fMRI scans give first objective measure of mysterious ailment, provide road map for future study ANN ARBOR, MI - A new brain-scan study confirms scientifically what fibromyalgia patients have been telling a skeptical medical community for years: They're really in pain. In fact, the study finds, people with fibromyalgia say they feel severe pain, and have measurable pain signals in their brains, from a gentle finger squeeze that barely feels unpleasant to people without the disease. The squeeze's force must be doubled to cause healthy people to feel the same level of pain - and their pain signals show up in different brain areas. The results, published in the current issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, the journal of the American College of Rheumatology, may offer the proof of fibromyalgia's physical roots that many doubtful physicians have sought. It may also open doors for further research on the still-unknown causes of the disease, which affects more than 2 percent of Americans, mainly women. (c) copyright 2002 University of Michigan Health System

Keyword: Brain imaging; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 2224 - Posted: 06.08.2002

STANFORD, Calif. - The central nervous system, made up of the brain and spinal cord, never forgets a slight. Somehow, nerve cells lose the ability to regenerate: witness actor Christopher Reeve's paralysis after his horse threw him at a jump. To find a cure for such injuries, scientists must understand why nerve cells lose the ability to grow back. They know that these cells - called neurons - stop regenerating because a signal tells them to slow down during development. The problem is, scientists haven't known much about that signal. Now, a team of Stanford University Medical Center researchers have identified the mechanism and some key cells involved in controlling regeneration. It turns out that the signal to slow down doesn't come from the neurons themselves, but from an outside source. The signal's effects appear to be permanent. The findings, published in the June 7 issue of Science, outline what may be a new avenue to explore in the search for brain-damage and paralysis treatments, the researchers say.

Keyword: Regeneration; Stem Cells
Link ID: 2223 - Posted: 06.08.2002

The gas could help people with brain injuries Scientists believe a gas used in camera flash bulbs and strobe lighting could help people who have suffered strokes or serious brain injuries. Researchers from Imperial College London have found that xenon gas may prevent damaged nerves from dying. They believe the discovery could lead to the development of new treatments for people with strokes, neurological disorders, spinal cord injuries and other nerve damaging illnesses. While the gas cannot reverse these conditions, it could prevent further deterioration in patients. Xenon is a naturally occurring gas. It exists in minute quantities in the atmosphere and is colourless, odourless and tasteless. It is used extensively in a wide variety of lamps to deliver a very bright white light. (C) BBC

