Helen Phillips A hormone treatment used as a "morning-after" drug to induce abortion could provide a rapid-acting treatment for depression. The drug, called RU486, was one of two new rapid treatment strategies, revealed on Sunday at the Federation of European Neurosciences Society's Annual Forum in Vienna, Austria. Most antidepressants are thought to work by raising levels of the signalling chemical serotonin, which acts in the brain. But these drugs can take several weeks to take effect. The new treatments could be effective within days or even hours. The hormone treatment is based on earlier findings that stress plays a major part in triggering and prolonging depression. Stress hormones appear to damage a part of the brain called the hippocampus. The region is susceptible because it is particularly rich in hormone receptors, allowing it to regulate ongoing hormone release. In experiments on rats, Paul Lucassen from the University of Amsterdam in the Netherlands discovered that stress hormones seemed to be interfering with the birth of new neurons in the region. “The whole turnover of cells is affected,” he reported. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Depression; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 9114 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A blood test to detect the human form of mad cow disease before it causes symptoms is a step closer, say experts. Spanish and US scientists have found a way to detect infection in hamsters before the animal shows signs of illness. More work is needed before a similar test could be used in humans, but the findings offer hope of a screening test for vCJD, Science reports. Currently, it is only possible to confirm vCJD infection after death. A test for vCJD is badly needed, especially now that some cases appear to have been transmitted by blood transfusions, say Dr Paula Saa and colleagues from the University of Texas. In the UK, there have been three reported cases of variant-CJD associated with a blood transfusion to date. The first of these was identified in December 2003. Since then the Department of Health has asked all recipients of blood transfusions not to donate blood as a precautionary measure to protect the blood supply from vCJD. This is because it has not yet been possible to screen donated blood for vCJD, unlike some other infections. The test developed by Dr Saa's team detects prion proteins - the infectious agents that are thought to be responsible for vCJD. Normally, prion concentrations are only high enough to be detectable in the brain and some lymphoid tissue at a time close to they symptomatic stage of the disease. To get round this, the scientists used a technique called protein misfolding cyclic amplification (PCMA) which amplifies the quantity of prion proteins in any sample taken from the body. (C)BBC

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 9113 - Posted: 07.10.2006

By BENEDICT CAREY WHEN a war crime doesn't look quite like a war crime — when it seems cold and deliberate like a serial murder, rather than an impulsive act of vengeance — it can be especially disturbing, as United States Army officials have learned over the past week. According to federal prosecutors, an Army private and several comrades attacked an Iraqi family last March, raping and killing a young woman after executing her parents and her younger sister in their home. The men disguised themselves for the attack and worked as a team, the prosecutors said. Iraqi leaders are in an uproar, as are American officials in and out of the military. The accused ringleader, Steven D. Green, 21, who was discharged in May, pleaded not guilty after his arrest June 30, and details of the crime were still emerging last week. The Army has said it discharged Mr. Green for a "personality disorder." Which raises a question: How does someone with a personality disorder — a significant, disabling, and dangerous condition — manage the stress of combat? Wouldn't a person with a serious mental problem drop out, or be identified and quickly discharged? Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Aggression
Link ID: 9112 - Posted: 06.24.2010

At the tender age of 10 days or so young rats first venture outside the nest, leaving the comforting presence of their mother. The world outside is full of perils and promise and the pups must learn the difference. But the presence or absence of their mother may make all the difference in determining which is which, according to new research published online yesterday in Nature Neuroscience. Stephanie Moriceau and Regina Sullivan of the University of Oklahoma tested how baby rats responded to the pairing of an unfamiliar odor--peppermint--and a weak electric shock to their tails. The charge-laced scent attracted the youngest pups without exception while repelling their older siblings of 21 days--the age when rats become fully independent. But young rats between 12 and 15 days old either learned to love the peppermint despite the shock if their mother was present or learned to fear it if she was not. When presented with the odor later in a Y-maze, the mothered pups would invariably move toward it while their motherless counterparts would move away. © 1996-2006 Scientific American, Inc

