By HENRY FOUNTAIN Is a caged mink a happy mink? Those who raise the animals for their pelts would probably argue yes, that in their cages they have the necessities: food, drink and a nesting place. Animal welfare advocates would no doubt argue no, that a caged mink is deprived of many activities it normally would do in the wild. One thing appears certain, to judge from new research by zoologists at the University of Oxford in England: minks are frustrated. They would rather be swimming. ... Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 219 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Sonic boom in oligodendrogenesis Heather Wood The signalling protein sonic hedgehog ( Shh) is pivotal to many aspects of vertebrate neural development, including dorsoventral patterning and specification of motor neurons and ventral interneurons. In the spinal cord, Shh also specifies oligodendrocytes, and Nery et al. have questioned whether it might have a similar role in the brain. As they report in Development, there is now evidence that Shh promotes oligodendrogenesis in the mammalian telencephalon. References and links ORIGINAL RESEARCH PAPER Nery , S. et al. Sonic hedgehog contributes to oligodendrocyte specification in the mammalian forebrain. Development 128, 527­540 ( 2001) PubMed FURTHER READING Rogister, B. et al. From neural stem cells to myelinating oligodendrocytes. Mol. Cell. Neurosci. 14, 287­300 (1999) PubMed WEB SITE Gordon Fishell's lab ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LIFE SCIENCES Neuronal subtype identity regulation Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2001 Registered No. 785998 England

Keyword: Glia
Link ID: 218 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Researchers Unscramble Nerve Cell Growth Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer Sunday, March 11, 2001 Nerve cells in a developing embryo have to travel great distances to reach their final destination. And like Odysseus on his way home, the neurons must contend with all sorts of hazards along the way, not least of which is the temptation to stay put at some very attractive way stations. Now, scientists have woven an epic tale of neuronal migration by showing how immature nerve cells manage to withstand the very lures that guide them on their way. ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page A - 3

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 217 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Sedentary Off-hours Link to Alzheimer's Nathan Seppa The cause of Alzheimer's disease is unknown, but various studies suggest that its risk factors extend beyond genetics. Some studies have associated the disease with a dearth of physical activity. Others have linked Alzheimer's disease to a lack of stimulating brainwork-fitting a use-it-or-lose-it scenario of cognitive decline. A new study bolsters the view that both kinds of inactivity pose risks. People who have the memory loss, confusion, and disorientation of Alzheimer's disease in old age were generally less active physically and intellectually between the ages of 20 and 60 than were people who don't have the disease, according to study coauthor Robert P. Friedland, a neurologist at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, and his colleagues. From Science News, Vol. 159, No. 10, Mar. 10, 2001, p. 148. Copyright © 2001 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 215 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Scientists Discover Memory-Enhancing Switch March 9, 2001- Scientists have genetically engineered mice with enhanced memory that persists until researchers switch it off by removing a drug that controls a gene that encodes a key memory-governing enzyme. With enhanced memory, the mice perform better on memory tests and then revert to normal when the drug is removed. The achievement, say the researchers who developed the mouse model, offers important insights into the delicate molecular balance by which memory storage is achieved. Although memory-boosting drugs are a long way off, the researchers believe that the work opens new avenues for understanding the molecular basis of memory. ©2001 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 213 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Growing Neurons Use Silencing Mechanism to Avoid Disastrous Tug-of-War March 9, 2001- Just as traffic signals switch off the red light when the green light comes on, the tips of growing nerve cells protect themselves from being led astray by switching off their sensitivity to an attractant protein when activating sensitivity to a repellent protein. This interlocking fail-safe mechanism might be a basic strategy used throughout the central nervous system to avoid the disastrous consequences of a tug-of-war between signals that attract and repel neurons. The discovery might also help explain why spinal cord neurons cannot be easily induced to regenerate after injury, said the researchers. The discovery was reported by Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator Marc Tessier-Lavigne and lead author Elke Stein in the March 9, 2001, issue of the journal Science. ©2001 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 212 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Parkinson's Research Is Set Back by Failure of Fetal Cell Implants By GINA KOLATA A carefully controlled study that tried to treat Parkinson's disease by implanting cells from aborted fetuses into patients' brains not only failed to show an overall benefit but also revealed a disastrous side effect, scientists report. In about 15 percent of patients, the cells apparently grew too well, churning out so much of a chemical that controls movement that the patients writhed and jerked uncontrollably. The researchers say that while some patients have similar effects from taking too high a dose of their Parkinson's drug, in this case the drugs did not cause the symptoms and there is no way to remove or deactivate the transplanted cells. On the researchers' advice, six patients who enrolled in the study but who had not yet had the implantation operation have decided to forgo it. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 211 - Posted: 10.20.2001

