by Nic Fleming AS GENERATIONS of men with two left feet have learned to their cost, having the dance floor prowess of Mr Bean is no help in the mating game. To make matters worse for the terminally uncoordinated, it now looks as if women are right to go for men who can strut their stuff like John Travolta or Patrick Swayze - as they are more likely to be strong and to produce healthy offspring. Nadine Hugill and Bernhard Fink of the University of Göttingen in Germany found that men whose dancing was rated as attractive and assertive by women were physically stronger than those whose moves were dismissed as below par. "We already know women use static cues such as facial and bodily characteristicsMovie Camera in their assessments of men," says Fink. "This study shows that dynamic cues such as dancing ability might also be used to assess male quality in terms of strength and dominance - traits which eventually signal status." The researchers recorded video clips of 40 heterosexual male students dancing to the drum track of the Robbie Williams song Let Me Entertain You. Participants wore white overalls, and a blurring filter was used to disguise information about their clothing, as well as face and body shape. Hand grip strength was measured using a dynamometer. Twenty-five female students viewed the muted videos and rated the attractiveness of the dancers, while another 25 rated their assertiveness. Even after controlling for body weight, there were strong correlations between strength scores and both perceived attractiveness and assertiveness. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 13038 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Emily Anthes We take it for granted that certain aspects of our social behavior—whether we chat easily with strangers at a party, for instance, or prefer to be a wallflower—are influenced by genetics. But now researchers at the University of California, San Diego, and Harvard University have shown that genes have a much broader sway, affecting the kinds of social networks people form and the positions they occupy in them. James Fowler, a political scientist at U.C.S.D., and his colleagues studied the social networks of 1,110 adolescent fraternal and identical twins. They found that three aspects of the twins’ social networks appeared to be shaped by genetics. How many times each teen was named by others as a friend and how likely each youth’s friends were to know one another were both approximately 50 percent related to genetic factors. Whether a teen was located at the center of a network or toward the edge was about 30 percent genetic. “We have innate characteristics that give us a tendency to gravitate toward one part of a network,” Fowler explains. “We vary in the tendency with which we’ll attract people as friends, and we vary in our tendency to introduce our friends to one another.” The genetic foundation uncovered in the study, he posits, is probably a broad combination of genes that are mostly linked to personality traits such as humor, generosity or extroversion. © 1996-2009 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13037 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Tatiana Falcone, MD, Erin Carlton, MS, Kathleen Franco, MD, and Damir Janigro, PhD When the solution to a clinical or scientific puzzle eludes us for more than a century, as with schizophrenia, we need new methods to examine the pathology. If we want to make an impact on the disease we must shift research paradigms and focus on the early detection, early intervention, and new avenues of treatment that address different symptoms of schizophrenia. Immunological and blood-brain barrier (BBB) abnormalities in patients with psychosis have been repeatedly noted. Hundreds of studies of schizophrenic illness in adults have documented immunological abnormalities in these patients, and an increasing number of studies have shown a link between S100b, a marker of BBB function, and schizophrenic illness (Table).1-3 In looking at the possible causes of schizophrenia, earlier studies focused on neurons. Increasing evidence now suggests that the glia, cerebral vasculature, and the BBB may be involved. Two postmortem studies reported activated glial cells in a subgroup of patients with schizophrenia.4,5 Using the marker PK11195 to label glial cells in patients with psychosis, Hirsch6 found activation throughout the cortex using positron emission tomographic accentuation in the frontal lobes. Here we present evidence linking inflammation, immunological abnormalities, BBB disruption, and neurological disorders. The BBB is a physical and metabolic barrier that regulates and protects the brain. This barrier is composed of tight junctions between endothelial cells in CNS vessels that restrict the passage of solutes. Several lines of evidence have pointed to a link between CNS problems—such as psychiatric disorders and inflammation—that occur in response to pathogens. Impairment of the BBB may be the consequence of immunopathogenic mechanisms.7 © 1996 - 2009 CMPMedica LLC

