By using induced pluripotent stem cells to create endothelial cells that line blood vessels in the brain for the first time for a neurodegenerative disease, University of California, Irvine neurobiologists and colleagues have learned why Huntington’s disease patients have defects in the blood-brain barrier that contribute to the symptoms of this fatal disorder.
Hundreds of thousands of children with chronic illnesses who used to die are now surviving their disease and treatment—which is amazing. But their brains are being damaged in the process of keeping them alive. This first ever research quantifies the IQ impact of six main illnesses and looks and the common threads that connect them. It also takes next steps on how psychologists can team up with surgeons/oncologists, etc. to help treat kids and their parents, so they can thrive in school and life.
Beaumont Research Institute investigators are hopeful that their study involving small molecules in saliva will help identify those at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Compound could serve as basis for drugs to prevent neurological complications of Zika
A team of scientists from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles have used the cells of AHDS patients to recreate not only the disease, but a mimic of the patient’s blood-brain barrier in the laboratory dish using induced pluripotent stem cell technology.
Recruitment begins for a Keck School of Medicine of USC study of the first smartphone app to combine clinical data, MRI imaging and genetic data for people with multiple sclerosis
A recent study finds that “moral enhancement technologies” – which are discussed as ways of improving human behavior – are neither feasible nor wise, based on an assessment of existing research into these technologies.
New research from the University at Buffalo Research Institute on Addictions that explored the potential side effects of the stimulant drug Ritalin on those without ADHD showed changes in brain chemistry associated with risk-taking behavior, sleep disruption and other undesirable effects.
The grant will help fund a study to determine whether people with multiple sclerosis get as much benefit from an exercise-based rehabilitation program delivered via internet and telephone as they do when the therapy is provided in a clinic.
Faced with a serious disease, patients want to know the answer to a difficult question: “How long will I live?”
A clinical trial to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a stem cell product injected directly into the brain to treat chronic motor deficits from ischemic stroke has begun at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
Spinal muscular atrophy is partly due to defects in the sensory neuron synapses that activate motor neurons. Symptoms may be reduced by improving synapse function.
For the first time, a variant in UBQLN4 gene has been associated with Lou Gehrig’s disease or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) – a progressive disease resulting in the loss of nerve cells that control muscle movement, which eventually leads to paralysis and death. The study published in the journal eLife also describes how this gene variant disrupts a cellular process that drives motor neuron development. This new insight opens the door to potential treatment targets for ALS.
John Lukens recently became the first patient in Pennsylvania to receive MR-guided Focused Ultrasound Treatment (MRgFUS) for Essential Tremor (ET). At age 61, Lukens has suffered with bilateral Essential Tremor for roughly 10 years – a condition which left him with such significant shaking in his hands and arms that eating, shaving, and even writing with his dominant hand was very difficult. Now two weeks after the procedure, Lukens, who lives in Plymouth Meeting, Pa., says he’s tremor-free in his right hand.
Penn Medicine’s Alzheimer’s disease genetics data repository has received a five-year funding renewal from the National Institute on Aging (NIA) of the National Institutes of Health. The award is expected to total $7.7 million over five years.
A new suite of phone apps developed at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) uses Android smart phones to monitor the physical mobility and stability of older people.
A new study by researchers at the Intermountain Medical Center Heart Institute in Salt Lake City found that using long-term aspirin therapy to prevent strokes among patients who are considered to be at low risk for stroke may not be effective as previously thought.
The loss of the tumor suppressor gene PTEN has been linked to tumor growth and chemotherapy resistance in the almost invariably lethal brain cancer glioblastoma multiforme (GBM). Now, Ludwig researchers have shown that one way to override the growth-promoting effects of PTEN deletion is, surprisingly, to inhibit a separate tumor suppressor gene.
A Loyola Medicine study has found that two simulation techniques dramatically improved physicians' brain death diagnostic and communications skills. The techniques employ SimMan® 3G, a high-tech patient simulator (mannequin) and actors who simulate family members having a brain-death discussions.
Experiencing beauty requires thought, a team of neuroscientists finds, in a new study that confirms an 18th-century claim by the philosopher Immanuel Kant.
According to the American Stroke Association, the number of people 65 and older who were treated for ischemic stroke declined between 2000 and 2010. However, hospitalization rates for those younger than 65 rose.
Researchers have identified a microRNA biomarker that demonstrates a strong association with the incidence of atrial fibrillation, the most common abnormal heart rhythm.
Combining the Intermountain Mortality Risk Score (IMRS), developed by clinicians at Intermountain Healthcare, with the traditional CHA2DS2-VASc risk score, was more accurate in identifying at-risk patients than using the traditional score alone.
All is not lost according to the first study to look at and measure communication outcomes in both the caregiver spouse and the patient with dementia. In fact, researchers have found that “practice makes perfect” with the right intervention and a tool that can accurately measure couples’ communication.
The issue of youth suicide is much in the news these days. Middle school students are just as likely to die from suicide as from traffic accidents, states the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A research volunteer with multiple sclerosis and another who had suffered stroke walked significantly better and faster with the aid of neural stimulation systems, potentially laying the foundation for implanted systems that restore some independence to people in these populations.
Women with elevated levels of a protein in their blood may be at a higher risk of ischemic stroke, according to a study published in the May 10, 2017, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The new research comes in time for Stroke Awareness Month in May.
