An immunologic therapy, intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg), administered to patients suffering from stiff person syndrome (SPS), provides dramatic relief from disabling symptoms, according to a study appearing in the December 27, 2001, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine* . The study's principal author, Marinos C. Dalakas, M.D., chief of the Neuromuscular Diseases Section of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, says that the success of the treatment supports the theory that SPS is the result of an autoimmune response gone awry in the brain and spinal cord. SPS is characterized by fluctuating muscle rigidity in the trunk and limbs and a heightened sensitivity to stimuli such as noise, touch, and emotional distress that can set off muscular spasms. People with SPS are often too disabled to walk or move, or are afraid to leave the house because of stimuli-triggered spasms and frequent falls. The incidence of SPS has been estimated at one in every one million persons, but according to Dr. Dalakas, "the disorder is so often misdiagnosed — as Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, fibromyalgia, psychosomatic illness, or anxiety and phobia — that its actual incidence is probably much higher." Researchers have known since the 1980s that people with SPS have elevated circulating antibodies against a particular enzyme, glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD65), involved in the synthesis of -aminobutyric acid (GABA), an inhibitory neurotransmitter that controls muscle movement.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 1229 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CHAPEL HILL -- One of the brain’s natural painkillers -- beta endorphin -- increases significantly in response to alcohol, cocaine and amphetamine drug administration in a key region of the brain that controls addiction, researchers have discovered. The work, conducted in rats, strongly suggests that the same thing occurs in humans, the scientists say. It offers what could be important new clues in the fight against alcohol and drug addiction. A report on the findings appears as a rapid communication in the newest issue of the Journal of Neuroscience. Authors of the paper include Drs. M. Foster Olive of the University of California at San Francisco and Clyde W. Hodge of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 1227 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Copyright © 2001 AP Online By LINDSEY TANNER, Associated Press New research suggests that a common virus may raise the risk of developing multiple sclerosis, bolstering evidence linking the nerve disorder with the Epstein-Barr germ. Harvard University researchers found that women whose blood contained significant levels of antibodies to the Epstein-Barr virus were four times more likely to develop multiple sclerosis than women without high levels. The virus, a member of the herpes family, is best known as a cause of mononucleosis - the so-called "kissing disease." It also has been linked to other ailments, including some other nerve disorders and cancers, and is so common that by some estimates it has infected as many as 95 percent of U.S. adults by age 40. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 1226 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By GAIL KERR Staff Writer One year ago this month, Tennessean local news columnist Gail Kerr was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. This three-part series chronicles her emotional journey of coming to understand and learning to live with a chronic illness. It's not just a story about MS. It's a story that anyone who has gone through a medical crisis can relate to: One day you are fine, the next day you are introduced to a whole new, scary world. Today, Gail writes about starting that frightening journey. Tomorrow, she'll write about learning to understand and live with multiple sclerosis. On Christmas Day, she'll write about getting on with her life.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 1225 - Posted: 12.26.2001

Copyright © 2001 Scripps Howard News Service By LEE BOWMAN, Scripps Howard News Service Want to reduce your risk of developing Alzheimer's disease? A new study suggests there's preventive medicine within reach, as simple as picking up a book or magazine, going for a walk, seeing a movie or chatting with a friend. Researchers at Columbia University in New York report Tuesday in the journal Neurology that leisure activity is an independent factor in reducing risk of dementia among people regardless of their education or occupational background. The journal is published by the American Academy of Neurology. "Subjects with high levels of leisure activity had 38 percent less risk of developing dementia, even when controlling for other risk factors, including ethnic background," said Yaakov Stern, lead author of the study. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 1224 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Fraser Nelson Westminster Editor TONY Blair yesterday accused the media of a "horrible and unjustified" intrusion into his family privacy by asking whether Leo Blair has received the triple MMR vaccine. The Prime Minister has coupled his attack with implicit confirmation that his 19-month-old son has, indeed, received the jab. However, he denounced attempts to prove that his wife, Cherie, has a relative who suffers from autism - the brain condition which has been linked to MMR by its critics. Mr Blair voiced his strongest support yet for the vaccine and said he and Mrs Blair did not believe it to be dangerous. ©2001 scotsman.com

