Molecular structure could advance understanding of human disorders
EVANSTON, Ill. - A recent breakthrough by scientists at Northwestern University could advance understanding of the biochemical causes of some nervous system disorders, including forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) or Lou Gehrig's disease. A team led by Amy Rosenzweig, assistant professor of biochemistry, molecular biology and cell biology and of chemistry, in collaboration with Thomas O'Halloran, professor of chemistry, is the first to determine the molecular structure of a metallochaperone (a protein that delivers metals to enzymes that need them to function) bound to its target protein. Specifically, the researchers have shown how the copper metallochaperone CCS binds to its target, superoxide dismutase (SOD), an enzyme that, when in a mutated form, has been linked to an inherited form of ALS known as familial ALS (FALS).

Keyword: ALS-Lou Gehrig's Disease
Link ID: 496 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Prion Pair Pictured
Domain swapping could be prion couples' downfall. TOM CLARKE A new snapshot of the healthy human prion protein shows that it likes to pair up with a pal. The fact that the protein prefers to couple up may help to explain how abnormal prions cause degenerative brain conditions such as variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease (vCJD), the human form of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. Previous images had cast the human prion as more of a singleton1. This provided few clues to how infectious prions might twist healthy ones out of shape and encourage them to clump - the preferred explanation for how transmissible spongiform encephalopathies such as vCJD arise. 1.Zahn, R et al. NMR solution structure of the human prion protein. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97, 145 - 150, (2000). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 495 - Posted: 10.20.2001

This Is Your Brain on Electricity
By Noah Shachtman For decades, doctors have used pacemakers to regulate the heart. Now they're implanting similar devices into the brain. Thousands of patients with the most serious cases of Parkinson's disease and epilepsy have received the devices since they obtained approval in 1997 from the Food and Drug Administration. Hundreds more are slated to take part in clinical trials to see if the pacemakers' electrical impulses can control chronic pain, depression and even obesity. In America, over 1.2 million people suffering from depression have found that traditional medications don't work for them, say makers of the device. About 250,000 epileptics are in the same situation, as are nearly 100,000 sufferers of Parkinson's disease. Copyright © 2001 Wired Digital Inc., a Lycos Network site. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Depression; Parkinsons
Link ID: 493 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Problems with maths linked to early birth
BY DAVID CHARTER, HEALTH CORRESPONDENT CHILDREN who are poor at sums have less grey matter in one area of the brain than their more accomplished colleagues. The smaller lobe at the back of the brain may be the result of premature birth that stunted growth, researchers believe. Adolescents who were very premature babies, weighing less than 3lb 3oz, were examined for their mathematical ability and brain size by researchers at the Institute of Child Health in London. All had difficulties with adding, subtracting and other basic calculation tasks, but otherwise had normal intelligence and neurological function. Copyright 2001 Times Newspapers Ltd.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 492 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Does Chromosome 4 Hold the Secret to Human Longevity?
By comparing the DNA of siblings who are extremely long-lived, researchers believe they have found a region on chromosome 4 that may hold an important clue to understanding human longevity. According to the researchers, their finding is "highly suggestive" that somewhere in the hundreds of genes in that region of chromosome 4 is a gene or genes whose subtle modifications can give a person a better chance of living well beyond the average life expectancy. The researchers believe that additional genetic analyses of nonagenarians and centenarians will lead to the identification of a few genes that confer longevity in humans. ©2001 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Alzheimers; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 491 - Posted: 10.20.2001

HYPNOSIS MAY GIVE FALSE CONFIDENCE IN INACCURATE MEMORIES
SAN FRANCISCO - A new study suggests that hypnosis doesn't help people recall events more accurately - but it does tend to make people more confident of their inaccurate memories. Researchers asked college students, including some who were under hypnosis, to give the dates of 20 national and international news events from the past 11 years. Those who were hypnotized were no more accurate than others in choosing the correct dates. However, those who were hypnotized were more reluctant to change their answers when they were told they might be wrong.

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 487 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Virtual injury catches the brain's halves competing for attention.
JOHN WHITFIELD Knocking out one half of the brain can boost the performance of the other, researchers creating virtual brain injuries have found1. The finding supports the idea that mental activity is a tussle between the brain's many different areas. It also illustrates how virtual brain injuries might allow neurologists to study a whole variety of disorders without relying on the haphazard effects of accidents or strokes. Still in its infancy, the technique also offers new ways to investigate healthy minds. Claus Hilgetag, of Boston University, and his colleagues fired focused magnetic pulses through healthy subjects' skulls for 10 minutes to induce 'hemispatial neglect'. This condition, involving damage to one side of the brain, leaves patients unaware of objects in the opposite half of their visual field (which sends messages to the damaged half of the brain). 1.Hilgetag, C. C. Theoret, H. & Pascual-Leone, A Enhanced visual spatial attention ipsilateral to rTMS-induced 'virtual lesions' of human parietal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 4, 953 - 957, (2001). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Laterality; Attention
Link ID: 486 - Posted: 10.20.2001

