A 'miracle' medicine will treat a sickness that is a bigger threat than Aids, reports Peter Beaumont from Luanda The Observer It begins with a low-grade fever, pain in the joints and itchy skin. Later the patient displays the symptoms that give the disease its name - lethargy, drooping eyes, vague movement and disconnected speech. In the later stages, hallucinations and disruptive behaviour are common. Finally, the victim experiences excruciating pain, eventually lapsing into a coma before death. The disease is sleeping sickness, a fly-borne parasite that gradually destroys the brain and leads to death within six months. Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 467 - Posted: 11.06.2001

By Joyce Burland
For people with mental illness and their families, Freudian psychology has been a catastrophic deterrent to society's understanding of serious brain disorders, and it has postponed our human rights for a century. This should never have happened. Back in 1900, a new scientific era of biological discovery about brain disorders seemed imminent. German neurologist Alois Alzheimer (1864-1915) had located the "senile plaques" and "neuro-fibrillary tangles" related to the disease that was eventually to bear his name. The founder of modern scientific psychiatry, Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926), had assembled a world-class group of neurologists in Munich to study the brain. There was widespread medical consensus that the diseases we now call schizophrenia, manic depression and major depression were organically based, and that the new field of neuropsychiatry would offer greater understanding and more effective treatments. But that bright promise was hijacked -- shanghaied by the American psychiatric profession itself, which repudiated the biological basis of mental illness and replaced it with Freudian personality theory. © 2001 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 466 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Vaccination Following Spinal Cord Injury: Innovative Approach Limits Paralysis
Weizmann Institute scientists propose an innovative approach for preventing complete paralysis after partial spinal cord injury. The approach consists of boosting the body's natural immune mechanisms to improve the outcome of trauma. The team of Prof. Michal Schwartz of the Weizmann Institute's Neurobiology Department has in the past already developed one immune-based therapy for the spinal cord, currently tested in humans by Proneuron Biotechnologies Ltd. That therapy is aimed at repairing the spinal cord after a complete injury. The new approach pursues a related but different therapeutic target: to limit degeneration after a partial spinal cord injury. The scientists report their latest results in the August 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 465 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Scientists find a way to block prions that cause mad cow disease
La Jolla, CA, August 16, 2001 -- Scientists working at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and at the University of California, San Francisco, have published a paper in the current issue of the scientific journal Nature that describes an antibody that clears prion infection in cell culture. This finding may point the way to a treatment for mad cow disease and its human equivalent. "[The antibody] stops the whole process," says Professor Dennis R. Burton, Ph.D. Prion infections are known to cause bovine spongiform encephalopathy, or mad cow disease, and one form of the same disease in humans, called variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. BSE itself is believed to have originated from a sheep form of the disease called scrapie.

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 460 - Posted: 10.20.2001

No stemming the tide Adult skin and brain stem cells flesh out debate.
HELEN PEARSON The stem-cell furore rumbles on. Hot on the heels of US President George W. Bush's decision to allow limited human embryonic stem cell research come two advances in capturing stem cells from adult brain and skin1,2. Yet the true potential of these cells in tissue repair remains unclear. Blood, brain, fat, skin - stem cells from the fringes of the adult body hit the headlines weekly, with the tantalizing promise of tissue repair. But only rigorous comparisons of these diverse cell types will reveal key molecules that trigger production of one cell type rather than another. References 1.Rietze, R. L. et al. Purification of a pluripotent neural stem cell from the adult mouse brain. Nature, 412, 736 - 739, (2001). 2.Toma, J. G. et al. Isolation of multipotent adult stem cells from the dermis of mammalian skin. Nature Cell Biology, 3, 778 - 784, (2001). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Regeneration; Stem Cells
Link ID: 459 - Posted: 10.20.2001

NEURON BY NEURON, PENN RESEARCHERS STUDY BRAIN CELLS' ATTEMPTS TO HEAL THEMSELVES AFTER SEVERE INJURIES
PHILADELPHIA – Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have won a $3.1 million bioengineering research grant to study brain injuries at a level of detail never before attained. The team, lead by Penn bioengineer David F. Meaney, will detect the genes and proteins altered in single neurons in the brain to better understand the cells' responses to contusions and other forms of brain trauma. The Penn team will focus initially on contusions, bruises to the brain surface that often occur with skull fractures. These injuries are often localized in regions along the surface of the brain and can result in problems with the brain's ability to process data and sensory input. Penn investigators will examine the response of individual neurons both within and alongside areas of contusion in the brain, searching for patterns of genes and associated proteins that are activated or suppressed following an injury. For each neuron studied, researchers will compare the activated genes and protein levels to the mechanical stress experienced by the neuron at the moment of injury.