Keyword: Stroke; Brain Injury/Concussion
Link ID: 2222 - Posted: 06.08.2002

The ligand is linked to growth hormone release, feeding regulation, energy homeostasis, and the cardiovascular system By Jim Kling The hunt for endogenous or synthetic molecules that can stimulate growth hormone production has always been appealing. Finding the right molecule or molecules that control appetite, for example, could have significant financial returns. About two years ago, two research groups, whose work has reached Hot Paper status, identified the elusive ligand for an endogenous G-protein-coupled receptor that stimulates the release of growth hormone. One of the groups, headed by Kenji Kangawa , director of the Department of Biochemistry at the National Cardiovascular Center Research Institute in Osaka, and professor at the Translational Research Center at Japan's Kyoto University, was interested in novel peptides and discovered the ligand, naming it ghrelin.1 A team from Eli Lilly and Co. learned soon afterward that the ligand may play a role in energy balance.2 "Ghrelin has a lot of interesting activities besides growth hormone release, such as [regulation of] feeding, energy homeostasis, and the cardiovascular system, says Kangawa, "and that attracts researchers from many fields." Lilly's article was the "first to show that ghrelin plays an important role in energy balance, and that [this effect] may be even more important than its effect on growth hormone," says Mark Heiman, Lilly's research adviser in its endocrine division. The Scientist 16[12]:36, Jun. 10, 2002 © Copyright 2002, The Scientist, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Obesity; Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 2221 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Once considered largely genetically based, this complex disease may have many points of origin By Eugene Russo Twenty years ago, many investigators believed that genetics held the key to understanding schizophrenia, an etiologically heterogeneous disease.1 It seemed only a matter of time before the power of genetic analysis could be brought to bear on this malady, resulting in better drug leads and better ways toward prevention.2 So far, genetic advances have been few. "There was really a misjudgment on the part of some in the field," says Kenneth Kendler , professor of psychiatry and human genetics at Virginia Commonwealth University. Today, the disease's other potential causes, working in tandem with schizophrenia's genetic component, are receiving considerable attention as well. The Scientist 16[12]:31, Jun. 10, 2002 © Copyright 2002, The Scientist, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 2220 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Investigators (nearly) identify melanopsin as a photopigment By Josh P. Roberts Most people run on an internal 24-hour cycle, synchronized to the light and dark cycles of the outside world. Information about external luminescence is conveyed to the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) of the hypothalamus, which incorporates it into what is known as the circadian rhythm, or biological clock. In cold-blooded vertebrates, deep-brain photoreceptors allow for photoentrainment, the process by which the eyes facilitate setting of the circadian clock. Mammals do not have these receptors; instead, mammalian eyes collect light and send the information back to the SCN through the optic nerve, a pathway called the retinohypothalamic tract (RHT). This is known, in part, because mice with removed eyes cannot reset their clocks. Oddly enough, about half of all blind people can photoentrain, as can mice that lack functional rods and cones, implying that another receptor capable of processing light exists in the eye. Tracer studies, in which a marker traverses the neuron from one end to the other, indicated more than 20 years ago that a small subset of cells found in the innermost part of the retina innervates the SCN. These retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), which were not known to contain any photopigments of their own, were thought merely to relay information from the rods and cones. But a spate of work, culminating in papers from at least five laboratories earlier this year,1-5 has shown that RGCs are intrinsically photosensitive, and has all but confirmed the identification of the responsible photopigment as well. The Scientist 16[12]:28, Jun. 10, 2002 © Copyright 2002, The Scientist, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Vision
Link ID: 2219 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The NHS's drugs advisory body, the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, will decide on Thursday if an expensive schizophrenia drug, which has fewer side-effects than older types, should be available on the NHS. Robert Bayley, 35, from Northampton, has had schizophrenia for almost 20 years, and he tells BBC News Online how switching from to the newer atypical medicines - changed his life for the better. "I was 16 and still at school, when I was admitted to a local mental hospital. "I was diagnosed as a psychotic with schizoid tendencies, then eventually diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. "From an early stage, doctors tried me on the old-school antipsychotics. "I was on them for at least 10 years. "The drugs caused involuntary movement and loss of control of the tongue and mouth which was very distressing, especially in social situations.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 2218 - Posted: 06.07.2002

By GREG WINTER After vowing in a 1998 tobacco settlement to market solely to adults, the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company has violated the agreement by pursuing an advertising strategy that promotes youth smoking, a California judge ruled yesterday. The company was fined $20 million. Repeating the maxim "actions speak louder than words," the judge, Ronald S. Prager of Superior Court in San Diego, wrote that Reynolds's public commitment to reducing youth smoking was belied by the fact that almost as many children saw its cigarette advertisements as adults. The company places so many advertisements in magazines with "huge youth readerships," like Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone, Judge Prager ruled, that it "strains credibility" to suggest that Reynolds did not consider how many children under 18 were exposed to its cigarettes. Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2217 - Posted: 06.07.2002

Tampa, FL — Intravenous injections of cells from human umbilical cord blood improved the neurological and motor function of rats recovering from severe traumatic brain injury, researchers at Henry Ford Health Sciences Center (HFHSC), Detroit, and the University of South Florida (USF), Tampa, found. The study appears in tomorrow's issue of the journal Cell Transplantation, a special issue that focuses on emerging approaches in neural transplantation and brain repair. It is one of several articles exploring the therapeutic potential of human umbilical cord blood (HUCB) cells as an alternative to embryonic stem cells. While studies of cellular therapies continue to grow in importance, the emphasis has been on neurological diseases like Parkinson's disease and stroke, and, more recently, on spinal cord injury.