The sweet smell of defence JOHN WHITFIELD If the perfume industry hopes to concoct a universal knock-'em-dead scent, it should think again. New research suggests that a person's taste in perfume is as individual as the genetics of her or his immune system. Manfred Milinski and Claus Wedekind, of Bern University, Switzerland, have found that the way a person would like to smell reflects the make-up of their 'major histocompatability complex' (MHC) - a part of the genome involved in sexual attraction and in the body's defence against disease1. Instead of being an attempt to mask body odour, preferred perfumes might amplify certain aspects of it, alerting compatible mates and giving a general impression of health. Milinski and Wedekind measured men and women's responses to 36 different scents, including old favourites such as myrrh, jasmine and vanilla. The 137 respondents, whose MHC genes fell into nine different groups, were asked how much they would like to use a perfume or aftershave that contained each ingredient, and also whether they would find the scent attractive on a potential mate. 1. Milinski, M. & Wedekind, C. Evidence for MHC-correlated perfume preferences in humans. Behavioural Ecology 12, 140-149 (2001). 2.Wedekind, C., Seebeck, T., Bettens, F. & Paepke, A. J. MHC-dependent mate preferences in humans. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 260, 245-249 (1995). © Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001 - NATURE NEWS SERVICE Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2001 Reg. No. 785998 England.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 210 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Cause of Autism Rise in Doubt California study further undermines theory that vaccine is at fault Ulysses Torassa, Chronicle Medical Writer Wednesday, March 7, 2001 A new study from the California Department of Health Services is casting further doubt on claims of a link between a common childhood vaccine and rising cases of autism. Using statistical analysis, researchers say they found no correlation between the use of the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and the dramatic rise in autism in California since the early 1980s. Cases of the neurological and developmental disorder have been increasing in the United States and several other countries over the past two decades, accelerating in the 1990s. Experts don't know why, but speculation has included everything from a broadening definition of the disease to environmental factors. E-mail Ulysses Torassa at utorassa@sfchronicle.com. ©2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page A - 8

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 209 - Posted: 10.20.2001

By BARRY MEIER and MELODY PETERSEN
Dr. Peter Leong recalls the day when he finally snapped at a drug company salesman pressing him to prescribe a powerful narcotic painkiller called OxyContin. The drug's producer, Purdue Pharma, had already failed to persuade Dr. Leong with repeated offers of free weekend trips to Florida to discuss pain management. But when the salesman suggested that OxyContin - which is as potent as morphine - was safe enough to treat short-term pain, Dr. Leong exploded. "We threw him out of my office," said Dr. Leong, who runs a pain clinic in Bangor, Me. He thinks OxyContin is potentially too dangerous to use for anything but chronic, severe pain. "OxyContin is a good drug," he said. "But the problem was, they were pushing it for everything." If Dr. Leong was not a convert, many others were. In a little over four years, OxyContin's sales have hit $1 billion, more than even Viagra's. Although the drug has helped thousands of people in pain, its success has come at a considerable cost. An official of the Drug Enforcement Administration said no other prescription drug in the last 20 years had been illegally abused by so many people so soon after it appeared. Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 208 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Running Boosts Brain Cell Numbers in Neurodegenerative Disease Model LA JOLLA, CALIF. - Scientists at The Salk Institute have shown that running can boost brain cell survival in animals with neurodegenerative disease. "The results suggest that exercise might delay the onset and progression of some neurodegenerative diseases," said Carrolee Barlow, a Salk assistant professor and lead author of the study, published in the current issue of Genes and Development. It also appears that the miles logged correlate directly with the numbers of increased cells. In the study, the Salk team monitored the number of revolutions each mouse lapped on a running wheel placed in its cage. "It's almost as if they were wearing pedometers," said Barlow. "And those that ran more grew more cells." The mice in the study were missing a gene, Atm, known to be mutated in the disorder Ataxia-telangiectasia, commonly referred to as A-T.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 207 - Posted: 10.20.2001

The Flip Side of Fat SAN FRANCISCO--Research aimed at battling obesity may also help patients who need to gain weight but can't. A new study has shown that targeting a brain pathway that holds promise for obese people could also fight the devastating weight loss seen in some patients suffering from cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and AIDS. Those patients' bony limbs and ghostly faces are caused by a combination of increased metabolism and decreased appetite, resulting in a rapid breakdown of body fat and muscle protein. This condition--which goes by the little-known name of cachexia--is a serious medical problem itself: It weakens patients, undermines their ability to be treated, and often hastens their death. To prevent this, researchers are looking at the many molecules involved in body weight regulation that they have discovered over the past 7 years (Science, 10 March 2000, p. 1738). --MARTIN ENSERINK Copyright © 2001 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 206 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Estrogen is famous for its role in regulating sexual development and infamous for its role in breast cancer. Now, it appears that the hormone also encourages neurons to hook up with their neighbors in a part of the adult rat brain called the hippocampus, known primarily as a site for memory and learning. The finding may ultimately help explain these functions in humans, and it could clarify the role of estrogen in some kinds of epilepsy. The roots of memory, learning, and neurological problems such as epilepsy lie in the chatter of neurons. After a neuron picks up a signal, the message travels to the body of the neuron via a tendril-like projection known as a spine. Once the signal is processed, it may be sent down a longer projection to spines on a neighboring neuron. Several years ago, neurobiologist Catherine Woolley of Northwestern University and her colleagues showed that estrogen increases the number of spines on specific cells in the hippocampus and the connections between them. But did these new spines merely strengthen existing communication channels or form new ones? --ELIZABETH MCKENNA Copyright © 2001 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior
Link ID: 205 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Simian Stress Lessons When life is good, they create their own problems, researchers find Carl T. Hall, Chronicle Science Writer Monday, February 26, 2001 In a remarkable convergence of baboons, behavior and biochemistry, scientists are piecing together the complex puzzle of how stress really can be hazardous to your health. Stress in all its varied guises has been blamed for so much, for so long, and in such a loose fashion, that it was becoming something of a four- letter word in serious medical circles. At the same time, nobody seriously doubts that unhealthy attitudes, family strife and socioeconomic insults really do make a difference. E-mail Carl T. Hall at carlhall@sfchronicle.com. 2001 San Francisco Chronicle Page A6

