Some diseases are caused by one gene. But more common are "complex" diseases—like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and obesity—that are caused by many genes or sets of genes. Now geneticists have demonstrated that they can subdivide obesity into different genetic causes. The study was published in the journal Nature. Researchers at Rosetta Inpharmatics, a subsidiary of the pharmaceutical company Merck collaborated with university scientists to combine clinical and gene sequence information with new gene chip experiments to find different groups of genes that underly obesity. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Obesity; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 3640 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Rachel Yehuda, Ph.D., Psychiatric Times April 2003 Vol. XX Issue 4 Posttraumatic stress disorder develops in response to experiencing, witnessing or even learning about a terrifying event. The event--or trauma--is usually life-threatening, or at least capable of producing bodily harm, and it typically involves either interpersonal violence or massive disaster (e.g., rape, assault, torture, terrorism, car or plane crashes, earthquake, tornado, or flood). Traumatic events have in common the ability to elicit intense and immediate fear, helplessness, horror and distress. These subjective responses lead to a cascade of adverse psychological reactions that can result in the symptoms of PTSD and the resultant disability that is associated with this condition. The diagnosis of PTSD did not appear in the DSM until 1980. This reflected the reluctance of the mental health field to recognize that the psychological effects of traumatic experiences could be long lasting. Prior to 1980, stress-related symptoms were generally viewed as transient and not requiring intensive treatment. This was in keeping with the pervasive feeling that, with time, people ought to be able to "get over" the effects of a traumatic experience and "move on" without noticeable impairment. According to the DSM and DSM-II, people who developed long-term symptoms following trauma were perceived as constitutionally vulnerable (Yehuda and McFarlane, 1995). The diagnosis of PTSD was meant to pave the way for an improved understanding of the long-term, and possibly even permanent, impact of trauma exposure. Ultimately, systematic testing of hypotheses about the relationship between trauma exposure and long-term symptoms has led to a better understanding of the causes of PTSD and its longitudinal course and biologic basis. © 2003 Psychiatric Times. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 3639 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D. I am being harassed by the guy next door and I want him to stop," the woman in my office said with firm conviction. The man would leer at her in the elevator just to make her squirm, she said. But when I inquired further, she described a lingering feeling of being mistreated by people she said were jealous of her. She was even sure that someone had once tried to poison her. Then I asked a question that gave me a direct taste of her problem. Is it possible that you are mistaken? Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 3638 - Posted: 04.02.2003

Unique Hand-Over-Hand Rotation Transports Molecules Through Cells (Philadelphia, PA) - Within every neuron is a vast protein trail system traversed by a small protein engine called Myosin V. The long-standing question of how this molecule moves may have finally been resolved by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Their findings, presented in this week's issue of Nature, show how myosin V can move 'hand-over-hand' on tracks, composed of a protein called actin, without completely letting go at any point. According to the researchers, myosin V offers a fascinating example of how cells convert chemical energy into motion, and may offer a natural example of molecular motors for the purposes of nanotechnology. "There are a number of theories on how this molecule moves. What concerned me was how this little myosin motor can move along the track without letting go and floating off into the cytoplasm of the cell," said Yale E. Goldman, MD, PhD, professor in Penn's Department of Physiology and director of the Pennsylvania Muscle Institute (PMI). "It turns out that myosin tilts as it steps along the actin track - one head attaches to the track and then the molecule rotates allowing the other head to attach - much like a child on a playground crosses the monkey-bars hand-over-hand."

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 3637 - Posted: 04.02.2003

Research helps physicians understand rare form of ataxia that causes patients to appear 'drunk' at times PORTLAND, Ore. – Scientists at Oregon Health & Science University are the first to produce an animal model for episodic ataxia. The condition causes patients to suffer bouts of extreme clumsiness where they have balance, speech and motor difficulties. The research helps scientists better understand this rare and intriguing disorder. It may also help provide valuable information for improved, targeted drugs for treatment. The research is printed in the April edition of the journal Nature Neuroscience. It was conducted in conjunction with researchers at the Portland Veterans Affairs Medical Center. "By developing a mouse model for episodic ataxia, we now have a valuable tool to better understand and treat the disease," said James Maylie, Ph.D., a professor of obstetrics and gynecology in the OHSU School of Medicine. "We have already used this animal model to observe and learn more about cellular mechanisms behind the disease. These disease-linked cells are located in the cerebellum, a portion of the brain involved in motor coordination."

