols to fix the brain, reagents and cohorts of mice to be able to do the studies.And it is that, at the moment, towards 99.9% of the investigations in brains that are carried out with these techniques are done with mice and ferrets, being smaller organs.“In mice it takes 25 days to clarify a brain, I don't want to imagine how long it would take with a human brain”, explains Escalante.He himself studies in mice how the itching signal originates.To do this, it provides a stimulus to a transgenic mouse, that is, it introduces a reagent into the mouse's body in the protein or nerve that will receive the itching and is responsible for transferring it to the brain, subsequently generating itching in one leg, on the back or on the side.After half an hour or an hour they remove the post-mortem brain or use the whole body, clarify it, fix it and obtain an image of the state of that area, which, through the digital map, allows observing the path of this stimulus, compared with that of a mouse that has not generated said itching. [banner-DFP_4]Cohorts of mice and ferrets are used, but this technique has also been used to study human embryos and brains, although to a lesser extent and more initially.Research published in the journal Cell obtained a high-resolution three-dimensional view of a complete human embryo.For this, immunostaining was used, that is, stained antibodies that adhere to the proteins that interest us and allow us to observe where they manifest, clarification and images by light sheet microscopy.The result allows us to observe the nerves of the entire body of an embryo, specific connections or the nerves that make up the hands, feet or are part of a lung or a heart, data with which to better understand the development of the nervous system.And as has been mentioned, there are also examples of clarification of other organs such as the brain, and also other organs.Recounting that adult human organs are particularly difficult to render transparent due to the accumulation of dense and resistant molecules in decades-old tissues, the researchers are innovating with new techniques with which they have managed to reveal structural details of an eye, a kidney and a human thyroid and a pig pancreas, as reflected in this study also published in the journal 'Cell'FUTURE IMPACT ON PHARMACOLOGYBut in addition to allowing work with gene expression, neuronal projections, physiological neuronal activity or neuronal activity, this technique also allows us to observe drug-induced neuronal activity or their distribution.Something that the researcher Jacob Hecksher-Sørensen has been studying for years and that he collects in studies such as the one recently published in 'Frontiers in Neuroscience' where he calls this technique "virtual neuroscience".Image repositories can make it possible to "compare the digital maps of a new drug candidate with the maps of existing drugs that are already on the market or with maps derived from drugs with known side effects," says the cited study."It would allow treatments to be tested in this way and not like now, with success and failure systems that currently have a significant impact on the health of patients who undergo clinical trials," says Herrera.Light sheet imaging of the vascular network in the adult mouse brain... #lightsheet #bloodbrainbarrier #BBB #CNS #neuroscience #Alzheimers #Parkinsons #obesity pic.twitter.com/SFFcFUZ8azBut for this, in addition to testing it in mice, it also needs to reach human brains.Something to be achieved."Before it was impossible to visualize the brain and nervous system with this resolution, you had to imagine the effect, carry out a very complex biochemical isolation... now we can create a stimulus and see what happens in the brain, and it is a spectacular advantage," he continues. Eloise Herrera.“And this will continue to evolve, with protocols that are cheaper, faster and that allow us to test it with humans.”Because we all need health... ConSalud.esTeledermatology, the initiative with more than 25 years of experience that leads telemedicineNew multiplex immunoassay to speed up dengue diagnosis© Copyright 2018. Saludigital.es.All rights reserved.C/ Batalla de Belchite 5, 4th floor, 28045, Madrid, Spain.