A naturally neurotropic virus that kills dopamine neurons. But not to worry, because If we don’t know about it then it’s not real.

The NIH has continued to refine its policies and guidelines to address the "effect of sex" in research, even extending these requirements to preclinical and animal studies in 2016.

The NIH Revitalization Act of 1993, signed into law on June 10, 1993, directed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to establish guidelines requiring the inclusion of women and minorities in clinical research.

Slightly exaggerated but not long ago almost all preclinical/clinical studies used only males assuming that results would be the same in females. We now know (amazing, huh) that our biochemistries are different and why the NIH mandated that all studies used equal numbers of male and females.

Not a problem. We can just start studying the effects of loss is estrogen leading to menopause in males. Just like the good old days when all studies were done in males (he says dripping with sarcasm)

Tim Mosca, PhD (Associate Professor). Not pictured: Joesph Buchler III MS, Benjamin Helpin, MS, Darsaan Khanna, MS).

Victoria Baccini PhD (Class of 2025, Dalva lab), Oghenerukevwe Akpoghiran, PhD (Class of 2025, Koh lab), Kyunghee Koh, PhD (Professor), Gabriella Spagnuolo, PhD (Class of 2025, Iacovitti Lab),, Lorraine Iacovitti, PhD (Professor), Jesse Humenik, MS (Class of 2025, Mosca lab),

Very cool

On the positive side, WT animals vaccinated against the COVID-19 infection, using either mRNA or protein-based vaccines were protected from this increased sensitivity to oxidative stress. G2019S LRRK2 animals, however, were only protected by the protein vaccine and not the mRNA vaccine.

Using preclinical modeling, we show that SARS-CoV-2 infection sensitizes the dopamine neurons lost in Parkinson's to oxidative stress that in an unaffected animal would be innocuous. We also show that animals carrying a G2019S LRRK2 mutation lose these same DA neurons following infection alone.

One of my favorite poems!