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 13036 - Posted: 06.24.2010

People with superior language skills early in life may be less likely to develop Alzheimer's disease decades later, research suggests. A team from Johns Hopkins University studied the brains of 38 Catholic nuns after death. They found those with good language skills early in life were less likely to have memory problems - even if their brains showed signs of dementia damage. The study appears online in the journal Neurology. Dementia is linked to the formation of protein plaques and nerve cell tangles in the brain. But scientists remain puzzled about why these signs of damage produce dementia symptoms in some people, but not others. The researchers focused on nuns who were part of an ongoing clinical study. They divided the women into those with memory problems and signs of dementia damage in the brain, and those whose memory was unaffected regardless of whether or not they showed signs of dementia damage. And they also analysed essays that 14 of the women wrote as they entered the convent in their late teens or early 20s, assessing them for complexity of language and grammar. The study showed that language scores were 20% higher in women without memory problems than those with signs of a malfunctioning memory. The grammar score did not show any difference between the two groups. Lead researcher Dr Juan Troncoso said: "Despite the small number of participants in this portion of the study, the finding is a fascinating one. Our results show that an intellectual ability test in the early 20s may predict the likelihood of remaining cognitively normal five or six decades later, even in the presence of a large amount of Alzheimer's disease pathology." (C)BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers; Language
Link ID: 13035 - Posted: 07.09.2009

By Linda Carroll If you listen to popular songs, you might conclude there’s no day as depressing as a Monday. But a new study shows that lyricists may have gotten it all wrong and that Wednesday is really the darkest day of the week. The study, published in Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, found that people are far more likely to kill themselves in the middle of the week than in the beginning or the end: almost 25 percent of suicides occur on Wednesdays as compared to 14 percent on Mondays or Saturdays, the two days tied for second-highest suicide rates. The study also found if you make it through Wednesday, your risk for suicide plummets by more than half the following day; Thursdays have the lowest rate, with only 11 percent of suicides. Research up until now has pointed a finger at Mondays, said the new report’s lead author, Augustine J. Kposowa, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Riverside. “Everyone talks about the Monday blues,” Kposowa added. “But if you look at more recent data, it looks like things have shifted and now it’s the middle of the week that’s the problem.” More study is needed to fully understand the findings, but researchers suspect that we may be seeing a positive impact of technology on suicide and depression. With the advent of e-mail, Internet discussion groups and text messaging, people can now stay in touch with the outside world even if they are holed up by themselves at home the entire weekend. © 2009 msnbc.com.

