As we continue to live longer we are becoming more and more prone to age-related diseases such as the so-called big four: heart disease, cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer's disease or AD. Although an estimated 4.5 million Americans are believed to have AD, the only way to know for sure is with an autopsy. "Alzheimer's disease is a very difficult disorder to diagnose even in the late stages," explains Alzheimer's researcher Lee E. Goldstein from the Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston. "If were going to intervene early were going to have diagnose it early right now there is no good way to do that." Although we know a great deal about this disease, primarily from what genetics research has told us over the last ten years, what is needed is a biomarker or a "biological fingerprint" to help doctors spot the disease early. "We don't have good biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease: used not only for prediction and diagnosis, but also used for drug testing. If you want a way to screen to see how well the patient's doing beyond cognitive testing, if you want some kind of measure of whether the brain is being helped — using some kind of representative marker — we don't really have much in that way in Alzheimer's disease," says Goldstein's colleague from Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard, Rudolph Tanzi, who was one of the geneticists to find the first disease-related genes. © ScienCentral, 2000-2005.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Vision
Link ID: 8070 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The hunt for genes implicated in schizophrenia has proven to be one of the most frustrating quests in psychiatry. But scientists are zeroing in on some important players, including a gene involved in breaking down the neurotransmitter dopamine. Now, a study of children missing a copy of that gene indicates that precise levels of dopamine are required for proper cognitive function. The COMT gene, originally identified in 1957, has become perhaps the most intensively studied of any in psychiatric genetics. The gene exists in two forms--a high-active and a low-active version, which causes less and more dopamine to accumulate in synapses, respectively. Individuals can have either two high-active or two low-active copies of the gene, or one of each. Studies have shown that people with a low-active pair, and thus relatively high levels of dopamine in the brain, are a little more efficient cognitively than people with two high-active versions. But if the levels are too far afield, the brain can be impaired. A team led by psychiatrist Doron Gothelf, a postdoctoral researcher at Stanford University in California, investigated this by studying individuals missing one copy of the COMT gene, a deletion that occurs in one out of every 4000 births. They followed 24 children with the deletion--called velo-cardial-facial syndrome, which impairs health and mental development. © 2005 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8069 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ST. LOUIS -- Saint Louis University research shows a new class of drugs may hold promise in treating brain chemical problems such as Alzheimer's disease, says the principal investigator of research published in an early on-line version of Peptides. "We found that we can develop antisense – which is a molecular compound – to cross the blood brain barrier enough to alter brain function. This can have a profound effect on treating diseases that occur because there is too much or too little of a certain kind of protein in the brain," says William A. Banks, M.D., professor of geriatrics and pharmacological and physiological sciences at Saint Louis University and principal investigator. "The blood brain barrier is the Holy Grail – it's the most difficult tissue to pass through." The article will run in the April print issue of Peptides. Antisense molecules are very specific compounds that scientists can create to plug into genetic pathways and block certain genes from producing harmful proteins. Many scientists believe that overproduction of the amyloid beta protein in the brain causes Alzheimer's disease. Previous Saint Louis University research has found that scientists can develop antisense to cross the blood brain barrier and lower levels of amyloid beta protein in mice.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 8068 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Zapping the brain with an electrical current could one day control high blood pressure in people, a new study suggests. UK researchers have shown for the first time that stimulating a certain part of the brain with implanted electrodes can influence arterial blood pressure in a predictable way in patients. Short bursts of electrical stimulation were applied in an area in the midbrain called the periaqueductal grey matter (PAG) in 15 awake patients. The patients had already had the deep brain electrodes fitted as a treatment for chronic pain. The stimulation lowered blood pressure in patients who had the electrodes near the front (or ventral) part of the PAG. In patients where the electrodes were near the back (or dorsal) part, blood pressure could be increased. “It’s very early days yet, but this is an exciting preliminary finding,” says Alexander Green, at the department of neurosurgery, Oxford University, UK, who believes the technique has great potential. But he cautions that the surgery to place the electrodes in the brain carries a one in 300 risk of stroke. For patients receiving the implants to treat severe conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, the risk may be acceptable. But that is currently far from the case for patients with blood pressure problems. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 8067 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JANE E. BRODY Helen's friend was alarmed. She had called Helen at 9 in the morning and found her speech slow and slurred. So the friend asked a neighbor to go immediately to Helen's apartment in Brooklyn to check on her. It took a long time for Helen to respond to the doorbell. When she finally opened the door, the neighbor, too, was alarmed: Helen was getting dressed but she had left the shower running. Her movements were awkward, as if half her body was not functioning properly. The neighbor called Helen's doctor, who said she should be taken to the hospital without delay. Helen remembers none of this. After testing her from head to toe, the doctors concluded that Helen had had a T.I.A. - a transient ischemic attack, commonly called a mini-stroke, in which the blood supply to part of the brain is cut off for a brief period, in Helen's case, her friends estimate, for about 20 minutes. Though T.I.A.'s leave no residual effects detectable by the patient or by sophisticated medical tests, they can portend a major stroke. As a result, it is critically important for someone with such an attack to get prompt medical attention and treatment - often something as simple as a daily aspirin - to prevent a far more serious blockage to the brain. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 8066 - Posted: 10.25.2005

