NewScientist.com news service Giving obese people top-ups of a naturally occurring gut hormone could help fight obesity, suggests a new study. The research revealed that obese people have a third less of the hunger-beating hormone PYY3-36 in their blood than their leaner contemporaries. And giving both obese and slim people infusions of the hormone cut their appetites by about a third when offered an eat-as-much-as-you-like buffet, says the team from Imperial College London and the Hammersmith Hospital, also in London, UK. "The discovery that obese people have lower levels of PYY3-36, an important factor limiting appetite, suggests a possible new treatment for the millions suffering from obesity," says Steve Bloom, a member of the team at Imperial. "These new findings suggest boosting PYY3-36 offers a novel approach towards treating the epidemic of obesity in our society." © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 4215 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Elizabeth Loftus was enjoying her life researching the unreliability of memory in adults and children, and was often called as an expert witness in major trials such as that of OJ Simpson. By the mid-1980s those cases increasingly involved sexual abuse. But when her own work questioned the theory of repressed memory of sexual abuse, all hell broke loose. A woman hit her with a rolled-up newspaper. Worse, as she told Wendy M. Grossman, the controversy made her enemies - and propelled her out of her much-loved job You do seem to have a lot of critics The American Psychological Association is giving me an award this summer, and some enemies have written complaining about it. It's hard to adjust to having enemies, because they are so vicious. So many hornets. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4214 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A study conducted by University of Utah genetics researchers shows that the steroid hormone ecdysone controls an important phase in the embryonic development of insects, providing an unexpected parallel with the role of the hormone in controlling metamorphosis. The study's findings also give scientists new insights into how steroids control maturation in higher organisms. Carl S. Thummel, Ph.D., a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator and professor of human genetics at the University of Utah School of Medicine, said that although other studies have established a critical role for ecdysone in controlling insect metamorphosis, very little was known about roles for the hormone during embryonic development. To find the answer, Thummel and Tatiana Kozlova, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute research associate, looked at the activation pattern of the receptor for ecdysone. They found that this receptor is highly activated in an extraembryonic tissue called amnioserosa, a tissue that does not itself form part of the embryo, but is nonetheless required for embryonic development. Thummel said the source of ecdysone in the early embryo, prior to the development of the insect endocrine organ, has always baffled scientists. "Our findings suggest that the earliest source of hormone is the amnioserosa," he said, "although other sources are likely to contribute at later times."

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 4213 - Posted: 09.05.2003

La Jolla, CA. -A team of scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) has identified more than 50 previously unknown proteins and associates several of them with rare human muscle and nerve degeneration diseases. The team is publishing their findings this week in the journal Science. Led by TSRI Professors Larry Gerace and John R. Yates III, the team used a technique called subtractive proteomics to identify 62 new proteins in the inner nuclear membrane of the human cell. The team demonstrated that 23 of these proteins are linked with strong probability to 14 rare muscle-wasting diseases such as congenital muscular dystrophy, Limb-Girdle muscular dystrophy, and spinal muscular atrophy, and several forms of the neurodegenerative Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease. Knowing the proteins that may cause or contribute to these diseases is a first step in the long process of looking for ways to detect, prevent, or treat them.

Keyword: Movement Disorders; Muscles
Link ID: 4212 - Posted: 09.05.2003

Scientists have uncovered evidence of a link between a common sleep disorder and brain damage. Sleep apnoea occurs when the airways become blocked by the tongue or soft palate, depriving the person of oxygen and briefly waking them. New Scientist magazine says it leads to a loss of brain cells, potentially explaining the memory and learning problems linked to the condition. But experts say more work is needed to confirm there is permanent damage. Up to 2% of adult males - around 300,000 people - in the UK have sleep apnoea. Researchers from the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College, London, carried out Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans of seven patients with sleep apnoea and seven healthy patients. They looked at the patients' brain density. It was found the sleep apnoea patients had less brain density in the left hippocampus, where the storage of memory is co-ordinated. (C)BBC