Cooling down the body may reduce brain injury for people in a coma after being revived from cardiac arrest, according to a new guideline developed by the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) and published in the May 10, 2017, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The guideline recommends that families ask if their loved one qualifies for the procedure. The guideline is endorsed by the Neurocritical Care Society.
Study shows that slow-moving meditation practice works just as well as talk therapy, and better than medication
By applying a novel computer algorithm to mimic how the brain learns, a team of researchers – with the aid of the Comet supercomputer based at the San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC) at UC San Diego and the Center’s Neuroscience Gateway – has identified and replicated neural circuitry that resembles the way an unimpaired brain controls limb movement.
Georgetown University Medical Center autism specialists working with Latino families in Washington, DC, have developed an effective screening program that identifies Latino infants who may be at risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), allowing the opportunity for early intervention.
Bacteria in the gut microbiome drive the formation of cerebral cavernous malformations (CCMs), clusters of dilated, thin-walled blood vessels in the brain that can cause stroke and seizures. The research team’s research suggests that altering the microbiome in CCM patients may be an effective therapy for this cerebrovascular disease.
Which came first, overall bigger brains or larger brain regions that control specialized behaviors? Neuroscientists have debated this question for decades, but a new Cornell University study settles the score.
Six biological pigments called rhodopsins play well-established roles in light-sensing in the fruit fly eye. Three of them also have light-independent roles in temperature sensation. New research shows that a seventh rhodopsin, Rh7, is expressed in the brain of fruit flies where it regulates the fly’s day-night activity cycles. The study appears in Nature and was funded by the National Eye Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.
Scientists at IMBA (Institute of Molecular Biotechnology) describe novel organoid technology combining various brain regions for investigation of epilepsy, and other neurological diseases, as reported in the current issue of Nature Methods.
Researchers at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues in Ecuador and Minnesota, have found altered short-term neurological behaviors in children associated with a peak pesticide spraying season linked to the Mother’s Day flower harvest. This study examined children who did not work in agriculture but who lived in agricultural communities in Ecuador.
Studies have shown that loss of the sense of smell can be among the first warning signs of diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Now a researcher at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania wants to shift the search for clues about this process back even further, to find out if there is a common factor responsible for the loss of smell that may also serve as an early warning signal for a number of neurodegenerative diseases.
A peer-support program launched six years ago at Johns Hopkins Medicine to help doctors and nurses recover after traumatic patient-care events such as a patient’s death probably saves the institution close to $2 million annually, according to a recent cost-benefit analysis.
Neuroscientist Manuel Zimmer, a group leader at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP) in Vienna, has been selected as HHMI-Wellcome International Research Scholar. His work on C. elegans worms aims to uncover how the brain processes information to generate behaviour.
A new large-scale genetic study found that low body mass index (BMI) is likely not a causal risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease, as earlier research had suggested, according to a study published in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.
The four-year psychiatry residency program is based at Tenet HealthCare system’s Delray Medical Center, the primary site for the program, South County Mental Health Center in Delray Beach and Boca Raton Regional Hospital.
"Unprevented Diabetes Means Unnecessary Alzheimer's", a report by Health People: Community Preventive Health Institute projects that without prevention for New York City's estimated 1.3 million pre-diabetics and for New York State's 5.4 million pre-diabetics, city diabetes cases will rise by 325,000 cases in five years and overall state diabetes cases by 1.35 million cases; based on reach research, these new cohort of diabetics are at a 40% increased risk for developing Alzheimer's over time.
In recognition of National Stroke Awareness Month in May, Loyola Medicine physicians are raising awareness of stroke signs and symptoms and educating the public on how to prevent strokes.
Hypoxia reverses brain damage caused by mitochondrial dysfunction, HHMI team finds. The approach might one day point to new therapies for people with Leigh syndrome and other mitochondrial disorders.
An international collaborative study led by researchers at Sanford Burnham Prebys Medical Discovery Institute (SBP), with major participation from Yokohama School of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and UC San Diego, has identified the molecular mechanism behind lithium’s effectiveness in treating bipolar disorder patients. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), utilized human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPS cells) to map lithium’s response pathway, enabling the larger pathogenesis of bipolar disorder to be identified.
Study determined veterans with PTSD exhibit deficits in attention allocation and emotional regulation when processing words specific to combat like “raid” or “seize,” but not when processing neutral words such as “bread” or “pen.”
A growing body of evidence suggests that virtual reality (VR) technology can be an effective part of treatment for phobias, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other mental health conditions, according to a research review in the May/June issue of the Harvard Review of Psychiatry. The journal is published by Wolters Kluwer.
Genetic alterations that can be modulated by stress have been identified in children at high risk for bipolar disorder, according to a recently published study by researchers at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). Results appeared in Translational Psychiatry, a Nature Publishing Group journal.
A clinical trial of a drug that researchers hope can prevent or delay the onset of epilepsy in children with tuberous sclerosis has begun at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth).
In 2009, Joan Coates, a veterinary neurologist, along with other researchers at the University of Missouri and the Broad Institute at MIT/Harvard, found a genetic link between degenerative myelopathy (DM) in dogs and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig’s disease in people. Now, MU researchers Coates and Michael Garcia, an associate professor in the Division of Biological Sciences, have found that a biomarker test that helps diagnose ALS also can assist with determining a diagnosis for degenerative myelopathy.
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