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 1223 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Age-related changes in brain dopamine may affect how people process contextual information, which in turn can hurt attention, memory and more WASHINGTON - Psychologists may have found the "missing link" between the aging brain and declining cognitive abilities, via studies that show where younger and older people part ways in "context processing." The gradual loss of the ability to gather and use contextual clues could explain why older people decline cognitively across a range of functions. By developing a comprehensive, brain-based model of normal aging, psychologists may ultimately be able to slow or stop these vexing cognitive declines. The research appears in the December issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Alzheimers
Link ID: 1220 - Posted: 12.25.2001

A daily vitamin E supplement could protect the brain and prevent the onset of diseases such as Alzheimer's, a study suggests. Scientists in Japan discovered it is possible to reverse a degenerative brain disease simply by administering vitamin E. They say the supplement is a powerful antidote to the oxidative stress linked to brain disorders such as Alzheimer's. Taking vitamin supplements could help prevent such diseases, the researchers claim. (C) BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 1219 - Posted: 12.24.2001

Researchers at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) have found that the addition of a particular gene to certain non-neural cells in the retina can spur the growth of new neural retinal cells, potentially having benefit for eye diseases such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Neurons in the retina and throughout the central nervous system form during embryonic development, and if damaged, do not have the capacity to regenerate. In a paper published in the December 18th edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, the UAB team reports that the addition of the gene neurogenin (ngn2) to non-neural, retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells prompted the RPE cells to differentiate, or develop, into the pre-cursors of neural retina cells, particularly photoreceptor cells and ganglion cells. “Eye diseases such as macular degeneration can be caused by loss or damage to photoreceptor or ganglion cells in the retina,” says Shu-Zhen Wang, Ph.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology and lead author of the paper. “Our findings indicate that it may be possible to replace damaged photoreceptor and ganglion cells by creating new photoreceptor and ganglion cells from RPE cells. Powered by Estrada ®. © 1998, University of Alabama at Birmingham. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 1218 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Stacey Singer Health Writer It would cost $100,000 for the operation that could stop her mother’s tremors. No one in the family had that kind of money, and there was no health insurance. Grace Donofrio knew all this as she scanned the Internet, reading about the latest surgical treatment for tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease. It was early in 2001, and Donofrio, full of hope, called a family meeting. She told her brother and sister that no matter what it cost, no matter what they had to sell or borrow, they must find a way to give their mother the operation. Somberly, they all agreed. In her healthy days, Neponezia Simoes crafted beautiful dresses, an elegant confection of organdy and flowers for Donofrio’s wedding, a variation of Chanel or St. Lauren for a regular customer. Copyright © 2001, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 1217 - Posted: 06.24.2010

THE CENTRAL SULCUS, YOUR BRAIN. Brain detectives have tailed consciousness for decades, from swanky prefrontal salons to high-rise occipital condominiums. Whenever researchers thought that they had it cornered, they lost consciousness. The fundamental mind-brain phenomenon has given scientists the slip. Until now, consciousness was widely believed to be hiding out in either the gated, exclusive confines of NeoCortical Heights or in a hippocampal townhouse owned by its frequently absent friends Memory and Reasoning. Think again. Last week, intrepid neuroscientific sleuth Sarah Bellum tracked down a haggard-looking consciousness at one the brain's seamiest flophouses, only to let her elusive quarry slip away. "It has a mug that only a mother could love," Bellum said as she recalled her brief encounter with the avatar of awareness. "It's neither male nor female nor Michael Jackson." From Science News, Vol. 160, No. 25, Dec. 22, 2001, p. 399. Copyright ©2001 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 1215 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Boston, MA Harvard Medical School researchers have gained one of the first glimpses of how the body's circadian clock--a tiny cluster of nerve cells behind the eyes--sends out the signals that control natural daily rhythms. The newly discovered pathway, reported in the December 21 Science, opens a long-closed door to research that could ultimately lead to new treatments for circadian disturbances such as certain sleep disorders. "If you could figure out the factors that are promoting wakefulness and sleep, that could in principle be turned into much better drugs for particular sleep disorders," said Chuck Weitz, HMS professor of neurobiology. Circadian researchers have been remarkably successful in the past few years at identifying the molecular machinery--the genes and proteins--that make the circadian clock cells tick on a near 24-hour basis. But they were stymied when it came to figuring out how the machinery of these cells, located in the brain's suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), actually drives such daily rhythms as the rise and fall of body temperature and the sleep-wake cycle. Researchers suspected that to achieve such rhythmic patterns, the clock must be switching molecular factors on and off, and even had an idea where in the brain the factors might reside, but no one had actually found any of them. Until now.