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 13034 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JOHN BRANCH SEDALIA, Colo. — In the middle of the night, Diane Van Deren will leave her house against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. She will cut west through the dark canyons with her running shoes and a headlamp, but without a kiwi-sized part of her right temporal lobe. She used to run away from epileptic seizures. Since brain surgery, she just runs, uninhibited by the drudgery of time and distance, undeterred by an inability to remember exactly where she is going or how to get back. “It used to be, call for help if Mom’s not back in five hours,” Van Deren said. She laughed. “That rule has been stretched. I’ve got a 24-hour window now. Isn’t that sad?” Van Deren, 49, had a lobectomy in 1997. She has become one of the world’s great ultra-runners, competing in races of attrition measuring 100 miles or more. She won last year’s Yukon Arctic Ultra 300, a trek against frigid cold, deep snow and loneliness, and was the first woman to complete the 430-mile version this year. This weekend she will run in the Hardrock 100 in Silverton, Colo. It has a total elevation gain of 33,000 feet and crosses the top of 14,048-foot Handies Peak. About 150 people will enter. About half will not finish the 100 miles within the allotted 48 hours. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Epilepsy; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 13033 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Mary Bates A great deal of scientific research is driven by a very fundamental question: What makes us human? And what are the properties of the human brain that make these talents possible? One challenge facing scientists is that answering these questions often requires the use of nonhuman animals as subjects. In fact, animal models have even proved essential when it comes to studying uniquely human talents, such as language. In 2001 Cecilia S. L. Lai and colleagues at the University of Oxford identified FOXP2 as the first gene specifically involved in speech and language development in humans. The gene was discovered when researchers began studying members of a family that exhibited severe language deficits: they struggled to speak in grammatically correct sentences and often failed to comprehend the language of others, although they demonstrated no other cognitive handicaps. A genetic analysis of the family linked these severe linguistic deficits to a mutation in the FOXP2 gene. Interestingly, the FOXP2 gene is highly conserved among vertebrates, including humans, songbirds, bats and rodents, perhaps indicating a shared function. Experimental evidence from a variety of animals suggests a general role in communication for FOXP2. For instance, mice that lack the gene produce abnormal ultrasonic vocalizations, while the expression of the gene changes in the brains of songbirds during vocal learning. Mice have been especially useful models in elucidating the role of FOXP2 in communication and fine motor development. While this might seem paradoxical (rodents don’t talk, so how can they teach us about speech?) mice have several important advantages. © 1996-2009 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Language; Hearing
Link ID: 13032 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Catherine Brahic Primates can intuitively recognise some rules of grammar, according to a study of cotton-topped tamarin monkeys (Saguinus oedipus). The findings do not mean primates can communicate using language, but they do suggest that some of the skills required to use language may be linked to very basic memory functions. One grammatical structure that is found across many languages is affixation: the addition of syllables, either at the beginning or at the end of a word, to modify its meaning. For instance, in English, the suffix "–ed" is added to verbs to make the past tense. In German, the same effect is achieved by adding the prefix "ge–" to the front of verb stems. Ansgar Endress and colleagues at Harvard University thought that, because this structure is found in so many languages, it might be linked to basic memory functions that are independent of language. If they could prove this was true, it would suggest ways that children might be learning grammatical structures. To test this, Endress and colleagues studied 14 cotton-top tamarins, which, like all other non-human primates, do not use language to communicate. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Language; Evolution
Link ID: 13031 - Posted: 06.24.2010

EVER had the feeling something is missing? If so, you're in good company. Dmitri Mendeleev did in 1869 when he noticed four gaps in his periodic table. They turned out to be the undiscovered elements scandium, gallium, technetium and germanium. Paul Dirac did in 1929 when he looked deep into the quantum-mechanical equation he had formulated to describe the electron. Besides the electron, he saw something else that looked rather like it, but different. It was only in 1932, when the electron's antimatter sibling, the positron, was sighted in cosmic rays that such a thing was found to exist. In 1971, Leon Chua had that feeling. A young electronics engineer with a penchant for mathematics at the University of California, Berkeley, he was fascinated by the fact that electronics had no rigorous mathematical foundation. So like any diligent scientist, he set about trying to derive one. And he found something missing: a fourth basic circuit element besides the standard trio of resistor, capacitor and inductor. Chua dubbed it the "memristor". The only problem was that as far as Chua or anyone else could see, memristors did not actually exist. Except that they do. Within the past couple of years, memristors have morphed from obscure jargon into one of the hottest properties in physics. They've not only been made, but their unique capabilities might revolutionise consumer electronics. More than that, though, along with completing the jigsaw of electronics, they might solve the puzzle of how nature makes that most delicate and powerful of computers - the brain. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 13030 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Michael Price Desperate to have a baby girl? It helps to be poor. That's the conclusion of a study in Rwanda, which shows that, when men marry multiple women, low-ranking wives are more likely to have daughters than sons. The findings indicate that the social ranking of human mothers can influence the sex of their offspring. In 1973, evolutionary biologists Richard Trivers and Dan Willard predicted that in many species, social and environmental factors may influence whether a female has more sons or daughters. For instance, in a polygynous species, where males mate with more than one female, males in good condition are at a reproductive advantage over less-fit males because they have more mating partners. According to the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, well-off females in these societies are better off having sons, because sons will have more chances to pass on their parents' genes. However, if moms in polygynous unions don't have many resources to invest, they're better off producing daughters, because only affluent males have multiple wives; daughters will be mated with regardless of status. Over the years, several studies have supported the Trivers-Willard hypothesis, including work in red deer, mice, and a variety of nonhuman primates. And in humans, studies of Hungarian Roma and mothers in rural Ethiopia have shown evidence of a Trivers-Willard pattern, but others looking into modern Venezuelan society and the Sudanese Bari ethnic group haven't returned the same results. Thomas Pollet, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, thinks the confusion is partly a result of researchers struggling to determine what constitutes better or worse conditions for mothers. © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 13028 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A simple supplement could help treat people with an impulse disorder that manifests in hair-tearing, say experts. Trichotillomania suffers are blighted by uncontrollable urges to pluck the hair of the scalp and even eyebrows and lashes, often to the point of baldness. Although seen as a behavioural and psychological problem, scientists are hopeful that the problem could be solved with an amino acid pill. Archives of General Psychiatry reports promising early trial findings. A group of 50 people with trichotillomania were asked to take part in a 12-week trial of the pill containing the amino acid N-acetylcysteine. The same supplement has shown promise for treating people with compulsive disorders and is thought to work on the glutamate system, the largest nerve signal transmission system in the human brain. Indeed, some studies suggest that abnormalities in the natural brain chemicals serotonin and dopamine may play a role in trichotillomania, although genes may also be involved. In the trial, half of the volunteers were given the treatment and the other half a dummy pill. After 12 weeks, patients taking the active medication had significantly greater reductions in hair-pulling symptoms than those taking placebo. Overall, 56% of patients were considered to be "much or very much improved" with N-acetylcysteine use compared with 16% taking placebo. And N-acetylcysteine compared favourably with existing treatment options. The magnitude of improvement seen in patients taking the amino acid pills was greater than that reported with other medications and was similar to that reported for cognitive behaviour therapy alone or combined with medication, such as antidepressants. (C)BBC