Keyword: Stress; Movement Disorders
Link ID: 3636 - Posted: 06.24.2010

HONOLULU, HI – Researchers in New Orleans have identified a subset of stutterers that may benefit most from delayed auditory feedback, a technique by which the original acoustic speech signal is artificially modified and then fed back via headphones. Findings of their study are being presented at the American Academy of Neurology Annual Meeting in Honolulu, March 29-April 5, 2003. Delayed auditory feedback (DAF) has been shown to induce fluency in many individuals who stutter, though not all stutterers experience enhanced fluency by this technique. The primary aim of this study was to learn if there is a relationship between the anatomy of the auditory association cortex (planum temporale) and fluency induced with DAF in adults with persistent developmental stuttering. The planum temporale is a brain structure important in processing auditory information.

Keyword: Language; Hearing
Link ID: 3635 - Posted: 06.24.2010

HONOLULU -- An investigational surgical cell therapy tested to improve signs and symptoms in advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) patients is showing sustained benefit in motor function, two years following treatment. Emory University researchers report that participants, on average, experienced a 41 percent improvement (range 29-58 percent) in motor function when off other medications and, on average, a 39 percent improvement (range 35-40 percent) in quality of life measures. Ray L. Watts, MD, professor of neurology, Emory University School of Medicine and lead investigator of the study, will present the two-year follow-up findings at the American Academy of Neurology 55th Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii on April 1. During a pilot clinical study, Emory University researchers implanted retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells attached to microcarriers (Spheramine") into the brains of six patients with advanced PD. The microcarriers are necessary for the cells to survive after implantation, and form the basis for this novel therapy. RPE cells, normally found in the back of the eye, are cultured under standardized conditions to produce cells for this treatment. These cells provide a source of increased dopamine production. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter in the brain that is found in steadily decreasing amounts as PD progresses. The implanted cells serve as a new potential source of dopamine production in these patients.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 3634 - Posted: 04.02.2003

Until now, scientists believed that a single area in the brain generated breathing rhythm, enabling breathing to speed up or slow down to adapt to the body’s activity and position. But UCLA neurobiologists have discovered that two systems in the brain interact to generate breathing rhythm — a finding that may translate into better treatment for sleep apnea and sudden infant death syndrome. The journal Neuron reported the findings in its March 6 issue. “We originally thought that only one brain center was responsible for generating breathing rhythm,” said Dr. Nicholas Mellen, UCLA assistant researcher in neurobiology and principal investigator of the study. “But our research indicates that two cellular networks closely collaborate to control breathing. This brings us an important step closer to understanding how breathing control is organized in the brain.” “Breathing is a good model for understanding brain function in general,” said Dr. Jack Feldman, UCLA professor of neurobiology and senior author. “Once we learn how the brain commands humans to breathe, we will gain valuable insight into how the brain produces other meaningful behaviors.”

