Cells taken from cloned mouse embryos have been used to successfully treat a condition similar to Parkinson's disease in humans. The breakthrough, by US researchers, could assist the search for a cure for the common brain condition. The embryonic "stem cells", reports the journal Nature Biotechnology, were grown into new tissue which was implanted into the mouse brain. However, many obstacles stand in the way of human treatments, say experts. The team, from the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, is not the first to use embryonic stem cells to treat Parkinsonism in mice, but they are the first to use cells which were cloned from the "patient". Although embyronic stem cells - taken from a five-day-old embryo, are all the same, they have the ability, when placed in the right biochemical conditions, to be transformed into any cell type in the body. (C) BBC

Keyword: Parkinsons; Stem Cells
Link ID: 4295 - Posted: 09.22.2003

A "significant" link has been found between smoking and facial deformities in children, according to research. The study found that smoking in early pregnancy increased the risk of babies developing a facial cleft by up to three times. The work was carried out by Professor Peter Mossey, from Dundee University's Dental School, who is leading a World Health Organisation project looking at the causes of cleft palates and lips across the globe. Professor Mossey said the development of the palate takes place during a critical 48-hour period during the early stages of pregnancy at 6-8 weeks and can be disturbed by smoking. He said: "Although there are other factors contributing, smoking appears to be a major risk factor for cleft palate in children. "Often women don't know that they are pregnant at this early stage and may still be smoking and binge drinking without realising that this could have serious consequences for the baby developing in their womb. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4294 - Posted: 09.22.2003

By MARC LACEY LUI, Sudan — The children of Lui scoop their beans and mush from plates laid out on the dirt, using only their tiny fingers, often aware that something bad is about to happen. Their necks begin to swing forward and back. "Nodding disease," as the malady has been called, takes hold. "I don't feel good when I eat," said Malesh Reuben, a skinny 12-year-old who has been nodding this way for five years. About 300 children in and around this jungle village in southern Sudan have the mysterious ailment. It typically strikes during or just after a meal. The neurological disorder has left epidemiologists baffled. One of the few things understood about nodding is that it appears unique to southern Sudan. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Sleep
Link ID: 4293 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By NICHOLAS WADE Researchers in Iceland say they have discovered the first gene that underlies common forms of stroke, a disease that affects more than 600,000 people a year in the United States. People with a particular version of the gene have a three to five times greater risk of stroke, said the researchers, who are at Decode Genetics, a company based in Reykjavik. This is as large as or larger than known environmental risk factors like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and smoking. Dr. Kari Stefansson, the chief executive of Decode, said that the new gene makes an enzyme that is a good target for drugs, and that the Roche pharmaceutical company in Switzerland was already testing several such drugs in laboratory rats. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stroke; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 4292 - Posted: 09.22.2003

New York, New research from Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC), Cornell University, and The University of Connecticut describes a novel way of producing therapeutic nerve cells that can cure mice with Parkinson's-like disease. The work, which will be published in the October issue of Nature Biotechnology (available online September 21), provides the first evidence that cloned cells can cure disease in an animal model. In 2001, Lorenz Studer, MD, Head of the Stem Cell and Tumor Biology Laboratory at MSKCC, and his colleagues at Rockefeller University published research in which they generated unlimited numbers of genetically matched dopamine nerve cells using cloned stem cells whose genetic material originated from the mouse's own tail. Dopamine neurons are nerve cells that are lost in patients who have Parkinson's disease. (See press release http://www.mskcc.org/mskcc/html/3122.cfm for more information.) Because the initial method worked for cells derived from some mice but not others, Dr. Studer and his colleagues developed a better, more efficient way of selectively generating dopamine neurons that eliminates that variability in order for therapeutic cloning to work consistently for every animal. While they did not yet develop a new cell line for each of the mice treated, their results prove in principle that the method can work for all cloned cell lines tested.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Stem Cells
Link ID: 4291 - Posted: 09.22.2003

A scientist based in the UK says she has proved that lions can count. Biologist Karen McComb of Sussex University used a big loudspeaker and recordings of lions in various numbers to experiment with African lions. She then recorded the number and type of roars that came back from lions around. "What they did was closely controlled by how many were roaring from the loudspeaker, and how many of themselves there were," Karen McComb of Sussex University explained to BBC World Service's Science In Action programme. "Their likelihood of approaching increased as their own group size increased - and also decreased as the number of intruders roaring from the loudspeaker increased. "Their behaviour was best predicted by a variable that we called odds, which was the ratio of number of defenders to number of intruders." (C) BBC

Keyword: Animal Communication; Hearing
Link ID: 4290 - Posted: 09.21.2003

By GINA KOLATA To many, the good life may be lying on a hammock strung between palm trees, sipping a long cool drink, doing nothing, planning nothing, worrying about nothing. But the latest scientific research offers more evidence that this version of the the good life and good health may not be the same thing. Of course, the research is preliminary and involves mostly insects and rodents, but some experts, like Dr. Mark Mattson, chief of the laboratory of neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore, are taking no chances. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stress; Obesity
Link ID: 4289 - Posted: 09.21.2003

