Multiple sclerosis (MS) may be triggered by the death of brain cells that make myelin, the insulation around nerve fibers, according to research on a novel mouse model. This can be prevented through the application of specially developed nanoparticles, even after the loss of those brain cells.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) may be triggered by the death of brain cells that make the insulation around nerve fibers, a surprising new view of the disease reported in a study. A specially developed nanoparticle prevented MS even after the death of those brain cells, an experiment in the study showed. The nanoparticles are being developed for clinical trials that could lead to new treatments -- without the side effects of current therapies.
Further underscoring the prenatal origins of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine describe for the first time how abnormal gene activity in cell cycle networks that are known to control brain cell production may underlie abnormal early brain growth in the disorder.
While most Down syndrome research has focused on the brain, a new report by Johns Hopkins University biologists uncovers how the disorder hampers a separate part of the nervous system that plays a key role in health and longevity.
Feeling stressed out increases the likelihood that elderly people will develop mild cognitive impairment—often a prelude to full-blown Alzheimer’s disease. In a new study, scientists at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and Montefiore Health System found that highly stressed participants were more than twice as likely to become impaired than those who were not. Because stress is treatable, the results suggest that detecting and treating stress in older people might help delay or even prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s. The findings were published online today in Alzheimer Disease & Associated Disorders.
According to newly published research, a specialized psychotherapy has been linked to changes in activation patterns in certain areas of the brain in patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD), suggesting its impact may go deeper than symptom change.
When someone experiences a major stroke, almost two million nerve cells in the brain die each minute, emphasizing the need for rapid treatment. Stroke patients who receive life-saving interventions more quickly have a higher chance of recovery. A recent data analysis showed the Comprehensive Stroke Center at UC San Diego Medical Center exceeded national average treatment times, and as a result, has received a “Get With The Guidelines-Stroke Gold Plus Quality Achievement Award” from The American Heart Association and American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA).
The standard of care for acute concussion may undergo a dramatic change, depending on the results of a new exercise treatment that physicians at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo have developed and begun testing. It is the first randomized, controlled clinical trial of this exercise treatment for concussion.
Many strokes that required immediate treatment in emergency rooms may have been preventable, according to a University of California, Irvine study. While therapy for acute stroke continues to advance and improve patient outcomes, the findings stress that stroke prevention – including the close monitoring of blood pressure, cholesterol levels and cardiac conditions – needs to keep pace.
A pesticide used prior to the early 1980s and found in milk at that time may be associated with signs of Parkinson’s disease in the brain, according to a study published in the December 9, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
UAB researchers have found that, contrary to current thinking, astrocytes are repelled by the amyloid plaques that are linked to the disease. pplying mathematical models used for studying the galaxies or interactions between elementary particles, researchers at the Institute of Neuroscience of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, have analysed the spatial distribution of astrocytes: brain cells that are essential for the correct functioning of neurons.
In a quest to stay healthy, many people are seeking natural ways to prevent neurodegenerative diseases. Recent studies show that pomegranate extract, which is a rich source of disease-fighting polyphenols, can help protect against the development of Alzheimer's disease. But researchers weren't sure which molecules to thank. A team reports in ACS Chemical Neuroscience that the responsible compounds may be urolithins, which are made when gut bacteria break down the polyphenols in the extract.
Playing three-dimensional video games – besides being lots of fun – can boost the formation of memories, according to University of California, Irvine neurobiologists. Along with adding to the trove of research that shows these games can improve eye-hand coordination and reaction time, this finding shows the potential for novel virtual approaches to helping people who lose memory as they age or suffer from dementia.
A new study involving UT Dallas researchers shows that vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) technology could help improve the lives of hundreds of thousands of people who suffer weakness and paralysis caused by strokes. The study, published in the journal Stroke, marks the first time that VNS has been tested in individuals recovering from stroke.
Three biomarker-based categories, called biotypes, outperformed traditional diagnoses, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder with psychosis, in sorting psychosis cases into distinct subgroups on the basis of brain biology, report researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health. A hallmark of severe mental illness, psychosis is marked by hallucinations and delusions, or false, irrational beliefs.
UCLA Health Sciences has received a $10 million gift, most of which will support multidisciplinary research on migraine, a debilitating neurological disorder that affects 36 million in the U.S.
Parkinson’s disease is difficult to diagnose, particularly in its early stages. Now, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine – aided by a $375,000 grant from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research (MJFF) – hope to improve the prospects of early diagnosis by identifying a biological signpost in the blood.
Mayo Clinic researchers have discovered a series of proteins that could be diagnostic markers to identify bipolar I disorder. If this discovery sample can be validated through replication these markers may help as a diagnostic tool for psychiatrists treating mood disorders.
Opting for smaller rewards immediately instead of waiting for bigger payoffs later is associated with problems such as impulsive behavior and addiction to food, drugs and alcohol. Washington University School of Medicine researchers are reporting that such decision-making tendencies have a genetic link to brain pathways that underlie those disorders.
Scientists have long known that when sounds are faint or objects are seen through fog in the distance, repetition of these weak or ambiguous sensory “inputs” can result in different perceptions inside the same brain. Now the results of new research, described in Nature Neuroscience, have identified brain processes in mice that may help explain how those differences happen.
A team of neuroscientists has found new support for MIT linguist Noam Chomsky’s decades-old theory that we possess an “internal grammar” that allows us to comprehend even nonsensical phrases.
Currently, there is no treatment to halt the progression of Huntington’s disease (HD), a fatal genetic disorder that slowly robs sufferers of their physical and mental abilities. Now, researchers at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine have discovered that an existing compound, previously tested for diabetes, offers hope for slowing HD and its symptoms.