Keyword: Emotions; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 9111 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Cuttlefish are wizards of camouflage. Adept at blending in with their surroundings, cuttlefish are known to have a diverse range of body patterns and can switch between them almost instantaneously. New research from MBL Marine Resources scientists, to appear in the May 2006 issue of the journal Vision Research, confirms that while these masters of disguise change their appearance based on visual cues, they do so while being completely colorblind. While previous research has reported cuttlefish colorblindness, MBL Research Associate Lydia Mäthger and her colleagues in Roger Hanlon’s laboratory approached the problem in more depth and with a new behavioral assay. The researchers tested cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) color perception through observing the animal’s behavioral response to a series of checkerboard patterned substrates of various colors and brightnesses. They found that the animals did not respond to the checkerboard pattern when placed on substrates whose color intensities were matched to the Sepia visual system, suggesting that these checkerboards appeared to their eyes as uniform backgrounds. However, their results showed that cuttlefish were able to detect contrast differences of at least 15%, which Mäthger and her colleagues suspect might be a critical factor in uncovering what determines camouflage patterning in cuttlefish. © 2005 by The Marine Biological LaboratoryTM

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 9110 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jason Stahl 1 Chronic snoring can be treated by uvulopalatopharyngoplasty, a surgical procedure that tightens the tissues of the soft palate and throat. Possible side effects include changes in voice frequency. 2 Another option involves injecting the palate with a chemical to harden the soft tissue. This is called a snoroplasty, derived from the Greek word plastos, meaning molded, and somewhat lamely from the English word snore, meaning snore. 3 Baaaa'd idea: A 2002 study by Oxford University researchers concluded, brilliantly, that the traditional practice of counting sheep is an ineffective cure for insomnia. The mental activity is so boring that other problems and concerns inevitably surface. 4 Mattresses have an average life span of 8 to 10 years. They grow some nasty stuff in that time; one study links mattress bacteria to sudden infant death syndrome. 5 An adult bedbug can survive up to one year without feeding. 6 In 2004 Americans filled more than 35 million prescriptions for sleeping pills.The number of adults aged 20 to 44 taking pills to help them fall asleep has doubled in the last four years. © 2005 Discover Media LLC.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 9109 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Blood levels of two proteins important in Alzheimer's disease may predict pending dementia, say scientists. High levels of one amyloid protein and low levels of another were linked with a more than 10-fold increased dementia risk among the 1,756 people studied. The Dutch researchers from the Erasmus Medical Centre say more work is now needed to see whether the markers could be used as a dementia blood test. Diagnosing dementia is often difficult, particularly in the early stages. There is no simple test to make a diagnosis of dementia, and it can only be confirmed with certainty by examining someone's brain in a post mortem. In Alzheimer's disease, plaques comprised of amyloid can be seen in the brain. Past research has also shown that people with mutations that cause early-onset Alzheimer's disease can have high blood concentrations of amyloid proteins. Dr Monique Breteler and her team set out to investigate whether increased blood concentrations of amyloid proteins might be associated with the development of dementia. They followed 1,756 people known to be at risk for dementia. Over the eight years, 392 of the people developed dementia. Increasing blood concentrations of one type of amyloid protein, Aß1-40, was associated with an increased risk of dementia, particularly when the concentration of another amyloid protein, Aß1-42, was low in the blood. (C)BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 9108 - Posted: 07.08.2006