Keyword: Stem Cells; Parkinsons
Link ID: 2216 - Posted: 06.24.2010

DALLAS, June 6 (AScribe Newswire) -- Researchers at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have discovered that a certain protein is required for neurological development in frogs, a finding that could advance scientists' understanding of human development. The work, published in today's edition of Developmental Cell, was conducted in the lab of Dr. Jonathan M. Graff, assistant professor in the Center for Developmental Biology and senior author of the paper. Graff's team reports that when the protein Smad10 is absent from frog embryos, the tadpoles that develop never form nervous systems. Smad10 is a member of a family of proteins that act as signal carriers between cells. When Smad10 was absent from the frog embryos, the chemical signals that program stem cells to form nerve tissue apparently could not be relayed.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2215 - Posted: 06.07.2002

SAN DIEGO - Moving objects just by thinking. That's something people do almost every time they move their bodies. Scientific work over the last 20 years has shown how neurons in the brain behave when we move our arms. More recently, this work has led to demonstrations of technology that may restore movement to the immobile. Reporting in the Friday, June 7, issue of the journal, Science, scientists from The Neurosciences Institute here, in conjunction with the Department of Bioengineering at Arizona State University, have recently examined arrays of electrodes implanted in the cerebral cortex of monkeys. They record the electrical discharges of 50-80 individual brain cells as a small sample of the billions of neurons that communicate with each other during movement. The signals intercepted by these electrodes are sent to a computer where they are 'decoded' or matched to different arm movements. This code is saved in the computer, and used by the animal to move a ball or spherical cursor through a virtual space to a specified target without using its arms. Monkeys 'learn' this task by changing the way these neurons code for movement direction.

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 2214 - Posted: 06.07.2002

People who have impaired movement after a stroke may benefit from a treatment in which the unaffected arm helps the other to improve. A study published in a leading medical journal suggests that patients using the technique did better than those using other rehabilitation methods. During a stroke, the blood supply to a small area of the brain is interrupted, causing tissue damage. This can affect movement on one side of the body, while leaving the other side intact. Recovery can be slow, and some patients will never regain full movement. Researchers at the Centre for Exercise Science at the University of Florida used a technique in which electrical stimulation is used to boost the patient's efforts to move his or her affected arm. (C) BBC

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 2213 - Posted: 06.07.2002

By ANAT MAYTAL Crimson Staff Writer Women with too little body fat can be infertile and not even realize it, according to a Harvard School of Public Health expert. Rose Frisch, associate professor of population sciences, published a study included in her recent book, Female Fertility and the Body Fat Connection, that found combining a low-fat diet with constant exercise can affect a woman’s ability to conceive, even if she appears perfectly healthy and is still menstruating. “Losing as little as 10-15 percent of body fat even with normal weight and height can make women infertile,” said Frisch, who has studied the relationship between body weight and fertility for 20 years. Copyright © 2002, The Harvard Crimson Inc.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Obesity
Link ID: 2212 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Blood vessels in retina could warn of dementia, Alzheimer's By Ed Edelson HealthScoutNews Reporter HealthScoutNews) -- The poetic idea that the eyes are a window into the heart has long been taken seriously by cardiologists. They know that abnormalities of the tiny blood vessels of the retina can indicate similar problems with blood vessels inside the body, problems that can lead to a heart attack or stroke. A new study carries the idea further, saying that retinal blood vessels might be used for early detection of Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive problems and might open a new path toward treatment of them. "The blood vessels at the retina provide a window to look directly at changes in the small arteries in the brain," explains Dr. Tien Yin Wong, the study's lead author and a professor of ophthalmology at the National University of Singapore. "Thus, changes in the retinal arteries, termed retinal microvascular abnormalities, may be linked to similar vessel changes in the brain." Copyright © 2002 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Vision
Link ID: 2211 - Posted: 06.24.2010