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 13027 - Posted: 07.09.2009

CHICAGO - Sleepless people sometimes use the Internet to get through the night. Now a small study shows promising results for insomniacs with nine weeks of Internet-based therapy. No human therapist is involved. The Internet software gives advice, even specific bedtimes, based on users' sleep diaries. Patients learn better sleep habits — like avoiding daytime naps — through stories, quizzes and games. "This is a very interactive, tailored, personalized program," said study co-author Frances Thorndike of the University of Virginia Health System, who helped design the software, called Sleep Healthy Using the Internet, or SHUTi. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here Such software could one day be a low-cost alternative for some patients, Thorndike said. And it could be the only non-drug option for people who live in areas without trained specialists, she said. Prior research has shown face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy can have long-lasting results for insomniacs without the side effects of medication. The SHUTi program is based on that style of therapy, which helps patients change thinking patterns that contribute to poor sleep. In the new study, released Monday in Archives of General Psychiatry, the researchers recruited 45 adults with moderate insomnia and randomly assigned 22 of them to try the Internet program. © 2009 The Associated Press.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 13026 - Posted: 06.24.2010

U.S. researchers say they have found a substantial link between increased levels of nitrates in the environment and in food and increased deaths from Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Type 2 diabetes. The study, published this month in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, found "strong parallels" between age-adjusted increases in the death rate from those diseases and the progressive increases in human exposure to nitrates and nitrosamines through processed and preserved foods, as well as through fertilizers. The researchers said they recognize that an increase in death rates is anticipated in higher age groups. Yet when the researchers compared mortality from Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease among 75 to 84 year olds from 1968 to 2005, they said the death rates increased much more dramatically than for cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease, which are also aging-associated. For example, in Alzheimer's patients, the death rate increased 150-fold. However, mortality rates from cerebrovascular disease in the same age group declined, even though this is a disease associated with aging as well. "We have become a nitrosamine generation," said lead researcher Dr. Suzanne de la Monte of Rhode Island Hospital. "In essence, we have moved to a diet that is rich in amines and nitrates, which lead to increased nitrosamine production," she said. "We receive increased exposure through the abundant use of nitrate-containing fertilizers for agriculture," de la Monte said. © CBC 2009