Even when they really want to quit, the craving can suck smokers into lighting up again. But University of Minnesota addiction researcher Kola Okuyemi wants to know why it seems to affect some ethnic groups more than others. "African Americans, in general, even though they smoke fewer cigarettes per day compared to Caucasians, they have a harder time quitting smoking," he says. Smoking cessation research targeted at the African American community is critical, because smoking affects a disproportional amount of African Americans. According to the American Lung Association, "African Americans have lower overall exposure to tobacco smoke, but are more susceptible to developing smoking-related illnesses. African American men are 50 percent more likely than white men to develop lung cancer." "And in order for us to be able to reduce the disparities," Okuyemi says, "the disparities that we see in the success with which people quit smoking, we need a better understanding on why it is that African Americans have a harder time quitting smoking." So to investigate, Okuyemi and his team put 34 volunteers into an MRI brain scanning machine and showed them equal amounts of photos of African Americans and Caucasians smoking. These photos, called "smoking cues," are meant to provoke a response in certain parts of the brain. © ScienCentral, 2000-2006.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 9107 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Heidi Ledford Those who have been keeping a mental tally of the differences between males and females can now add another 25,281 items to the list. That's the number of differences that researchers have found in gene expression between male and female mice, according to a report published online in this month's Genome Research1. With the exception of sex chromosomes, males and females have all the same genes; although variations in these genes and the genetic material between them produce the different types and amounts of proteins that make one person different from another. Researchers have found that other factors, such as sex hormones, can also affect the amount of protein produced, making gene expression broadly different in males and females. That in turn could affect, for example, the way that drugs are metabolized by men versus women. A few thousand such differences have been identified before. But now researchers have taken a huge step up in cataloguing the number of genes that behave differently from one sex to the next. "The results have particular importance for understanding common diseases, almost all of which exhibit some sex bias," says Jake Lusis, a geneticist at the University of California, Los Angeles, and co-author of the study. "For example, women are much more susceptible to most autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and multiple sclerosis, whereas men are more susceptible to heart disease and Alzheimer's disease." ©2006 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 9106 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Bruce Bower Although hyperactive behavior often abates during the teen years for girls with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, many struggle with serious academic, emotional, and social problems related to that condition, a 5-year study finds. Compared with teenage girls who had no psychiatric disorder, those with ADHD had difficulties that included delinquency, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, poor mathematics and reading achievement, rejection by peers, and lack of planning skills, reports a team led by psychologist Stephen P. Hinshaw of the University of California, Berkeley. "ADHD in girls is likely to yield continuing problems in adolescence, even though hyperactive symptoms may recede," Hinshaw says. The new findings appear in the June Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. In 1997, Hinshaw's team organized the first of three yearly summer camps for 6- to 12-year-old girls, including individuals already diagnosed with ADHD. The project focused on 140 girls with ADHD and 88 girls with no psychiatric disorder, all of whom completed one of the 5-week programs. Staff monitored each girl's daily behavior and administered a battery of tests without knowing who had an ADHD diagnosis. ©2006 Science Service

Keyword: ADHD; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 9105 - Posted: 06.24.2010

WASHINGTON -- Better pay attention, reader. This whole story may be a blur. For the first time, researchers have demonstrated the ill effects of mindless reading - a phenomenon in which people take in sentence after sentence without really paying attention. Ever read the same paragraph three times? Or get to the end of a page and realize you don't know what you just read? That's mindless reading. It is the literary equivalent of driving for miles without remembering how you got there - something so common many people don't even notice it. In a new study of college students, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and the University of British Columbia established a way to study mindless reading in a lab. Their findings showed that daydreaming has its costs. The readers who zoned out most tended to do the worst on tests of reading comprehension - a significant, if not surprising, result. The study also suggested that zoning out caused the poor test results, as opposed to other possible factors, such as the complexity of the text or the task. © 2002-2006 redOrbit.com.

Keyword: Attention; Language
Link ID: 9104 - Posted: 06.24.2010

"Brainy kids aren't brainy just because they have more grey matter," says brain researcher Philip Shaw, of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), referring to the kinds of cells that make up part of the brain. "I think that's part of the story, but not all of it. Rather, intelligence is related to the dynamics of how the brain grows." Shaw and his research team found that children who scored highest on IQ tests had a distinctive pattern of brain growth. They used MRI brain scans to follow the development of the brains of 307 children from age seven to their late teens. While they found no difference in the kids' brain size by late adolescence, those with the highest IQ scores actually started out with a thinner than average cortex -- the outer layer of the brain that helps us reason and make decisions. "The really highly intelligent children, they started off with a very thin cortex, it got thicker very quickly, peaked, and then also got thinner very quickly," Shaw explains. "Average intelligence children showed the same sort of pattern, but all the changes happen much more slowly. There was a very slow increase and a very slow decrease, and they also reached their peak cortical thickness a couple of years before the very intelligent children." © ScienCentral, 2000-2006.