By Kathleen Lavey, Lansing State Journal Before Rick Knupfer was wheeled into the operating room for brain surgery 13 months ago, he tried to focus on a single word: souffle. It had become a family joke in the preceding days as he struggled to understand language after a tumor invaded his brain. "The week before, we went to a very nice French restaurant in Detroit," said his wife, Joyce Meier. They discussed the upcoming surgery. "We said if I could say 'souffle,' at least I could eat,' " said Rick, now 54, who lives in Okemos with Joyce and their 10-year-old son, Christopher. In the recovery room after the delicate, 12-hour procedure, Rick did recall "souffle." He had four more words as well: "This can't be me." Not the man who traveled the state promoting learning and linking scholars to communities as executive director of the Michigan Humanities Council.

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 4288 - Posted: 09.21.2003

Stressful life events seem to make the symptoms of multiple sclerosis worse, a British Medical Journal study suggests. Dutch researchers followed 73 patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis. They found during periods of stress patients were twice as likely to develop new symptoms, or a more severe form of their existing symptoms. The reason for the apparent link is unclear, although it is possible that stress triggers the release of hormones that affect the immune system. The finding suggests that giving people with MS coaching on how to deal with stress may help to delay the development of symptoms. Researcher Dr Rogier Hintzen, a neurologist at the Erasmus Medical Centre in Rotterdam, said: "The knowledge that stressful events are associated with disease activity adds important information to the limited insight that patients and their caregivers have on this unpredictable disease." (C) BBC

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Stress
Link ID: 4287 - Posted: 09.20.2003

By JIM YARDLEY LHASA, Tibet — Upon arriving in Tibet, Sabriye Tenberken decided to tour the countryside, not from the comfort of a car, but atop the hard saddle of a horse. It was a chancy decision, not only because the rugged Tibetan landscape can be unforgiving and treacherous, but also because Ms. Tenberken is blind. She thought the horse was perfect. She knew that blindness carried a terrible stigma in many parts of Tibet, and she had been told that many blind children were living in isolated, rural villages. She had started riding as a child in her native Germany, one of many lessons in self-reliance, and she wanted to instill a similar sense of independence in Tibetan blind children. So she saddled a horse, and with three other people, began riding. She was less prepared for what she and her traveling companions discovered. "It was quite depressing," she recalled. "We met blind children who were 4 or 5 years old and looked like infants. They hadn't learned to walk because their parents hadn't taught them." Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 4286 - Posted: 06.24.2010

WASHINGTON, DC—After more than four decades of testing in tandem with other drugs, placebo gained approval for prescription use from the Food and Drug Administration Monday. "For years, scientists have been aware of the effectiveness of placebo in treating a surprisingly wide range of conditions," said Dr. Jonathan Bergen of the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "It was time to provide doctors with this often highly effective option." In its most common form, placebo is a white, crystalline substance of a sandy consistency, obtained from the evaporated juice of the Saccharum officinarum plant. The FDA has approved placebo in doses ranging from 1 to 40,000 milligrams. The long-awaited approval will allow pharmaceutical companies to market placebo in pill and liquid form. Eleven major drug companies have developed placebo tablets, the first of which, AstraZeneca's Sucrosa, hits shelves Sept. 24. © Copyright 2003, Onion, Inc., All rights reserved.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 4285 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Biggest rodent unearthed and giant marsupial doubles size. John Whitfield Cow-sized guinea pigs grazed the riverbanks of South America about five million years ago, confirms a newly found skeleton1. This biggest-ever rodent, Phoberomys patersoni, shared its home with two-metre turtles, ten-metre crocodiles and three-metre carnivorous birds. "It was a land of giants," says co-discoverer Marcelo Sánchez-Villagra of the University of Tübingen, Germany. Named Goya, after the Venezuelan site where its bones were found, the buck-toothed behemoth probably weighed in at 700 kilograms and sported a tail. Phoberomys' closest living relative is probably another hefty guinea-pig lookalike, the forest-dwelling pacarana, which weighs 15 kilograms. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 4284 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Children under the age of 18 should not take the anti-depressant drug Efexor, government experts have said. The drug is not licensed for use in under 18s. However, doctors are prescribing it to an estimated 3,000 youngsters across the UK. But experts have now ruled that there is not enough evidence to show it is safe or effective for this age group. They said young people on the drug should not stop taking it but should discuss their options with their GP. The Department of Health set up an expert working group to look at the safety of certain antidepressants earlier this year. It followed claims from patient groups that some of these drugs have serious side-effects and are addictive. In June, the group issued a statement saying that children under the age of 18 should not be given Seroxat. (C) BBC

Keyword: Depression; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4283 - Posted: 09.20.2003