Keyword: Alzheimers; Parkinsons
Link ID: 13025 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Sandra G. Boodman The noise, an incessant loud whooshing in his left ear, was driving Roger Luchs crazy -- literally. For six months the real estate lawyer who lives in Bethesda had struggled to cope with a problem relieved only by sleep. The emergency room physician who examined him shortly after the problem surfaced in August 2000 had assured him that the noise, inaudible to everyone but Luchs, would probably clear up on its own. Three otolaryngologists had told Luchs he had tinnitus, a harmless but annoying condition typically characterized by a ringing sound, less often by the pulsating noise Luchs heard. That was not reassuring. To Luchs, then 49, the prospect of living with his own private version of "The Telltale Heart," the classic Edgar Allan Poe story about a man who cannot escape the relentless sound of a phantom beating organ, had caused him intense anxiety and depression, driving him to see a psychiatrist. All his doctors gave him the same advice: There's no cure for tinnitus, nothing else is wrong, find a way to live with it. Which is why Luchs was shocked when a Richmond ear, nose and throat specialist, after listening with a stethoscope, informed Luchs that he, too, could hear the noise, which had a much more ominous cause than simple tinnitus. © 2009 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Hearing; Stroke
Link ID: 13024 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By SARAH ARNQUIST Scientists have long observed that women tend to be pickier than men when choosing a mate. The usual explanation is evolutionary: because women have a bigger investment in reproduction — they are the ones who have to endure pregnancy, childbirth and breast-feeding — they need to hedge their bets against selecting a dud to be the father. In recent years, the emergence of speed dating has given psychologists, economists and political scientists new ways to test this and other hypotheses about mating. Because participants can be randomly assigned to groups and have no prior information about other participants, three-minute speed-dating sessions are about as close to a controlled experiment as researchers are likely to get. Now, two scientists at Northwestern University have published an experiment that challenges the evolutionary hypothesis. The study by Eli J. Finkel and Paul W. Eastwick was published last month in the journal Psychological Science.The experiment looked at speed-dating sessions to determine whether men or women were choosier. The answer, it turned out, was neither. Regardless of gender, people who were instructed to approach other daters were less selective — that is, they were more likely to ask to meet later for a date. Dr. Finkel and Mr. Eastwick write that this does not mean men were just as selective as women. But the scientists suggest that the explanation for the gap lies in social conditioning rather than evolution. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Evolution
Link ID: 13023 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JOHN CLOUD We tend to view the brain like an alien that happens to reside in the skull. We see it as unpredictable, ungovernable in ways that other organs aren't. Proper diet, exercise, no smoking — these will help prevent heart and lung disease. But diseases of the mind? They strike at will, right? You just can't keep yourself from going crazy. And yet — what if you can? The most exciting research in mental health today involves not how to treat mental illness but how to prevent it in the first place. Hundreds of studies that have appeared in just the past decade collectively suggest that the brain isn't so different from, say, the arm: it doesn't simply break on its own. In fact, many mental illnesses — even those like schizophrenia that have demonstrable genetic origins — can be stopped or at least contained before they start. This isn't wishful thinking but hard science. Earlier this year, the National Academies — an organization of experts who investigate science for the Federal Government — released a 500-page report, nearly two years in the making, on how to prevent mental, emotional and behavioral disorders. The report concludes that pre-empting such disorders requires two kinds of interventions: first, because genes play so important a role in mental illness, we need to ensure that close relatives (particularly children) of those with mental disorders have access to rigorous screening programs. Second, we must offer treatment to people who have already shown symptoms of illness (say, a tendency to brood and see the world without optimism) but don't meet the diagnostic criteria for a full-scale mental illness (in this case, depression). Neither approach is without controversy. © 2009 Time Inc.