Keyword: Intelligence; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 9103 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Greg Miller Alzheimer's disease, a dreaded specter for many elderly, is far more likely to strike individuals with Down syndrome. Now, a study with a mouse model of Down syndrome may explain why. The work hints at potential targets for future drugs that fend off dementia--in people with Down syndrome and in the general population too. Down syndrome is caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21. It affects roughly 1 in 800 people, causing mild to moderate mental retardation and a range of other health problems, including early-onset dementia. By age 40, the brains of all people with Down syndrome develop the hallmark plaques and tangles of Alzheimer's and other signs of brain atrophy, autopsy studies have found. No one knows why this happens, but many researchers suspect this neurodegeneration has something to do with a gene called App. People with Down syndrome have an extra copy of this gene, which contributes to plaque formation in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. (The gene's normal function isn't clear). The new research begins to explain why the extra copy of App kills neurons. A team led by Ahmad Salehi and William Mobley at Stanford University in California examined mice with extra copies of many of the genes found on human chromosome 21. As these mice age, a certain group of neurons deep in their brains dies off, and they experience cognitive declines. These neurons, which use the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, also die in Alzheimer's patients. © 2006 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 9102 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — A baboon hand gesture appears to send the message "go ahead, make my day" to other baboons — suggesting that gesturing may have been a precursor to human language, according to a new study. The findings could help to explain why humans often gesture with their hands, and particularly the right hand, when they speak. Since the right hand is controlled by the brain’s left hemisphere, which is the source of most linguistic functions, scientists believe communication by hand likely existed in apes 30 million years ago and was a forerunner to spoken and written language among people. Researchers Adrien Meguerditchian and Jacques Vauclair studied a particular hand gesture in 60 captive baboons. The gesture consists of quick and repetitive rubbing or slapping of the hand on the ground, and is used to threaten or intimidate others. Meguerditchian and Vauclair, who work in the Research Center of Psychology of Cognition, Language and Emotion at the University of Provence, France, told Discovery News that this motion "might be comparable in humans to the slap of ... one hand toward the palm of the other hand." © 2006 Discovery Communications Inc

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 9101 - Posted: 06.24.2010

RICHMOND, Va. – Researchers have found that genetic factors may play an important role in a person’s use, misuse or dependence of illicit drugs like marijuana, stimulants, opiates, cocaine and psychedelics. In the July issue of the journal Psychological Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University researchers, in collaboration with researchers from Norwegian Institute of Public Health and University of Oslo in Norway, reported the results of a population-based study of twin pairs that showed that genetic factors influence the illicit drug use in Norway, a country with significantly low levels of psychoactive substance use disorder. “Prior twin studies of illicit drug use and abuse have all been conducted in Anglophonic countries, specifically the United States and Australia, with high levels of such use. This is the first study of a non-English speaking country with much lower rates of drug use - yet results are similar - drug use and abuse or dependence is quite heritable,” said lead author Kenneth S. Kendler, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and human genetics in VCU’s School of Medicine. The team examined the role of genetic and environmental factors in the progression of psychoactive substance use and abuse.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 9100 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Michael Hopkin Neuroscientists have found that rats are more likely to get hooked on heroin if they have previously been given cannabis. The studies suggest a biological mechanism — at least in rats — for the much-publicized effect of cannabis as a 'gateway' to harder drugs. The discovery hints that the brain system that produces pleasurable sensations when exposed to heroin may be 'primed' by earlier exposure to cannabis, say researchers at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, who carried out the study. There has long been a debate about whether exposure to drugs such as nicotine or marijuana might lead to harder habits. Many argue that the most important factors in the equation are social ones: people who get one drug from a dealer are probably more inclined to try another. But researchers are still interested to know whether there is any physiological effect that might additionally predispose users of so-called soft drugs to harder-drug addiction. To rule out social factors, the researchers turned to an animal model. They dosed some rats with the active ingredient of cannabis and others with a neutral compound during their adolescence (when they were about four to six weeks old). After that, they gave the rats intermittent access to heroin for several weeks, obtained by pressing a lever. ©2006 Nature Publishing Group