By Jonathan Amos, BBC News Online science staff The largest marsupial that ever lived was even bigger than we thought, Australian scientists say. New information on the immense wombat-like Diprotodon optatum indicates it reached more than two and a half tonnes on average - nearly double some previous estimates. If that was the case, researchers say, it gives the lie to a popular theory that weak vegetation growing on Australia's poor soils during the last ice age stunted the continent's big beasts. With its gigantic bulk, D. optatum would also have been a mighty handful to hunt, suggesting humans were probably not the main cause behind its extinction more than 30,000 years ago. The new assessment of this pouched behemoth is provided by Dr Stephen Wroe, from the University of Sydney, and colleagues. They did their calculation by comparing the beast's fossil remains with the known bone dimensions and body masses of several living marsupials and other mammals. (C) BBC

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 4282 - Posted: 09.18.2003

By Caroline Ryan, BBC News Online health staff Many people tell the odd white lie - taking a day off "sick" or halving the amount they spend on a shopping trip. But most feel a little bit guilty about the deception. Scientists have now found that twinge of conscience can be seen in increased activity in the brain. In short, it takes more effort to lie than to tell the truth. But people with psychopathic tendencies find lying as easy as telling the truth. The reason is that when children develop the ability to deceive - around the age of three of four - they also develop the ability to empathise. But researchers say people with aggressive and antisocial personality disorders do not develop this ability, and therefore they have no moral compass. (C) BBC

Keyword: Aggression; Emotions
Link ID: 4281 - Posted: 09.18.2003

Capuchin umbrage suggests sense of fairness extends beyond humans. John Whitfield Monkeys strike for equal pay. They down tools if they see another monkey get a bigger reward for doing the same job, US researchers have found1. The experiments show that notions of justice extend beyond humans, says Sarah Brosnan of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. This is probably an innate ability that evolved in our primate ancestor, she believes: "You need a sense of fairness to live in large, complex groups." Brosnan and her colleague Frans de Waal taught brown capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella) to swap plastic tokens for food. Normally, monkeys were happy to exchange a token for some cucumber. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 4280 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ATLANTA – In the first experimental demonstration of its kind, researchers led by Sarah Brosnan and Frans de Waal, PhD, at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University, and the Living Links Center, have shown nonhuman primates respond negatively to unequal reward distribution, a reaction often seen in humans based on their universal sense of fairness. While researchers have long recognized the sense of fairness within the human species, Brosnan and de Waal are the first to confirm this trait in nonhuman primates. The findings appear in the September 18 issue of Nature. These new findings, coupled with previous scientific data that demonstrate a direct link between nonhuman primate behavior and that of humans, support a new school of thought that economic decision-making is based as much on an emotional sense of fairness as on rational considerations. Identifying similar reactions in nonhuman primates as in humans offers insight into how such emotional reactions developed, providing researchers and economists new perspective on why humans make certain economic decisions in relation to efforts, gains and losses of others.

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 4279 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have developed a way to reduce the risk of contracting CJD from surgical instruments. The prion proteins that cause the brain disease can stick to instruments and be passed on to others who subsequently undergo surgery. Cleansing chemicals have proved to be ineffective, or harmful, to the equipment and the environment. However, the Health Protection Agency in Porton Down has developed an enzyme-based treatment that safely digests the rogue proteins. When prions are exposed to the solution at a temperature of 60C, they become almost a million times less infectious. The active component comes from bacteria found in volcanic pools. Researcher Dr Neil Raven said: "We have developed a safe and inexpensive, but highly sensitive, method that enables us to detect tiny amounts of these prion proteins. (C) BBC

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 4278 - Posted: 09.17.2003

By DENISE GRADY Lithium, an old and inexpensive drug that has fallen out of favor with many psychiatrists, is better than the most commonly prescribed drug, Depakote, at preventing suicide in people who have manic-depressive illness, researchers are reporting. People with the illness, also called bipolar disorder, swing back and forth between bleak spells of depression and periods of high excitability that may run the gamut from euphoria to rage. From 1.3 percent to 1.5 percent of people in the United States suffer from bipolar disorder, and their risk of committing suicide is estimated to be 10 to 20 times that of the rest of the population. Perhaps because patients are more likely to seek medical help when they are depressed than when they are manic, the disorder is often misdiagnosed at first as depression alone, but antidepressants are not the correct treatment for bipolar disorder and may in fact make it worse. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 4277 - Posted: 09.17.2003

By Luke Timmerman, Seattle Times business reporter Billionaire Paul Allen, in his largest upfront charitable commitment ever, today will announce that he is giving $100 million to start a nonprofit research center that will try to create a definitive map of the mouse brain that researchers can use for further discoveries. The Microsoft co-founder is creating the Allen Institute for Brain Science, in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. The money will be used to try to build the "Allen Brain Atlas" to show how a list of 30,000 genes can be transformed into a circuit board with a trillion cells. Copyright © 2003 The Seattle Times Company

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 4276 - Posted: 06.24.2010