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Sleep
Link ID: 4211 - Posted: 09.04.2003

The same receptors that sense the burning taste of chilli peppers also sense chest pain during a heart attack, scientists have discovered. The receptors are only present on the outer surface of the heart, which may explain why some "silent" heart attacks produce no pain. The new research also identifies a new target for drugs that alleviate chest pain caused by coronary heart disease, scientists say. Vanilloid receptor 1 (VR1) is a pain sensor that is abundant in the skin and tongue and picks up the searing sensation of chilli peppers. Hui-Lin Pan, at Pennsylvania State University in the US, investigated whether it is also present in the heart. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 4210 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr. A new study from Denmark tends to discount widely held fears that a mercury-based preservative formerly used in childhood vaccines may be responsible for the rapid rise in diagnoses of autism. In the study, published this week in the journal Pediatrics, a team of Danish doctors counted all the diagnoses of autism in the country from 1971 to 2000. They found no decrease after 1992, when Denmark became the first country in the world to ban the preservative, thimerosal. Rather, autism diagnoses continued to skyrocket on the same trajectory that began in the late 1980's, rising from less than one case per 10,000 Danish youngsters in 1990 to more than three a decade later. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 4209 - Posted: 09.04.2003

By GINA KOLATA A single infusion of an intestinal hormone made people eat less for the rest of the day, regardless of whether they were fat or thin, researchers are reporting today. The hormone, PYY (for peptide YY 3-36), is of particular interest because it appears to be the intestine's signal of satiety and because overweight people normally make less of it than thin people. Researchers are trying to learn whether some people grow fat because they do not produce enough of it and thus get only a weak chemical signal to stop eating. In the study, whose results appear today in The New England Journal of Medicine, 24 volunteers, half of them overweight and half of them lean, received PYY or a saltwater placebo at 8:30 a.m. An hour and a half later, they were ushered in to a buffet lunch. On average, those who had received PYY ate 30 percent less. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 4208 - Posted: 09.04.2003

By ERIC A. TAUB IT pales in importance when compared with the cloning of Dolly the sheep or the mapping of the human genome, but researchers from the University of Southern California are trying to deconstruct the basis of what makes humans look human. And this time Hollywood directors, not just scientists, care about the results. Once filmmakers can understand what makes people look real and unique to one another, they will be able to recreate reality with ease, inexpensively populating movies with virtual characters - rampaging Mongol hordes, clones of movie stars performing physically impossible feats - whose appearance and actions are as lifelike as a next-door neighbor. In fact, recreating a celluloid duplicate of Humphrey Bogart or Marilyn Monroe will soon be possible, although there is little reason to fear that some cinematic Frankenstein will produce a clone of Elvis that can convince the world he never died. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions; Biomechanics
Link ID: 4207 - Posted: 09.04.2003

One gene might control both - and explain the divided brain. HELEN PEARSON Right-handed people tend to have hair that swirls clockwise, a US researcher has discovered1. Amar Klar of the National Cancer Institute in Frederick, Maryland, surreptitiously inspected people's pates by spying on them in airports and shopping malls - ignoring the long-haired and the bald. More than 95% of right-handers' hair whorls clockwise on the scalp, he found. The locks of lefties and the ambidextrous are equally likely to coil either way. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Laterality
Link ID: 4206 - Posted: 06.24.2010

UCI study identifies how fatty compound curbs hunger, reduces weight Researchers at the UC Irvine College of Medicine have identified how a natural fat compound works to tell the body to stop eating – a discovery that may be the basis for a new class of drugs targeting obesity and other eating disorders. Daniele Piomelli, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology, and colleagues found that the fatty acid, called OEA (oleylethanolamide), activates its cell receptor molecules to regulate hunger and metabolism. The team also discovered that by increasing OEA levels while maintaining normal levels of these cell receptors, they could reduce appetite and weight in rodents, as well as lower their blood cholesterol and triglyceride levels. The study appears in the Sept. 4 issue of Nature. “In earlier studies, we found that OEA can be an important regulator of eating behavior, but we didn't know how it worked,” Piomelli said. “We were excited to find that OEA activates cell receptors that have already been the focus of successful drug development. This gives us hope for a new class of anti-obesity drugs based on natural chemicals.” © Copyright 2002-2003 UC Regents