By LAURIE TARKAN When Sara Martinez noticed her memory slipping, it seemed an especially cruel turn of events. "I've always had an excellent memory. It was my claim to fame," said Ms. Martinez, 57. "Now, I forget people's names, I forget appointments, I forget scenes from the opera." A readout of an electroencephalograph, which monitors brain waves, and is being tested as a way to look for signs of Alzheimer's disease. Ms. Martinez, who lives in New York, said she was also worried about her future. Her father died of a dementia that she believes was Alzheimer's disease; her mother, still living, has lost her memory to a disorder called vascular dementia. So when a friend told her about a study at New York University that uses an electroencephalograph to monitor brain waves and predict who will get Alzheimer's, Ms. Martinez enrolled. Buoyed by preliminary reports of early detection tests for Alzheimer's, an increasing number of people, worried about their family history or their own forgetfulness, are seeking clues about their mental fate. A wide variety of detection methods are being studied, including the EEG, sophisticated brain-scanning techniques, paper-and-pencil neuropsychological tests, genetic tests and even scratch-and-sniff tests. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 8065 - Posted: 10.25.2005

Scientists have discovered that schizophrenia sufferers are not fooled by a visual illusion and are able to judge it more accurately than non-schizophrenic observers. The study by UCL (University College London) and King's College London suggests that in everyday life, schizophrenics take less account of visual context. If this is part of a more general failure to deal appropriately with context, it could explain why some sufferers might misattribute people's actions or feel persecuted. The study, published in the journal Current Biology, used an illusion where an object's contrast appears reduced by its surroundings. A medium-contrast patterned disc was shown to volunteers, who had to judge its appearance in the presence of a high-contrast background. Of the 15 participants with chronic schizophrenia, 12 were found to make more accurate judgments than the most accurate person in a control group of 33 non-schizophrenic volunteers. Dr Steven Dakin, of the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology, says: "We often think of people with schizophrenia as not seeing the world the way it really is – for example, during hallucinations – but we have shown that sometimes their vision can be more accurate than non-sufferers.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Vision
Link ID: 8064 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Robert Sanders BERKELEY – Parents whose grown children have not yet flown the nest can only sympathize with the Western bluebird. While female fledglings fly off on their own in late summer, their brothers typically hang around through the winter and into the next breeding season, living off the bounty of their parents' larder. As with humans, though, as the money runs low, the kids split, according to a new study by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. Janis Dickinson, a research associate with the Museum of Vertebrate Zoology at UC Berkeley and a newly appointed associate professor of natural resources at Cornell University, discovered parallels between human and bird families while studying the evolution of delayed dispersal, or natal philopatry - the tendency for offspring to stay at or near home rather than look for a new place to live and breed. Such behavior is common among cooperatively breeding birds as well as humans, and, at least in birds, it leads to close-knit families. Copyright UC Regents

