The brain is an extremely complex thing. So complex in fact, that we don’t even entirely know how it works. That’s why diagnosing any problems in the brain can be extremely difficult. Anything from a headache to memory loss can be a sign of serious problems, but at the same time could be completely benign. There’s not very many ways to tell, as getting an x-ray of your brain whenever you get a headache isn’t really the safest idea. For certain ailments however, there is a much more effective way of determining them without extensive head x-rays. By identifying certain neural tissues and their quantities, scientists are actually able to discover brain tumors and calculate their growth and stage. To do this certain tissues are marked using synaptophysin, which naturally occurs in the brain, and then catalogued and analyzed in a lab. The use of this antibody is crucial to understanding how brain tumors develop and how to treat them. Used in conjunction with other antibodies and proteins, this can identify several different types of brain cancer as well as a range of other neurological issues. While the exact function of this protein is unknown, we do know that its production is linked to several neurological abnormalities and it can be used to identify them.
Other Applications
While finding brain cancer is a very important thing, synaptophysin has other practical applications as well. The production of this protein has been found to be implicated in certain types of mental disabilities. By using this protein to find and determine the extent of these mental impairments at an early age, doctors are able to give a more comprehensive diagnosis and are able to provide more assistance and information to the family of those diagnosed. Having this early knowledge can make treating and caring for the diagnosed patient much easier on the parents, which in turn makes things much easier on the patient.
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