UCLA scientists have found a small group of brain cells from which they believe breathing originates. The discovery could lead to better treatment of such problems as sleep apnea and sudden infant death syndrome, researchers say. In a previous study, the University of California, Los Angeles, team had pinpointed a specific region of brain tissue called the preBotzinger Complex as the command post for controlling breathing in mammals. Now, within the region, they distinguished a small group of neurons responsible for issuing the commands that generate breathing. Their finding appear in the September issue of Nature Neuroscience.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 484 - Posted: 10.20.2001

20/20 lenses coat body of sea creature
Charlotte Schubert Look closely enough at the arms of the brittlestar, a starfish relative, and you'd see that those arms are looking right back at you. Each one is coated with perfect lenses that focus light onto a nerve bundle, researchers report in the Aug. 23 Nature. Made of skeletal material, these lens structures rival recent engineering advances in microlens arrays. "To find them [microlens arrays] in nature is absolutely astonishing," says physicist Roy Sambles of the University of Exeter in England. Joanna Aizenberg of Lucent Technologies' Bell Labs in Murray Hill, N.J., and her colleagues discovered the lenses while studying the architecture of the transparent calcite skeletons that protect brittlestars. In some species, the team found "an incredible array of spherical structures" on the animals' skeleton, says Aizenberg. Aizenberg, J., et al. 2001. Calcitic microlenses as part of the photoreceptor system in brittlestars. Nature 412(Aug. 23):819. From Science News, Vol. 160, No. 8, Aug. 25, 2001, p. 116. Copyright ©2001 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Vision; Evolution
Link ID: 482 - Posted: 10.20.2001

THE EYE'S PHOTORECEPTORS CAN QUICKLY REALIGN TOWARDS LIGHT, MUCH LIKE PLANTS
Like a field of sunflowers nodding toward the sun, photoreceptors - the light-sensitive cells in the retina of the eye - can apparently swiftly reorient themselves towards the brightest points of light after cataract surgery, according to a research paper published today in Nature. The research findings, presented in the "Realignment of Cones After Cataract Removal," by University of California, San Diego psychologists Harvey Smallman and Don MacLeod and Dartmouth mathematician Peter Doyle, represent the strongest evidence to date that photoreceptors have this reorienting capability. According to Smallman, the lead author who is also a senior scientist at the San Diego-based Pacific Science and Engineering Group, the findings are based on a unique case study of Peter Doyle, who for 40 years lived with asymmetrical congenital cataracts until age 43, when he decided to have them removed. Copyright ©2001 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 480 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Breakthrough mouse model for Alzheimer's more like human disease
In a breakthough with important implications for research on Alzheimer's disease (AD), scientists at the Mayo Clinic Jacksonville (FL) have developed a new mouse model that more closely resembles the disease as it appears in humans. The new "double transgenic" mouse, the first to include both the brain plaques and tangles associated with AD, is expected to contribute considerably to knowledge about the course of the disease and will help in further development and testing of potential therapies. The research, supported by the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), is reported in the August 24, 2001, issue of Science by Michael Hutton, Ph.D., Dennis Dickson, M.D., Jada Lewis, Ph.D., Shu-Hui Yen, Ph.D., and Eileen McGowan, Ph.D. of Mayo Jacksonville.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 479 - Posted: 10.20.2001

SOCIAL STRESS MAY TRIGGER PROBLEMS IN IMMUNE SYSTEM
COLUMBUS, Ohio - Certain social interactions may weaken the immune system to the point it can't control inflammation, new research suggests. In turn, the inflammation may cause irreversible organ and tissue damage. In a new study, socially stressed mice were twice as likely to die after exposure to a compound that triggered an infection-like response as were physically stressed mice. "The stress somehow triggered an abnormal immune response to a bacterial toxin," said John Sheridan, a study co-author and a professor of molecular virology at Ohio State University.