Keyword: Stroke; Regeneration
Link ID: 455 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Rewarding drug users with vouchers that they exchange for food, clothing, or, as one did, a robe for singing in a church choir, was effective in keeping patients drug free and on a medication regimen, according to research at Yale University. The principal investigator of the study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Kathleen Carroll, professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, said the intent was to evaluate the best way to encourage patients addicted to opioids, among them, codeine, morphine and heroin, to take naltrexone regularly.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 454 - Posted: 10.20.2001

The medium and the message: Eyes and ears understand differently,
Carnegie Mellon scientists report in the journal Human Brain Mapping PITTSBURGH- A new study by Carnegie Mellon University scientists shows that because of the way the brain works, we understand spoken and written language differently, something that has potential implications in the workplace and in education, among many other areas. In the first imaging study that directly compares reading and listening activity in the human brain, Carnegie Mellon scientists discovered that the same information produces systematically different brain activation. And knowing what parts of the brain fire during reading or listening comprehension affects the answer to one of the classic questions about language comprehension: whether the means of delivery through eyes or ears makes a difference. "The brain constructs the message, and it does so differently for reading and listening. The pragmatic implication is that the medium is part of the message. Listening to an audio book leaves a different set of memories than reading does. A newscast heard on the radio is processed differently from the same words read in a newspaper,"

Keyword: Language; Dyslexia
Link ID: 453 - Posted: 10.20.2001

As orientated as a newt Newts may use the Earth's magnetic field as a map.
JOHN WHITFIELD Wandering newts know where they are by sensing variations in the Earth's magnetic field, suggests new research1. Whether animals use magnetic maps has long been controversial - evidence that they do is "groundbreaking", claim the study's authors. Armed with a compass, you can use the Earth's magnetic field to work out which way to go. Because the field's contours and intensity vary across the planet's surface, you can also, in theory, figure out where you are. For example, the field is more steeply angled closer to the poles. 1.Fischer, J. H., Freake, M. J., Borland, S. C. & Phillips, J. B.Evidence for the use of magnetic map information by an amphibian. Animal Behaviour, 62, 1 - 10, (2001). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: None
Link ID: 451 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Trial drugs for Huntington's Disease inconclusive in slowing disease
A large-scale clinical trial that tested the ability of the investigational drugs remacemide and Coenzyme Q10 to slow the progression of Huntington's disease showed that neither drug resulted in any significant improvement for the patients. Although after one year of treatment, the disease seemed to progress more slowly in patients treated with Coenzyme Q10, the investigators say that overall the results are inconclusive as to whether there is real benefit from this drug. The study is published in the August 14, 2001, issue of Neurology.* "A Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Coenzyme Q10 and Remacemide in Huntington's Disease (CARE-HD);" Huntington Study Group; Neurology Aug. 14, 2001; 57: 397

Keyword: Huntingtons
Link ID: 450 - Posted: 10.20.2001

One of the problems of the aged is getting a good night's sleep. Often, the elderly sleep fitfully through the night only to be overcome by drowsiness during the day and nodding off then. A general feeling of tiredness and irritability goes hand-in-hand with this condition. Now a biologist at Washington University in St. Louis and colleagues from France and the University of Virginia have found this problem may be traced to a faulty biological clock - at least in aged rats. Erik Herzog, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology at Washington University, examined cells involved in the generation of circadian rhythms - the 24-hour cycles in things like alertness and hormone levels. In collaboration with Fabienne Aujard, D.V.M., Ph.D., of France's Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and Gene Block, Ph.D., professor of biology at the University of Virginia, Herzog found that the electrical activity of the clock cells in aged rats was not regular compared with that of young and middle-aged rats.

Keyword: Sleep; Alzheimers
Link ID: 449 - Posted: 11.06.2001

Researchers in Spain have isolated for the first time a by-product of the illicit drug Ecstasy that is believed to cause some of the brain damage associated with the drug. They believe their finding will help them measure, with greater precision, the long-term neurotoxicity of Ecstasy in human users. The report will be published in the September issue of Chemical Research in Toxicology, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society. The findings may corroborate speculation that HHMA (3,4 dihydroxymethamphetamine), is at least partially responsible for Ecstasy's harm to the human brain.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 448 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Doctors Test Therapy for a Brain Malady
By SANDRA BLAKESLEE Two patients with forms of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, one of which was contracted from eating infected beef, have been treated at a San Francisco hospital with an obsolete malaria drug that doctors hope will alleviate the fatal brain malady. The drug, quinacrine, was widely used during World War II to treat malarial infections of the brain, but was replaced by newer drugs. When researchers found in a random screening process that the drug killed mouse cells infected with the agent that causes mad cow disease, they decided to test it quickly in people. A clinical trial is scheduled to begin in the fall. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 446 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Left in music Musicians' brains may use language modules listening to music.
ERICA KLARREICH At a performance of Beethoven's Fifth, you could tell which audience members were musicians - if you happened to be carrying a brain scanner. Professional musicians use their left brain more than other people when listening to music, a magnetic-resonance study suggests1. Musicians, unlike others, may process music much as a language, the result hints. When played a recording of Bach's Italian Concerto, all the study's 28 subjects showed activity in the planum temporale, part of the temporal lobe above the ear canal that is thought to be responsible for many auditory tasks. Non-musicians' brain activity was concentrated in the right side of the planum temporale, but in musicians the left side dominated. 1.Ohnishi, T. et al.Functional anatomy of musical perception in musicians. Cerebral Cortex, 11, 754 - 760, (2001). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Keyword: Hearing; Brain imaging
Link ID: 443 - Posted: 10.20.2001