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 8063 - Posted: 06.24.2010

An emotional buffer zone in the brain may not be working as it should in women who experience premenstrual moodiness, a new study suggests. David Silbersweig and colleagues at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, US, used functional magnetic resonance imaging to scan the brains of 12 women whose moods remained steady throughout their menstrual cycles. From 1 to 5 days before menstruation, and 8 to 12 days after, the women’s brains were scanned as they were shown printed words with either negative, neutral, or positive connotations – words like “rape”, “cancer”, “bookcase”, “rotate”, “gentle” and “delighted” – to engage the emotion-processing part of the brain. At the same time, the women were motivated to complete a simple cognitive task. The scans showed that the orbitofrontal cortex – part of the brain involved in controlling emotions and regulating motivation – was more active during the task in the days before menstruation. After menstruation, that part of the brain was relatively inactive during the task. Silbersweig says that the difference in brain activity may “buffer” hormonal changes in these women, helping them to maintain a consistent emotional state. “Because this area is kicking in, these women are able to avoid moodiness,” he says. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Emotions
Link ID: 8062 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Michelle Roberts, BBC News health reporter Scientists say they have proof that the sex of the brain makes men and women more prone to different diseases. Doctors know that women are more likely than men to have depression, anxiety or an eating disorder, while men are at higher risk of Parkinson's disease. Post-mortem and brain imaging studies show that male and female brains are physically different. Now scientists say they can to link the two together and suggest future disease cures may be "gender-specific". The sex of a brain is decided in the mother's womb and depends, among other factors, on hormone levels. Higher levels of testosterone makes a male brain and oestrogen a female one. Professor Dick Swaab from The Netherlands Institute for Brain Research in Amsterdam, said the proof for this comes from studies of transsexuals - people who know, often from a very early age, that they are born in the wrong gender body. "The theory is that the sex difference in the sex organs develops early in pregnancy - in the first few months while in utero - while sexual differentiation of the brain occurs later in the second half of pregnancy and postnatally." That would mean certain factors could interfere with the sexual differentiation of the sex organs and brain in an independent way because there is a time lapse between the two. (C)BBC

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 8061 - Posted: 10.24.2005

By PATRICIA COHEN Can the generally disappointing crop of national leaders today be attributed to the Prozac Generation's addiction to cheeriness? That is one strain of thought in Joshua Wolf Shenk's book, which argues that Abraham Lincoln's lifelong struggle with depression was responsible for his becoming one of America's greatest presidents. The idea that suffering fuels creativity and wisdom is an old one, but in a country where 25 million people take antidepressants, it has its limits. The emotionally suffering artist stokes our romantic imagination; the emotionally suffering politician evokes panic. Who wants to think about Eeyore nose to nose with bin Laden? But depression, Shenk says, has gotten bad press. This is not a contrarian's gimmick; he has firsthand knowledge. In previous writings about his own depression, Shenk credited it with shaping his personality. That he would then conclude the same about his hero should not be all that surprising. If "Lincoln's Melancholy," a thoughtful but uneven book, is the product of a particularly personal experience, it is also the result of the latest currents in psychology and Lincoln studies. After years of dismissing the significance of Lincoln's inner life, scholars have reversed course in the last two decades. (A history of this history is nicely summarized in the afterword.) And in a series of 1998 lectures at Harvard, Andrew Delbanco linked Lincoln's private despair with his public work. "The lesson of Lincoln's life," he said, is that "a passion to secure justice" can be a "remedy for melancholy." Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 8060 - Posted: 10.24.2005

For the first time, researchers have found evidence of a split in the migration pattern of a species of bird, a behavior that some theorize could lead to a new species. Bands of the European blackcap, which typically breed in Austria and Germany, have begun flying to two separate locations for the winter: one group goes south to Portugal, Spain and North Africa, whereas the other flies north to Britain and Ireland. Scientists studying the two groups found that the birds that wintered together in the north tended to mate with each other once they arrived back in Austria and Germany. These birds also produced more young than those that wintered in the south, which could improve their evolutionary chances of diverging. "The 'British' birds tend to arrive on the breeding grounds earlier than the southern ones, allowing them to gain access to the best territories--a bit like getting their towels on the best sun-loungers first," said ornithologist Stuart Bearhop of the Queen's University Belfast, whose team published its results in the current issue of Science. The scientists arrived at their conclusions by studying birds from multiple sites over two winters and two summers. In the winters, the team analyzed the ratio of the chemical signatures in claw clippings from the birds, which can be tied to the same chemical signatures in rain from specific regions. © 1996-2005 Scientific American, Inc

Keyword: Evolution; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 8059 - Posted: 06.24.2010