Keyword: Depression; Schizophrenia
Link ID: 13022 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By BENEDICT CAREY The visions seem to swirl up from the brain’s sewage system at the worst possible times — during a job interview, a meeting with the boss, an apprehensive first date, an important dinner party. What if I started a food fight with these hors d’oeuvres? Mocked the host’s stammer? Cut loose with a racial slur? “That single thought is enough,” wrote Edgar Allan Poe in “The Imp of the Perverse,” an essay on unwanted impulses. “The impulse increases to a wish, the wish to a desire, the desire to an uncontrollable longing.” He added, “There is no passion in nature so demoniacally impatient, as that of him who, shuddering upon the edge of a precipice, thus meditates a plunge.” Or meditates on the question: Am I sick? In a few cases, the answer may be yes. But a vast majority of people rarely, if ever, act on such urges, and their susceptibility to rude fantasies in fact reflects the workings of a normally sensitive, social brain, argues a paper published last week in the journal Science. “There are all kinds of pitfalls in social life, everywhere we look; not just errors but worst possible errors come to mind, and they come to mind easily,” said the paper’s author, Daniel M. Wegner, a psychologist at Harvard. “And having the worst thing come to mind, in some circumstances, might increase the likelihood that it will happen.” Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Emotions; Tourettes
Link ID: 13021 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Paul Sims When Martin Jones met his wife four years ago, he never imagined that one day he would get to see what she looked like. The 42-year-old builder was left blind after an accident at work more than a decade ago. But a remarkable operation - which implants part of his tooth in his eye - has now pierced his world of darkness. The procedure, performed fewer than 50 times before in Britain, uses the segment of tooth as a holder for a new lens grafted from his skin. 'The doctors took the bandages off and it was like looking through water and then I saw this figure and it was her,' he said today. 'She's wonderful and lovely. It was unbelievable to see her for the first time.' He added: 'When I found out there was a chance I would get my sight back, the first person I wanted to see was her.' Mr Jones, from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, married his wife Gill, 50, four years ago. By that time he had already spent eight years without his sight after a tub of white hot aluminium exploded in his face at work in a scrapyard. © 2009 Associated Newspapers Ltd

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 13020 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Drinking five cups of coffee a day could reverse memory problems seen in Alzheimer's disease, US scientists say. The Florida research, carried out on mice, also suggested caffeine hampered the production of the protein plaques which are the hallmark of the disease. Previous research has also suggested a protective effect from caffeine. But British experts said the Journal of Alzheimer's disease study did not mean that dementia patients should start using caffeine supplements. The 55 mice used in the University of Florida study had been bred to develop symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. First the researchers used behavioural tests to confirm the mice were exhibiting signs of memory impairment when they were aged 18 to 19 months, the equivalent to humans being about 70. Then they gave half the mice caffeine in their drinking water. The rest were given plain water. The mice were given the equivalent of five 8 oz (227 grams) cups of coffee a day - about 500 milligrams of caffeine. The researchers say this is the same as is found in two cups of "specialty" coffees such as lattes or cappuccinos from coffee shops, 14 cups of tea, or 20 soft drinks. When the mice were tested again after two months, those who were given the caffeine performed much better on tests measuring their memory and thinking skills and performed as well as mice of the same age without dementia. Those drinking plain water continued to do poorly on the tests. In addition, the brains of the mice given caffeine showed nearly a 50% reduction in levels of the beta amyloid protein, which forms destructive clumps in the brains of dementia patients. (C)BBC

Keyword: Alzheimers; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 13019 - Posted: 07.06.2009

A ground-breaking laser treatment could prevent millions of older people from going blind, experts believe. The technique helps reverse the effects of age-related macular degeneration - the leading cause of blindness in over 60s in the western world. Developed by pioneering eye expert Professor John Marshall of King's College London, the laser returns the back of the eye to its youthful state. Improvements to sight were reported in early proof of concept trials. AMD affects more than 200,000 people in the UK and attacks the central vision. It develops when a membrane at the back of the eye becomes clogged with natural waste materials produced by the light-sensitive cells, which clouds vision. In youthful eyes, enzymes clear away the debris, but as the ageing process sets in this system can fail. The painless "short pulse" laser works by boosting the release of the enzymes to clean away the waste without damaging the cells that enable us to see. Early tests proved promising in around 50 people with diabetic eye disease - chosen as a model because the problems develop faster than in AMD. Professor Marshall now plans more studies in patients already suffering from AMD in one eye with the aim of saving the sight in their better eye for as long as possible. He said once people have advanced AMD in one eye, studies show the condition usually develops in the second eye in 18 months to three years. "If you can delay the onset by three, four, six, seven or 10 years, it's proof of the principle," he said. (C)BBC

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 13018 - Posted: 07.06.2009