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 204 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Mind-expanding exercise SARA ABDULLA Musicians receiving physical therapy for career-destroying cramps also experience major changes in their brains. Constraint-induced movement therapy, a form of physical training developed for stroke victims, doesn't just free the fingers, it seems to expand the area of the brain devoted to the restored fingers, researchers now report. Each limb has an area of the brain from where it is controlled, called its cortical map. In focal hand dystonia, a sort of repetitive strain condition that afflicts writers and musicians - including the composer Robert Schumann - the cortical maps of individual fingers coalesce. Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001 - NATURE NEWS SERVICE Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2001 Reg. No. 785998 England.

Keyword: Stroke
Link ID: 202 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Why life is sweeter for some SARA ABDULLA Differences in our sense of taste may have major public health implications. So believes Linda Bartoshuk of Yale University School of Medicine, who has discovered that some people's hereditary sensitivity to bitter taste leads them to avoid cancer-protective fruit and vegetables such as brussel sprouts and spinach. The fully sequenced human genome will probably yield a simple blood test for taste sensitivity that could help people pay closer attention to their diets, Bartoshuk told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science this week in San Francisco. Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001 - NATURE NEWS SERVICE Nature © Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2001 Reg. No. 785998 England.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 201 - Posted: 10.20.2001

TALLAHASSEE, Fla.--Using a 150-year-old mathematical theorem, Florida State University researchers are creating cutting edge maps of the cerebellum to chart a groundbreaking new course in the study of the human brain. Monica Hurdal, a postdoctoral research associate in the mathematics department, and a team of researchers have developed a one-of-a-kind computer program that can map the human brain in ways never done before. The program is a computer realization of the Riemann Mapping Theorem, which allows a three-dimensional surface to be flattened while preserving the angular information.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 200 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Vital Brain Cell Connections Restored with Gene Therapy in Aged Monkeys Alzheimer's Patients Sought for Human Clinical Trials In new research that builds upon previous work with atrophied brain cells, UCSD School of Medicine researchers have found that essential brain fibers that shrivel up and disappear in aged monkeys can be restored to normal levels with infusion of tissue that has been genetically altered to produce nerve growth factor (NGF), a naturally occurring substance found in all vertebrate animals. Like telephone wires, these fibers, called axons, are vital for transmitting messages to and from neurons within the brain. According to the UCSD researchers, the new findings provide additional support for the potential use of gene therapy to treat loss of memory and cognitive function in Alzheimer's patients. Two patients have been enrolled in a clinical trial now underway, and another six are being recruited to evaluate this procedure in humans.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 199 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Knocking Noggins A hit to the head during a sporting event may be worse than you think. New studies scrutinized the issue on a scientific level and found that they can create changes in mental function. The research is explaining the biological implications of blows to the head and may lead to new ways to diagnose and treat them. The teams line up. The center snaps the ball. Safety blitz. Helmets clash. Many players receive a blow or jolt to the head in contact sports such as football, ice hockey, boxing and lacrosse. These hits typically are not hard enough to actually crack the head open but they can cause the brain to ricochet around in the skull - like a yolk in an eggshell. .... Copyright © 2001 Society for Neuroscience. All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without permission of the Society for Neuroscience

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 198 - Posted: 10.20.2001

Statins Take On the Brain Cholesterol-lowering drugs may also fight Alzheimer's disease By John Travis They make up one of the most often prescribed classes of pharmaceuticals. Some enthusiastic physicians call them "wonder drugs." In recent years, these cholesterol-lowering drugs, known as statins, have revolutionized the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Studies over the past decade have shown that people who have had a heart attack dramatically lower their risk of having a second one by taking statins. Recent data indicate that statins can even lower a person's chances of suffering an initial heart attack, and the drugs may also prevent strokes. As a result of these findings, statins-which go by such brand names as Lipitor and Zocor-reap enormous profits for the firms selling them. The fortunes of those companies may just keep on growing. From Science News, Vol. 159, No. 6, Feb. 10, 2001, p. 92. Copyright © 2001 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 197 - Posted: 10.20.2001