— HHMI researchers have identified a molecular malfunction that causes a form of retinitis pigmentosa (RP), an inherited disease that causes progressive loss of vision and ultimately blindness. Mutations in any one of 19 genes can cause RP. Although the researchers studied a specific mutation that alters only one of the 19 genes, their studies may offer a broad explanation for how the rod photoreceptor cells in the eye slowly die, which can ultimately lead to blindness. The studies were reported in an article published in the April 11, 2002, issue of the journal Neuron by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator William N. Zagotta and lead author Matthew C. Trudeau, both of whom are at the University of Washington Medical School. ©2002 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 2210 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service Israel has become only the second non-European country to report a case of mad cow disease. The likely route of infection, via contaminated feed, suggests there may be many more. Initial positive BSE tests in a cow in the Golan Heights came in May but have now been confirmed by the World Organisation for Animal Health in Paris. The 10-year-old Israeli Holstein was part of a kibbutz herd and showed clinical symptoms of BSE for two days before it died. The cow's age, and the short symptom duration are both unusual. Most cases of BSE have been in cattle aged four to five years, and symptoms have lasted for weeks or months before death. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 2209 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The Indiana University School of Medicine is one of six institutions in the nation participating in the National Institutes of Health clinical trial of a new, non-invasive surgical procedure to eliminate epileptic seizures due to intractable epilepsy. "This is the first clinical trial in the United States of this promising treatment for epilepsy," says Paul DesRosiers, M.D., assistant professor of radiation oncology and the principal investigator of the IU School of Medicine trial. "As many as 10 patients will be treated at IU in this trial which is designed to determine the most effective radiation dose for eliminating the seizure focus in the brain." Currently, the only approved treatments involve medication or invasive surgery. This new radiosurgery protocol uses the Gamma Knife to focus 201 beams of gamma radiation on the precise location of the brain responsible for the seizures. Copyright © 1995-2002 ScienceDaily Magazine

Keyword: Epilepsy
Link ID: 2208 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NEW ORLEANS – Six-month-old hearing infants exposed to American Sign Language (ASL) for the first time prefer it to pantomime, lending new evidence that humans show a broad preference for languages over "non-languages," according to a University of Washington researcher who will present her findings here Friday at the annual convention of the American Psychological Society. "Infants seem to be set up to pay attention to language at birth and we've seen they have a remarkable sensitivity to spoken language. This work is important because it broadens this bias to include an unfamiliar language in a completely unique modality," said Ursula Hildebrandt, a UW doctoral student in psychology, who will outline her research in a poster session. "It suggests that there may be something in all languages, both spoken and signed, that is interesting to infants."

Keyword: Language; Hearing
Link ID: 2207 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2002 United Press International By STEVE MITCHELL, UPI Medical Correspondent - Marijuana appears to be very effective for treating pain and a variety of other conditions, particularly in patients who have not been helped by prescription drugs, its advocates claim, despite the debate about the legality of using the drug as a medication. "It's a very effective medication for many people who have failed to get good results from standard medications and that's why so many people are devoted to it and risking their lives and career to get this drug," Ethan Russo, a neurologist in private practice in Missoula, Mont., who has studied medicinal marijuana, told United Press International. Nine states - Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Nevada, Oregon and Washington - have legalized the drug for medicinal purposes, but the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency has been raiding centers distributing the drug in California. This has resulted in patients, who the raids left unable to obtain marijuana, filing a lawsuit against DEA alleging the raids were unconstitutional. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 2206 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have developed a program to train computers to scan faces and spot genetic syndromes. They hope that by looking for specific facial traits the computer will help aid doctors with little experience of the conditions to be able to diagnose them. Using a series of two dimensional full face photographs the computer has been trained to spot rare conditions like Cornelia de Lange, Fragile X and Williams-Beuren syndromes. Charities are now hopeful that it will help doctors spot conditions at a much earlier stage. (C) BBC

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 2205 - Posted: 06.05.2002