Keyword: Biological Rhythms
Link ID: 1214 - Posted: 12.23.2001

* Scientists uncovered a rare aspect of brain development that may be unique to people. * A genetic mutation identified in members of a British family appeared to influence language capability. Deaf kids who invented their own sign language contributed to the debate over language and grammar origins. * Behavior training combined with a low dose of Ritalin showed promise as a treatment for teenagers with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. * Nicotine addiction showed signs of increasing over the past 20 years among young cigarette smokers. * In separate studies, depressed people exhibited the same brain changes in response to either psychotherapy or antidepressant drugs. * Babies' penchant for conversing wordlessly with their caregivers may influence later social and emotional development. * Scientists tied schizophrenia to the activity of a particular brain chemical and a virus. European and U.S. schizophrenia treatment expanded beyond medication alone. * An emerging field of study mined the intuitive strategies that children use to understand math and grasp other types of knowledge. * New studies tapped into extensive interactions among brain cells involved in sight, hearing, and other senses. * Long-term data linked a positive outlook and healthy habits early in life to longer survival in old age. * Brain researchers probed the vexing domains of dreaming and mystical experience. * Math anxiety showed signs of harming college students' memory, thereby dragging down their math performance. * Controversial studies explored the possibility that people have an innate ability to recognize faces. * Some police officers displayed a surprising aptitude for lie detection, whereas others were often duped. From Science News, Vol. 160, No. 25, Dec. 22, 2001, p. 402. Copyright ©2001 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 1213 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Terry Devitt A common antibiotic, long used to treat infections in humans, may have potential as a treatment for multiple sclerosis, a devastating disease of the central nervous system, according to a new study published today, Dec. 21, in the Annals of Neurology. The drug, minocycline, is a member of the tetracycline family of antibiotics and was tested in a condition that mimics MS. Study results portray a potential treatment for MS that could significantly decrease the severity of disease attacks or even block the onset of relapses, hence ameliorating many of the disease's debilitating symptoms. The drug was tested in rats with autoimmune encephalomyelitis. "Animals treated with minocycline did not develop neurologic dysfunction or had a less severe course than untreated rats," says Ian D. Duncan, a UW-Madison neurology professor in the Department of Medical Sciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine and the senior author of the study performed in collaboration with C. Linington of the Max Planck Institute of Neurobiology in Germany. Copyright © 2001 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 1211 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by André A. Dhondt No fewer than 11 hypotheses have been proposed to explain why socially monogamous bird species divorce. Is divorce adaptive and, if so, is it adaptive for one or for both partners? Can we determine which partner initiates mate change, and why? The recent paper by Streif and Rasa demonstrates how careful measures of changes in the breeding success of individuals and of changes in the quality of their offspring can produce clear answers to such questions. Most bird species breed as socially monogamous pairs. If the pair survive and change mates in the next breeding attempt, they are said to have divorced. Divorce rates vary from between 0% (surviving partners never divorce, e.g. the albatross Diomedea irrorata and D. bulleri) and 100% (surviving partners always divorce, e.g. the greater flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber) [1]. Why are divorce rates so variable? Does one partner desert the other, or do both "agree" to split up? Is divorce adaptive, in that breeding success improves after a divorce, or is divorce costly? Do costs and benefits of divorce differ between the sexes? © Elsevier Science Limited 2000