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 9099 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jane Elliott Could the humble chilli pepper hold the answer to arthritis pain? Scientists at King's College, London are hoping they can harness the heat in chilli peppers and adapt it to combat inflammation in arthritis. Although the work is still in the very early stages scientists hope their research will lead to a drug being manufactured. Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease, in which the body's immune system attacks the joints, leading to pain, inflammation and stiffness. It affects about 600,000 people in the UK. For most of her adult life, Sue Arnott, from the Midlands, has had rheumatoid arthritis and her joints have crumbled. Sue, now aged 54, has had one knee joint replaced twice, the other once, she has had a replacement hip and has needed surgery on a foot and hand. Her hands are very malformed, and she can not stretch out her fingers properly, making opening doors and locks very difficult. Sue explained that her knees had been the worst affected, and that when the cover protecting her joints was destroyed she had been left 'walking with bone against bone, which was excruciating.' Since her joint replacements, Sue has had a respite from her pain, but she knows it could just be a matter of time before other joints are affected again. (C)BBC

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 9098 - Posted: 07.05.2006

Children exposed to the pesticide DDT while in the womb experience development problems, researchers say. The pesticide was banned in the US and UK in the 1970s, but it is still used in some countries to kill malaria-carrying mosquitoes. It was already known DDT was linked to premature births and low birthweight. The University of California Berkeley researchers say their findings, published in Pediatrics, should be borne in mind when addressing malaria. DDT, an organochlorine, persists in the environment long after use, accumulating in the food chain and in fatty tissues of animals and humans. Over time, it degrades into DDE and DDD, which have similar chemical and physical properties. Thirty-three years after its use was banned in the US, DDT is still detectable in about five to 10% of people, while DDE is detectable in nearly everyone. The UC Berkeley researchers measured blood levels of DDT and one of its breakdown products, DDE, in 360 pregnant women, the majority of whom were born in Mexico, where agricultural use of the chemical was only banned in 2000. Factors including age, income, education, marital and work status, the child's gender, duration of breastfeeding and the quality of the home environment for young children were considered. (C)BBC

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Neurotoxins
Link ID: 9097 - Posted: 07.05.2006

Hugging a hot-water bottle can have a similar effect to a painkiller by effectively "deactivating" pain at a molecular level, scientists say. Researchers from University College London used DNA technology to monitor heat and pain receptors within cells. They say temperatures over 40C (104F) switch on internal heat receptors which block the effect of chemical messengers that cause the body to detect pain. Their research was presented to the Physiological Society conference. The researchers wanted to look at why heat relieved internal pain such as period cramps and colic. They used DNA technology to make both heat and pain receptor proteins in the same cell and watching the molecular interactions between the heat receptor TRPV1 and the P2X3 pain receptor. The team found that the heat receptor can block the pain receptor. This pain message is activated by ATP when it is released from damaged and dying cells. By blocking the pain receptors, TRPV1 is able to stop the pain being sensed by the body. Dr Brian King, of UCL Department of Physiology, who led the research said the molecular data showed heat could relieve pain for up to an hour. (C) BBC

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 9096 - Posted: 07.05.2006

By DAVID TULLER A vaccine for smoking? The idea is not so far-fetched. Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, and eight other institutions have just started a major study of a vaccine that seeks to block the pleasurable sensations of satisfying a nicotine addiction. The vaccine would stimulate production of antibodies that would latch onto nicotine molecules and prevent them from reaching the brain. The effort to find a nicotine vaccine is part of an emerging wave of research into vaccines against addictive substances. Researchers and pharmaceutical companies are also investigating vaccines that would generate antibodies against cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine. Even if the trial of the nicotine vaccine, called NicVax, proved successful, it would take at least two years before the product reached the market, researchers said. Two other nicotine vaccine candidates are in the pipeline, said Dr. Frank Vocci, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse's division of pharmacotherapies. But NicVax, made by Nabi Biopharmaceuticals, is further along. Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 9095 - Posted: 07.05.2006