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 4205 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists and perfumers are searching for the chemical scent that drives humans wild By Cathryn M. Delude, Globe Correspondent, "Warning: Contains pheromones. (Wear if you dare!) May excite wild physical attraction." Thus beckons a suggestively shaped vial of "Chemical: Attraction" in the CVS display. Vogue International offers this fragrance for men and women for just $14.99. Who could resist the temptation to conduct a field test? Pheromones are airborne, mostly odorless chemicals that alter sexual behavior, mark territory, and influence reproduction throughout the animal kingdom. But whether humans send and receive "sex chemicals" is a hot and bothered topic. Recent tantalizing studies suggest that chemicals emanating from our pores do affect the behavior and biochemistry of others. Fragrance companies have caught whiff of this research, and the Internet abounds with products sporting names such as "Primal Instinct" or "Rogue Male" promising to make you an irresistible sex magnet. © 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4204 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A highly anticipated report from the National Academy of Sciences on underage drinking is due out soon, and groups on all sides of the issue are ready to debate its contents. While the report itself is still secret, much of the science is not. This ScienCentral report focuses on one issue sure to be examined—the impact of alcohol on young drinkers' brains. When people consume a lot of alcohol, "the parts of the brain that are very important in things like judgment, decision making, impulse control, and memory formation are hit pretty hard,” according to Aaron White, assistant research professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center and a research psychologist at the Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center. And since young brains are still developing, this affects them more than adults. “A lot of young people drink as much as they can and as quickly as they can, and that kind of drinking pattern,” he says, “shuts down cells in the learning and memory part of the brain, called the hippocampus, causing a blackout." White explains that a blackout is not the same as passing out. “We know that if you shut these cells off you lose the ability to form new memories for things like facts and events, like what you did last night.” So it's potentially a very dangerous time for young people because they could do all kinds of things during a blackout but have no memory of it when they wake up the next morning. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4203 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Mice with virtually identical genes can grow into quite different-looking animals—fat and yellow, or lean and brown—depending on what their mothers ate during pregnancy. As this ScienCentral News video reports, researchers are studying a twist to heredity that goes beyond our genes. You Are What Your Mother Eats For years, scientists have told us that our genes contain all the information about how we'll look, and even to some extent, how healthy we'll be. But Randy Jirtle, assistant professor of radiation oncology at Duke University Medical Center, says our parents’ diets may also shape us. Jirtle and his coworkers gave pregnant mice some common dietary supplements that you can buy in any health-food store: folic acid, vitamin B12, betaine and choline . Then they compared the offspring of the mice that were fed the supplements with the offspring of mice that were not given supplements. Although the mouse pups looked the same when they were born, they developed in very different ways. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Obesity
Link ID: 4202 - Posted: 06.24.2010

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Purdue University biologists have learned how to control the development of stem cells in the inner ears of embryonic chickens, a discovery which could potentially improve the ability to treat human diseases that cause deafness and vertigo. By introducing new genes into the cell nuclei, researchers instructed the embryonic cells to develop into different adult cells than they would have ordinarily. Instead of forming the tiny hairs that the inner ear uses to detect sound waves, the stem cells matured into tissue with different kind of hairs – the sort used to keep balance. This ability to guide the choice of cell types could expand researchers' knowledge of the inner ear and its disorders. "We've essentially switched the fate of these cells," said Donna Fekete (pronounced FEH-ka-tee), associate professor of biology in Purdue's School of Science. "We now know at least one gene that determines what these embryonic ear cells will eventually become. As a result, we can control the outcome ourselves using gene transduction. Because so many people suffer from deafness later in life, we hope this research will yield treatments for them down the line."