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 1210 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Rabiya S. Tuma Major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder are very different psychiatric conditions, yet both respond to treatment with selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors. In this article, the author explores how the same class of drugs may help patients suffering from such distinct illnesses. Two illnesses, one drug, two results - and pictures to prove it. That's what researchers have after comparing brain scans from patients treated for obsessive-compulsive disorder or for major depression. These two mood disorders, major depression and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), are very different psychiatric conditions in terms of patient behavior, as well as in their biochemical markers and physiology. Yet both conditions respond to treatment with the same class of drugs, the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, says Sanjaya Saxena of the University of California at Los Angeles. © Elsevier Science Limited 2000

Keyword: Depression; OCD - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
Link ID: 1209 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By MELODY PETERSEN and BARRY MEIER In the mountain coal fields of eastern Kentucky, Sheriff Steve Duff of Harlan County recently noticed something curious — people driving to drug stores in neighboring states to fill prescriptions of a potent painkiller called OxyContin. Their reason, Sheriff Duff believes, was to evade a system in Kentucky that monitors who gets potentially addictive drugs and who prescribes and fills those prescriptions. That system, the sheriff says, helped him arrest several dozen people last year on OxyContin-related charges. More significantly, it helped police stage Kentucky's biggest ever drug-abuse raid, resulting in the arrest last February of 252 people in a sweep called Operation Oxyfest. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 1207 - Posted: 06.24.2010

In the legendary Sherlock Holmes story "The Hound of the Baskervilles," by Arthur Conan Doyle, Sir Charles Baskerville dies from a heart attack brought on by extreme psychological stress. Findings from a new medical article by University of California, San Diego Sociologist David Phillips suggest that people can indeed be scared to death, both in fact as well as fiction. Phillips' research, published in the December 2001 issue of the British Medical Journal, may provide the most persuasive evidence to date linking extreme psychological stress and fatal heart attacks. In the study, Phillips, a well-known authority on mortality trends and the social and psychological factors affecting them, collaborated with UCSD Mathematics Professor Ian Abramson and UCSD students George Liu, Kennon Kwok, Jason Jarvinen, Wei Zhang. Although numerous laboratory studies have shown cardiovascular changes following psychological stress, for ethical reasons only non-fatal stressors can be studied in the laboratory and one may not be able to generalize beyond these mild stressors to determine if, in the real world, fatal heart attacks are precipitated by extreme stress.

Keyword: Stress; Emotions
Link ID: 1206 - Posted: 12.21.2001

Copyright © 2001 Scripps Howard News Service By SARAH AVERY, Raleigh News & Observer Beth Hawkins has a lot of reasons that she doesn't want her 11-month-old son eating sweets, not least among them the notorious "sugar buzz" that makes children act silly and grownups go loopy. So Hawkins, a resident of Raleigh, N.C., and a Ph.D. candidate in zoology at North Carolina State University, is keeping the holiday goodies to a minimum for her son, Ethan Davis Godwin. Pity. Although sugar may not be the most nutritious food, it packs no buzz. Not even a hum. Copyright © 2001 Nando Media

Keyword: Obesity; Attention
Link ID: 1205 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers have genetically manipulated fruit flies so that the flies produce a human protein that protects against the degeneration of neurons similar to those affected in Parkinson’s disease. The protective protein, called a chaperone, suppresses the toxicity of a -synuclein, a protein associated with Parkinson’s disease in humans. Progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons produces the neurological symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. Chaperone proteins normally aid in proper folding of proteins and are involved in protecting against cellular stresses. The findings were reported in the December 21, 2001, issue of Science by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Nancy M. Bonini and colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. ©2001 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Apoptosis; Parkinsons
Link ID: 1203 - Posted: 06.24.2010