STANFORD, Calif. - A gene that regulates dopamine levels in the brain is involved in the development of schizophrenia in children at high risk for the disorder, say researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine, Lucile Packard Children's Hospital and the University of Geneva. The finding adds to mounting evidence of dopamine's link to psychiatric and neurological disorders. It may also allow physicians to pinpoint a subset of these children for treatment before symptoms start. "The hope is that we will one day be able to identify the highest-risk groups and intervene early to prevent a lifetime of problems and suffering," said Allan L. Reiss, MD. "As we gain a much better understanding of these disorders, we can design treatments that are much more specific and effective." Reiss is the Robbins Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford and director of the school's Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research. He is also a child and adolescent psychiatrist at Packard Children's Hospital at Stanford. The research, which will be published online Oct. 23, will appear in print in the November issue of Nature Neuroscience.

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 8058 - Posted: 10.24.2005

Experts have launched a course to teach the family members of young people with eating disorders how to offer care and support. Over a million people in the UK have an eating disorder, many of them teenagers and some children as young as seven. Effective treatment early on can mean a successful outcome in 90% of cases, but often it is difficult for loved ones to know what to do for the best. King's College London has begun a course to give carers necessary skills. The Collaborative Caring Course teaches the necessary skills to understand eating disorders, such as anorexia and bulimia, and the consequential behavioural changes. It is hoped it will help family members deal with the impact eating disorders have on their lives as well as to inspire change in the sufferer. Professor Janet Treasure from The Eating Disorder Research Unit, who is running the free course, said she hoped to dispel common eating disorder myths. These include the misconception that families, in particular mothers, are responsible for their daughter developing an eating disorder; that people with anorexia nervosa choose to have their illness and that people with eating disorders are trying to punish their parents. "Understanding and support are vital," she said. (C)BBC

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 8057 - Posted: 10.22.2005

By GINA KOLATA Dr. Lewis G. Maharam, the medical director for the New York City Marathon and marathons in San Diego, Phoenix, Nashville and Virginia Beach, said he was taking every opportunity this year to educate runners about the biggest threat to their lives on race day - drinking too much water. He knows the danger: in their zeal to avoid becoming dehydrated, runners may end up drinking so much that they dilute their blood. Water rushes into cells, including cells of the brain. The swollen brain cells press against the skull, and the result can be fatal. The resulting condition is known as hyponatremia - too much water. "There are no reported cases of dehydration causing death in the history of world running," Maharam said. "But there are plenty of cases of people dying of hyponatremia." No one knows how many have died, said Dr. Arthur Siegel, the chief of internal medicine at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., and the designated hyponatremia team leader for recent Boston Marathons. But he said that perhaps a dozen hyponatremia deaths had been recognized, according to informal communications among doctors at recent marathons. Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 8056 - Posted: 10.22.2005

By LIZETTE ALVAREZ AS marriage proposals go, this one was textbook: A Caribbean cruise, a night bursting with stars, a pitch-perfect dinner and then, after retiring to a private balcony, a bottle of Dom Pérignon. Ed Silcox Jr. dropped to one knee and presented an impeccable diamond ring to the bride-to-be, Johanna Murtha, who stifled tears. They scurried to bed, blissfully falling asleep in each other's arms. Then the farce began: Mr. Silcox, 46, started to snore: a cabin-rattling crescendo that built from minor rasp to mind-blowing snort. The snores blew past his new fiancée's foam earplugs, defied a stack of over-the-head pillows and rumbled down hallways. In no time Mr. Silcox was exiled to the balcony, where he slept night after night, braving the wind, the rising sun and a stream of dirty water from on high (as the deck hands cleaned the ship). A hotel in Puerto Rico offered little respite. In her desperation, Ms. Murtha, 40, chose to nap by the pool, in a howling thunderstorm, rather than snooze in bed next to her fiancé. "We spent every night apart and fought virtually every night of the week," said Ms. Murtha, now happily Ms. Murtha-Silcox, who lives outside Philadelphia. "By the end of the cruise I was thinking, 'What did I say yes for?' We were exhausted. Our eyes were falling out of our heads." Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 8055 - Posted: 10.22.2005