Keyword: Hearing; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 4201 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Study: Poor More Affected by Environment By Rick Weiss, Washington Post Staff Writer Back-to-school pop quiz: Why do poor children, and especially black poor children, score lower on average than their middle-class and white counterparts on IQ tests and other measures of cognitive performance? It is an old and politically sensitive question, and one that has long fueled claims of racism. As highlighted in the controversial 1994 book "The Bell Curve," studies have repeatedly found that people's genes -- and not their environment -- explain most of the differences in IQ among individuals. That has led a few scholars to advance the hotly disputed notion that minorities' lower scores are evidence of genetic inferiority. Now a groundbreaking study of the interaction among genes, environment and IQ finds that the influence of genes on intelligence is dependent on class. Genes do explain the vast majority of IQ differences among children in wealthier families, the new work shows. But environmental factors -- not genetic deficits -- explain IQ differences among poor minorities. © 2003 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Intelligence
Link ID: 4200 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Fish are socially intelligent creatures who do not deserve their reputation as the dim-wits of the animal kingdom, according to a group of leading scientists. Rather than simply being instinct-driven, the group says fish are cunning, manipulative and even cultured. The three experts from the universities of Edinburgh, St Andrews and Leeds said there had been huge changes in science's understanding of the psychological and mental abilities of fish in the last few years. Writing in the journal Fish and Fisheries, biologists Calum Brown, Keven Laland and Jens Krause said fish were now seen as highly intelligent creatures. They said: "Gone (or at least obsolete) is the image of fish as drudging and dim-witted pea-brains, driven largely by 'instinct',' with what little behavioural flexibility they possess being severely hampered by an infamous 'three-second memory'. (C) BBC

Keyword: Intelligence; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4199 - Posted: 09.02.2003

By ERICA GOODE Researchers reported yesterday that there may be a link between some newer drugs prescribed for schizophrenia and a dangerous inflammation of the pancreas. The study, which looked at patients taking any of four antipsychotic drugs, examined all cases of pancreatitis that were reported to the Food and Drug Administration or written up in medical journals between January 1981 and February 2002. It found that more cases were associated with three newer drugs than with an older generation drug. Of the 192 cases of pancreatitis the researchers found, 72 occurred in patients taking Clozaril, made by Novartis , 62 in patients taking Zyprexa, made by Eli Lilly, and 31 in patients taking Risperdal, made by Jannsen Pharmaceutica. These drugs are members of the newer generation of antipsychotics known as atypicals. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 4198 - Posted: 09.02.2003

By HOWARD MARKEL As parents pack their children off to college this week, they would be wise to add one more piece of advice to protect the health of their offspring: make sure to get eight or more hours of sleep every night. Like many college students, Jenny Waller, 21, is something of a night owl. In her first weeks at the University of Michigan a few years ago, Miss Waller rarely went to bed before 3 or 4 in the morning. "In college," she said, "your mom isn't there to tell you to go to bed, and for me, things only got worse. Within a month, I was staying up all night, going to bed at 9 a.m. and pretty much missing all of my classes. Many nights I would sit with my textbooks, but I couldn't concentrate. I wouldn't let myself get to bed until I finished the work. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sleep; Depression
Link ID: 4197 - Posted: 09.02.2003

By ERICA GOODE Most people accept the idea that stress and depression chip away at the body's natural ability to fight off disease. But many medical scientists have remained skeptical that the mind can exert such a direct influence over the immune system. In recent years, however, evidence has accumulated that psychology can indeed affect biology. Studies have found, for example, that people who suffer from depression are at higher risk for heart disease and other illnesses. Other research has shown that wounds take longer to heal in women who care for patients with Alzheimer's disease than in other women who are not similarly stressed. And people under stress have been found to be more susceptible to colds and flu, and to have more severe symptoms after they fall ill. Now a new study adds another piece to the puzzle. Researchers at the University of Wisconsin are reporting today that the activation of brain regions associated with negative emotions appears to weaken people's immune response to a flu vaccine. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 4196 - Posted: 09.02.2003