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 3633 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Transplanted bone-marrow cells may be fusing with, not replacing, damaged tissues. HELEN R. PILCHER Transplanted adult stem cells may repair liver damage by fusing with host cells, rather than by producing new liver cells, two new studies suggest. The stem cells may reprogramme host cells' genetic material. The findings are likely to fuel the debate over how versatile adult stem cells are and how they repair tissues. Adult stem cells' apparent ability to produce myriad cell types has raised hopes that transplants could treat conditions from liver disease to stroke, without recourse to the ethically contentious use of embryonic stem cells. Previous studies have indicated, for instance, that adult bone-marrow stem cells can turn into several cell types, including blood, liver, muscle and pancreas. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Stem Cells
Link ID: 3632 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Brain catheter feeds beleaguered cells; taking iron out protects them. HELEN PEARSON A drip-feed of protein through the skull has transformed the lives of five Parkinson's patients, say scientists. Doctors implanted a thin plastic tube into the patients' brains and a small pump in their stomach1. They infused a molecule known to nourish the brain cells that wither during Parkinson's: glial-cell-line-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF). After two years of treatment, "we're seeing improvements across the board", says team leader Steven Gill of the Institute of Neurosciences in Bristol, UK. One patient, whose movement problems left him housebound, has joined his local bowls team; another re-wired his house. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Parkinsons; Trophic Factors
Link ID: 3631 - Posted: 06.24.2010

MADISON - By pumping a potent growth factor directly into the human brain, an international team of scientists and surgeons has demonstrated significant remediation of the debilitating symptoms of patients with Parkinson's disease. The study, a phase 1 clinical trial designed primarily to assess the safety of administering a protein known as glial cell line-derived neurotrophic factor or GDNF, was reported today (March 31) in the journal Nature Medicine. The study, according to co-author Clive Svendsen of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, induced a remarkable uptick in the motor skills of five Parkinson's patients in advanced stages of the disease, as well as the ability of their brains to store the neurotransmitter dopamine, a key chemical that helps the brain control muscles.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Trophic Factors
Link ID: 3630 - Posted: 03.31.2003

Babies who do not eat much in the first fortnight of life may be set up for better heart health throughout life. Trying to get a new baby to put on weight is a natural parental desire, but research suggests that very rapid weight gain very early in life may not necessarily be a good thing. A study carried out at the Institute of Child Health in London found that babies who received a "low nutrient" diet rather than a "nutrient rich" diet in their first days were healthier as adolescents. They were less likely to have "insulin resistance", a symptomless condition strongly associated with an increased risk of diabetes later in life. The researchers say that it does not mean that new parents should actively restrict the diets of their newborns, but provides more evidence that breastfeeding is the best possible way to feed them. New mothers usually produce very small amounts of milk in the first few days after birth, and even healthy babies tend to actually lose weight to start with. But the study suggests this is certainly not harmful, and may even be beneficial in the longer term. It warned parents against "overfeeding" newborn babies by giving them large amounts of formula feed. (C) BBC

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 3629 - Posted: 03.29.2003

ST. PAUL, MN - A cross-sectional study has convinced some researchers that the APOE genotype is a risk factor for diabetic neuropathy severity equal to having 15 extra years of age or diabetes duration. The study, led by Richard S. Bedlack, MD, Phd, of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, is reported in the March 25 issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Patients with APOE 3/4 and 4/4 genotypes scored three points higher on the Neuropathy Impairment Score in the Lower Limbs (NISLL) than patients with other genotypes. Patients were enrolled in the study from the diabetes clinic at Northeast Medical Center in Concord, North Carolina. The study took into account the patient’s age, duration of diabetes, most recent and highest recorded hemoglobin, most recent and highest recorded triglycerides, and presence of the APOE gene.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Obesity
Link ID: 3628 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service A significant number of people could be dying from an adult version of "cot death", suggests a new study. At least 3500 apparently healthy people collapse and die every year from unexplained causes in England alone, researchers have found. And in about 150 of these mystery deaths no cause can be identified, despite a full post-mortem examination. Tim Bowker, associate medical director of the British Heart Foundation and a consultant cardiologist, led the study and says anecdotal reports of this type of death had baffled doctors for many years. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 3627 - Posted: 06.24.2010