By BARRY MEIER
The maker of the widely abused narcotic painkiller OxyContin knew that other companies had used a chemical safeguard to reduce misuse of their products but decided not to take similar steps before marketing the drug, company officials said yesterday. Officials of the manufacturer, Purdue Pharma, said in statements over the weekend that they had not expected abusers to crush the powerful drug and then inject or snort it so they had not initially considered adding a compound that blocks the drug's narcotic effect when it is taken those ways. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Pain & Touch
Link ID: 441 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Stem cell research is vital to finding cures for blinding diseases
BOSTON - Stem cell research, which holds promise for treatments of a wide variety of diseases, is just as promising for curing some forms of blindness, vision scientists say. In diseases of both the retina – the back of the eye – and the cornea – the front of the eye – stem cells derived from adult or postnatal animals show remarkable ability to replace damaged cells that may be the cause of visual impairment.

Keyword: Stem Cells; Vision
Link ID: 435 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists hope to raise the neural curtain on sleep's virtual theater Bruce Bower After his father's death in 1896, Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud made a momentous career change. He decided to study the mind instead of the brain. Freud began by probing his own mind. Intrigued by his conflicted feelings toward his late father, the scientist analyzed his own dreams, slips of the tongue, childhood memories, and episodes of forgetfulness. Freud's efforts culminated in the 1900 publication of The Interpretation of Dreams. In that book, he depicted dreams as symbolic stories in which sleepers' unconscious sexual and aggressive desires play out in disguised forms. From Science News, Vol. 160, No. 6, Aug. 11, 2001, p. 90. Copyright ©2001 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 433 - Posted: 11.06.2001

Researchers from disparate fields find female menstrual hormones influence much more than reproduction
By Karen Young Kreeger
Ask a woman if her period affects her body beyond the reproductive system and she'll probably answer with a resounding yes. This seemingly basic question is now being asked by numerous investigators in various areas of women's health research. From the timing of mammograms to the mind-altering effects of drugs, researchers are now learning that the hormonal swings during a woman's menstrual cycle affect more than just reproduction, like metabolism rates and pain. A woman's menstrual cycle starts when menses flow begins, is followed by the follicular phase when estrogen rises and peaks at ovulation mid-cycle, then ends with the luteal phase when progesterone dominates. Until recently, researchers didn't include women in significant numbers in clinical trials, let alone consider the effects of menstrual cycles on female health.1 Several pieces of history combine to explain this lack of attention, says John M. Johnson, a physiology professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, who studies hormonal effects on body temperature regulation. "One is the overall assumption that reproductive hormones had to do with reproduction, period, until it became obvious that these hormones have global effects." The Scientist 15[15]:20, Jul. 23, 2001 © Copyright 2001, The Scientist, Inc. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 431 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Evidence for chaos in the neocortex, the most complex brain structure specific to humans and other mammals, has been obtained in a model by researchers in Australia (David Liley, Swinburne University of Technology, 011-61-3-9214-8812, dliley@swin.edu.au). Chaos in the brain would manifest itself as unpredictable and seemingly random electrical activity in a population of nerve cells, or neurons. Chaos may have an important neurological function: it could provide, as researchers have speculated, a flexible and rapid means for the brain to discriminate between different sounds, odors, and other perceptual stimuli.

Keyword: None
Link ID: 430 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Neuroscientists at Jefferson Medical College have clarified how the human eye uses light to regulate melatonin production, and in turn, the body's biological clock. They have discovered what appears to be a fifth human "photoreceptor," and which is the main one to regulate the biological – and non-visual – effects of light on the body. They have identified a novel photopigment in the human eye responsible for reacting to light and controlling the production of melatonin, which plays an important role in the body's circadian rhythms. They also discovered that wavelengths of light in the blue region of the visible spectrum are the most effective in controlling melatonin production. ©2001 Thomas Jefferson University Hospital

Keyword: Biological Rhythms; Vision
Link ID: 429 - Posted: 06.24.2010