La Jolla, CA - Delving ever deeper into the intricate architecture of the brain, researchers at The Salk Institute have now described how two different types of nerve cells, called neurons, work together in tiny sub-networks to pass on just the right amount and the right kind of sensory information. Their study, published online by Nature Neuroscience, depicts how specific types of inhibitory neurons in the visual cortex of a rat brain are wired to, and "talk" with, discrete excitatory neurons. They also show how that "conversation," aimed at keeping the right balance of chemical signals, often excludes surrounding neurons. "The inhibitory neurons are not just brakes, they can also be used to steer." said co-author Ed Callaway, Ph.D., associate professor in Salk's Systems Neurobiology Laboratories. For example, in vision, inhibitory responses in the visual cortex help people to focus on what they want to see, rather than all there is to see, he explained. This new study is filling in the picture of how the brain is organized into "smart" efficient networks, and researchers hope that details of this complex design might, one day, uncover the roots of such neurological diseases as schizophrenia. "We know already that schizophrenia is a problem with organization of inhibitory circuits of neurons, and now we are uncovering how these specialized nerve cells work together and with other neurons," Callaway explained.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 8054 - Posted: 10.22.2005

Christen Brownlee Two independent groups of scientists have devised ways to isolate embryonic stem cells from mice without destroying viable embryos. These new methods are intended to satisfy the ethical concerns of people who oppose destroying human embryos to do research or treat disease. Unlike any cell known in adults, embryonic stem cells can morph into virtually any of the body's cell types, such as nerve, muscle, or heart. Many researchers have proposed exploiting this unique capability to make new cells for the treatment of injuries or diseases such as Parkinson's disease (SN: 4/2/05, p. 218: http://www.sciencenews.org/articles/20050402/bob10.asp). However, to isolate a new line of embryonic stem cells, scientists have had to first destroy an early embryo. "Many people, including the President, are concerned about destroying life in order to save life," says Robert Lanza of Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Mass. Seeking to resolve this dilemma, Lanza and his colleagues looked to a technique commonly used to diagnose genetic diseases in embryos. Known as pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, the procedure removes one cell from an eight-cell-stage embryo and examines its DNA for defects. The remaining seven-cell embryo, after being implanted in the mother's womb, can develop into a normal baby. ©2005 Science Service.

Keyword: Stem Cells; Regeneration
Link ID: 8053 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Lise Stevens, Contributing Writer The addition of testosterone to hormone therapy in women after menopause enhances their sexual function. However, it may also reduce HDL cholesterol (the “good” cholesterol) in women, according to a systematic review of current evidence. “If the reduction in HDL had been associated with an increase in triglycerides [fatty acids] or LDL cholesterol it would be of great concern,” said Dr. Susan Davis, professor of medicine at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia, and study co-author “However, as an isolated finding the significance is difficult to interpret.” She added, “Testosterone has not been found to alter other coronary heart disease risk factors.” The review appears in the most recent issue of The Cochrane Library, a publication of The Cochrane Collaboration. The study team reviewed 23 randomized clinical trials involving 1,957 patients who had testosterone added to their hormone replacement therapy (either estrogen or combined estrogen/progestin) for an average of six months. Testosterone was given orally in a majority of the studies in doses of either 1.25 mg. or 2.5 mg. Participants completed questionnaires that measured their sexual activity and libido, and were assessed for other side effects. Health Behavior News Service Washington, DC © 2005

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 8052 - Posted: 06.24.2010

People could have an immunity to vCJD and similar diseases after persistent exposure to milder strains of the agent that causes them, scientists suggest. Experts at Yale University and Nagasaki University medical schools carried out studies on cells. Writing in Science magazine, they said regular doses of the weaker infection appeared to offer protection. A UK expert said further understanding of how the effect works could lead to a preventative therapy being developed. It might also help to explain why fewer people than predicted have died from vCJD. The US and Japanese researchers also put forward the theory that the diseases are caused by viruses. Misfolded proteins called prions are present in brain and nerve tissue infected with vCJD, and related diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). Other TSEs include classic CJD, BSE, which infects cattle, and scrapie, which infects sheep. But there is doubt as to whether prions are the cause of these diseases, or simply the result of them. Earlier research on animals showed a weaker strain of CJD appeared to offer protection against a more destructive strain. (C)BBC

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 8051 - Posted: 10.22.2005