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A liposuction-like procedure called lipectomy results in a loss of humoral immune protection in two commonly studied rodent models, the prairie vole and the Siberian hamster, scientists have found. The report by a team of researchers at Indiana University, Ohio State University and Johns Hopkins University was made available online this week by The Royal Society. Their study is the first to show that even a moderate loss of fat leads to decreased amounts of infection-fighting IgG antibodies. "We were able to show that even a subtle decrease in fat can decrease humoral immunity, which has the potential to increase disease susceptibility," said Indiana University biologist Gregory Demas, who led the study. "We knew that immune function is energetically costly, but it is now clear that animals use energy stored as fat to bolster immunity and likely to combat infection." Copyright 2002, the Trustees of Indiana University

Keyword: Neuroimmunology; Obesity
Link ID: 3626 - Posted: 03.29.2003

A Johns Hopkins-led research team has successfully used a technique to rapidly find fruit fly genes involved in a cell signaling pathway called Hedgehog, which is critical to proper embryo development and a key trigger in some cancers, including the deadly childhood brain cancer medulloblastoma. By using the technique, called RNA interference, to "knock down" the messages of specific genes in fruit fly cells, researchers from Johns Hopkins and the National Institutes of Health screened 43 percent of the fruit fly's genes and found four new players involved in passing along Hedgehog's signal. Reporting in the March 28 issue of Science, the scientists also suggest that the human counterparts of the fruit fly genes may be involved in birth defects and cancers characteristic of abnormal Hedgehog activity.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 3625 - Posted: 03.29.2003

NewScientist.com news service Anorexic women have much higher levels of a mysterious molecule suspected to affect appetite, researchers have shown for the first time. The peptide, called CART, could be a candidate for new appetite-altering drugs, they say. Levels of CART were 50 per cent higher in blood samples from anorexic women, compared with women without the eating disorder, says Sarah Stanley, an endocrinologist at Imperial College London. CART levels were also found to rise as the women's weight fell. However, the function of CART in humans is not known. "And because we know so little, it is difficult to know if CART is the cause of the weight loss or the result," Stanley told New Scientist. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 3624 - Posted: 06.24.2010

— Cartoon drawings of Neanderthals as dim-witted hulks are way off mark; the ancient hominids were as dextrous as modern humans, a new study shows. So says the latest study into the hominids who inhabited Europe, parts of Central Asia and the Middle East for some 170,000 years until they mysteriously disappeared around 30,000 years ago, apparently displaced or massacred by anatomically modern man. Californian State University anthropologist Wesley Niewoehner and colleagues took an epoxy cast of the fossilized remains of a Neanderthal thumb and forefinger and scanned the image into a computer. Software then converted the image into a 3-D simulation of how these digits would move. Copyright © 2003 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 3623 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Locking up iron in brain cells could prevent Parkinson's disease, according to a new study. It finds that preventing cellular damage caused by iron, using either a naturally occurring protein or an iron-binding drug, can slow the progression of the devastating disease. The catch is that the drug, when bound to iron, poisons nerve cells. Parkinson's disease destroys nerve cells in a region of the brain called the substantia nigra, resulting in the jerky movements and tremors that characterize the disease. These neurons apparently deteriorate because of damage produced by oxidation of the brain chemical dopamine. Iron, if it's not properly restrained in the cell, can speed up the creation of destructive oxygen molecules. Patients with Parkinson's disease have more iron in their brains than people without the disease, but researchers have not been sure whether the disease causes the iron buildup or vice versa. Copyright © 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 3622 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Palaeontologist claims geology set human relative apart. REX DALTON A leading palaeontologist is questioning the heritage of a 3.5-million-year-old fossil skull hailed two years ago as a new human relative1. It's just one example, he suggests, of scientists being too quick to give us a bushy family tree. The fossil hit the headlines in 2001 when Meave Leakey of National Museums of Kenya and colleagues described it as evidence of a new human-like lineage. They named their specimen Kenyanthropus platyops2 - literally, the 'Flat-faced Man of Kenya'. Tim White of the University of California, Berkeley, now argues that K.platyops was more probably a Kenyan variant of one of the most famous human ancestors of all time - 'Lucy', discovered in Ethiopia in 1974. This fossil skeleton was formally named Australopithecus afarensis3. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 3621 - Posted: 06.24.2010