Scientists have made several kinds of mice in the hope of mimicking ALS and frontotemporal dementia, diseases caused by mutations in the C9ORF72 gene. Early results indicate that the mutated genes generate unusual RNAs and proteins, but that losing the normal C9ORF72 gene does not kill neurons.
The vitamin D receptor (VDR) promotes the differentiation of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPCs) and boosts myelin sheath regeneration, according to a study in The Journal of Cell Biology. The research suggests potential new ways to treat multiple sclerosis patients.
Parkinson’s disease researchers at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo have developed a way to ramp up the conversion of skin cells into dopamine neurons. They have identified – and found a way to overcome –a key obstacle to such cellular conversions.
A new, open-source software that can help track the embryonic development and movement of neuronal cells throughout the body of the worm, is now available to scientists.
UT Southwestern Medical Center’s Texas Institute for Brain Injury and Repair (TIBIR) has initiated one of the nation’s first concussion registries for student athletes and others aimed at improving treatment for this all-too-common sports injury.
Northwestern University neuroscientists now can read the mind of a fly. In a study focused on three of the fruit fly’s sensory systems, the researchers developed a new tool that uses fluorescent molecules of different colors to tag neurons in the brain to see which connections, or synapses, were active during a sensory experience that happened hours earlier. Mapping the pattern of individual neural connections could provide insights into the computational processes that underlie the workings of the human brain.
A new study published in PLOS ONE found that the Transcendental Meditation technique and lifestyle changes both appear to stimulate genes that produce telomerase, an enzyme that's associated with reduced blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and mortality.
Several studies have demonstrated that the primary active constituent of cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (∆9-THC), induces transient psychosis-like effects in healthy subjects similar to those observed in schizophrenia. However, the mechanisms underlying these effects are not clear.
In the first study of its kind, researchers have shown that inadequate maternal iron intake during pregnancy exerts subtle effects on infant brain development. Their findings have been published online by the journal Pediatric Research.
Parkinson’s disease isn’t the kind of affliction that will kill most people. Instead, it creeps up slowly and progressively destroys the quality of life of those who develop it.
Scientists at Seattle Children’s Research Institute have found a way to rapidly suppress epilepsy in mouse models by manipulating a known genetic pathway using a cancer drug currently in human clinical trials for the treatment of brain and breast cancer.
How fast elderly people walk may be related to the amount of amyloid they have built up in their brains, even if they don’t yet have symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease, according to a study published in the December 2, 2015, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
A new drug developed by scientists at Saint Louis University increases the expression of key genes linked to autism.
Researchers help the brain make GM1 ganglioside, a protective substance that is diminished in the brains of Parkinson's patients
New research from the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry is trailblazing a potential new pathway for the treatment of multiple sclerosis (MS). The research, published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation, examines a novel therapeutic strategy to reduce inflammation in the brain.
Scientists have recently found evidence that professional football players are susceptible to a progressive degenerative disease, chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), which is caused by repetitive brain trauma. Now, researchers on Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus have discovered a significant and surprising amount of CTE in males who had participated in amateur contact sports in their youth.
Most children and adolescents with herniated disks in the lower (lumbar) spine have some sort of malformation of the spinal vertebrae, reports a study in the December issue of Neurosurgery, official journal of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, published by Wolters Kluwer.
Biomedical Engineering Professor Elizabeth Hillman has won an NIH BRAIN Initiative grant, the first awarded to Columbia Engineering, for her work on SCAPE, a high-speed 3D microscope she has developed for imaging the living brain. Whereas most modern microscopes can only image a single plane at up to 20 frames per second, Hillman’s technique can over 100 planes within a 3D volume in the same amount of time, enabling scientists to make exciting new discoveries.
In addition to treating depression, a commonly used antidepressant medication also protects against compounds that can cause memory loss and dementia, a Loyola University Medical Center study has found.
You may believe that you have forgotten the Chinese you spoke as a child, but your brain hasn’t. Moreover, that “forgotten” first language may well influence what goes on in your brain when you speak English or French today. In a paper published today in Nature Communications, researchers from McGill University and the Montreal Neurological Institute describe their discovery that even brief, early exposure to a language influences how the brain processes sounds from a second language later in life. Even when the first language learned is no longer spoken.
According to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, brains can't really fit into the categories of "male" or "female" -- their distinguishing features actually vary across a spectrum. Researchers led by University of Tel-Aviv studied brain scans of some 1,400 individuals and could not find a single pattern that distinguishes between a male brain and a female brain.
While stress, travel, and changes of schedule are not likely to trigger a relapse, they can make multiple sclerosis symptoms worse and that can put a damper on holiday festivities. Professor of neurology at Saint Louis University Florian Thomas, M.D., offers strategies to keep MS symptoms in check.
Menkes disease arises from dysfunction in ATP7A, a protein that transports copper to cells, leading to brain development complications. Introducing working versions of ATP7A in the brain is considered the most direct therapeutic approach. However, a new study suggests that functioning ATP7A located elsewhere in the body, not necessarily the entire brain, can help treat the disorder.
A University of California, Irvine research team is part of a $37 million national effort to identify biomarkers that will predict the onset of Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome. UCI pediatric neurologist Dr. Ira Lott and colleagues will receive $4.7 million of that funding from the National Institute on Aging to support his continuing work to uncover the mystery of progressive cognitive impairment seen in some people over 40 with Down syndrome.
Latest Research Highlights from ACSM— November 2015
Johns Hopkins researchers have developed a method to efficiently turn human stem cells into retinal ganglion cells, the type of nerve cells located within the retina that transmit visual signals from the eye to the brain.
Many human gene variants have evolved specifically to protect older adults against neurodegenerative and cardiovascular diseases, thus preserving their contributions to society, report University of California, San Diego School of Medicine researchers in the November 30 issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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