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 478 - Posted: 10.20.2001

How Brain Cells "Remember" their Birth Order
While teasing out the molecular signals that govern neural development in fruit flies, researchers have discovered how brain cells "remember" the order in which they are "born" from precursor stem cells. This type of molecular memory appears to determine the specific cell type the newly born cells will become and influences where in the developing brain those cells will reside permanently. In an article published in the August 24, 2001, issue of the journal Cell, Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Chris Q. Doe and colleagues at the University of Oregon reported that Drosophila neural precursor cells, called neuroblasts, sequentially activate four different transcription factors. Transcription factors are proteins that activate or repress the expression of genes. ©2001 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 477 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Genetic basis for panic attacks revealed
Philip Cohen and Michael Le Page The genetic basis for most panic attacks and other devastating anxiety disorders has been discovered. The breakthrough could make it possible to develop drugs that help people conquer their fears. "It looks like they have found an entirely new mechanism of disease," says Raymond Crowe, a psychiatrist at the University of Iowa who studies the genetics of panic disorder. "It's a very important finding." According to some estimates, more than 10 per cent of people suffer from some form of anxiety disorder. Xavier Estivill's team at the Centre for Medical and Molecular Biology in Barcelona was studying families with a history of problems such as panic disorders, agoraphobia (fear of public places) and social phobia.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior; Emotions
Link ID: 476 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Eyes in their stars Engineers envy brittlestar bones' built-in lenses.
JOHN WHITFIELD A relative of the starfish and sea urchin has turned its skeleton into an all-seeing eye. Near-perfect microscopic lenses in brittlestars' bones are more sophisticated than anything humans can produce, say engineers keen to copy the trick. Plastic microlenses, inferior to those on the brittlestars, control signals in optical fibres and enhance some displays. They may one day be used in optical computers that process light, rather than electricity. 1.Aizenberg, J., Tkachenko, A., Weiner, S., Addadi, L. & Hendler, G.Calcitic microlenses as part of the photoreceptor system in brittlestars. Nature, 412, 819 - 822, (2001). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Vision; Evolution
Link ID: 475 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Unique hormone provides physical and emotional relief for women with severe PMS Results from a double-blind, placebo-controlled study published in the current issue of the Journal of Women's Health and Gender-Based Medicine show that the combination of the progestin drospirenone with the estrogen ethinyl estradiol contained in the oral contraceptive Yasmin may be beneficial in treating premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a severe form of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) that affects more than 3 million U.S. women. This study was sponsored by Berlex Laboratories Inc., which makes Yasmin.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 474 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Brain trauma may increase the risk of Alzheimer's disease
New research published in the online journal BMC Neurology suggests that brain injury leads to an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. This is the first study to use autopsy brain material to study the connection between traumatic brain injury and Alzheimer's and confirms similar findings gained from clinical studies. Kurt Jellinger and colleagues from the Institute of Clinical Neurobiology in Vienna examined brain tissue from two collections. The first collection contained tissue from 58 individuals who had suffered from brain injury and the second from 57 Alzheimer's sufferers. Analysis of the injured brain tissue showed higher levels of Alzheimer's disease than seen in the general population. © 1999-2001 BioMed Central Ltd

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 473 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Brain drain
THE inevitable memory loss that comes with age is more like a long, slippery slide than falling off a cliff, according to a psychologist at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. She has found that our performance in a wide variety of memory tasks deteriorates steadily from our mid-20s. Denise Park selected 350 volunteers, ranging from 20-somethings to octogenarians. They sat 11 tests on visual, spatial, verbal, and other types of memory. She found that performance in all the tests decreased steadily with age-the decline in performance between the 70s and 80s age groups, for example, was the same as that between the 20s and 30s. The findings, which Park will present at the American Psychological Association's annual meeting in San Francisco next week, run counter to the popular notion that mental abilities decline sharply after a particular age. Author: Greg Miller New Scientist issue: 25th August 2001 http://www.newscientist.com

Keyword: Learning & Memory; Alzheimers
Link ID: 472 - Posted: 10.20.2001

NEURONS IMPLANTED IN STROKE-DAMAGED BRAIN TISSUE SHOW FUNCTION, SAY UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH RESEARCHERS
PITTSBURGH, – An imaging study of neurons implanted in damaged areas of the brains of stroke patients in the hopes of restoring function has shown the first signs of cellular growth, say University of Pittsburgh researchers. Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans taken six months after surgery to implant LBS-neurons showed a greater than 10 percent increase in metabolic activity in the damaged parts of some patients' brains compared to scans taken just a week prior to surgery. The increased metabolism corresponds with better performance on standardized stroke tests for behavioral and motor function. The study was funded by Layton BioScience Inc. © 2001 UPMC Health System

Keyword: Regeneration; Stem Cells
Link ID: 471 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Patrick Wall Dies at 76; British Authority on Pain
Dr. Patrick Wall, a British neurophysiologist and educator whose research centered on the nature of pain, died on Aug. 8. He was 76. The cause was prostate cancer, according to British press reports. Dr. Wall, of London, was among the first to undertake a systematic study of the mechanisms of pain. He tackled the subject in several books and more than 400 articles that appeared in journals of neurology and general science, Brain and Nature, among others. Like other researchers, he was curious about the lack of a direct correlation between the actual tissue injury and the intensity of the pain that results. This led him and a longtime associate, Dr. Ronald Melzack, to postulate what they called a "gate control system" in the spinal cord. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company |

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 469 - Posted: 10.20.2001