Brain News and Research

RSS

The human brain is the center of the human nervous system and is a highly complex organ. Enclosed in the cranium, it has the same general structure as the brains of other mammals, but is over three times as large as the brain of a typical mammal with an equivalent body size.

Preventive treatments can reduce migraine attacks

Research shows that many treatments can help prevent migraine in certain people, yet few people with migraine who are candidates for these preventive treatments actually use them, according to new guidelines issued by the American Academy of Neurology.

24 Apr 2012

Exercise staves off dementia in older women: Study

Older women with first signs of memory decline might ward off full-blown dementia by engaging in routine strength training according to a new study. However supervised weight-lifting seems to be working better than aerobics-based activity programs, the study found. The study was conducted with researchers from the Department of Psychology and Division of Geriatric Medicine at UBC, and Department of Psychology at the University of Iowa.

24 Apr 2012

Twins born to brain dead mother on a respirator for a month

Christine Bolden – a 26 year old woman was already brain dead from aneurysms, but doctors at a western Michigan hospital kept her on a respirator for a month to allow for the development of babies who were born prematurely at 25 weeks.

24 Apr 2012

Migraine prevention guidelines released

The latest migraine prevention guidelines will be presented at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in New Orleans and published simultaneously in the journal Neurology.

24 Apr 2012

Study: hUC-MSCs reduce inflammation that causes colitis

When laboratory mice were modeled with colitis and treated with human umbilical cord-derived mesenchymal cells, the cells homed in on the inflamed colon and effectively ameliorated colitis, reported a study published in a recent issue of Cell Transplantation.

24 Apr 2012

TopBP1 protein prevents early brain cells from DNA damage

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists have rewritten the job description of the protein TopBP1 after demonstrating that it guards early brain cells from DNA damage. Such damage might foreshadow later problems, including cancer.

24 Apr 2012

Study shows underutilization of epilepsy surgery

Ten years ago, a landmark clinical trial in Canada demonstrated the unequivocal effectiveness of brain surgeries for treating uncontrolled epilepsy, but since then the procedure has not been widely adopted-in fact, it is dramatically underutilized according to a new study from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

24 Apr 2012

HDAC6 protein may provide novel target for stress-linked disorders

A cellular protein called HDAC6, newly characterized as a gatekeeper of steroid biology in the brain, may provide a novel target for treating and preventing stress-linked disorders, such as depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), according to research from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.

24 Apr 2012

Study confirms link between smoking and reduced risk of acoustic neuroma

New research confirms an association between smoking and a reduced risk for a rare benign tumor near the brain, but the addition of smokeless tobacco to the analysis suggests nicotine is not the protective substance.

24 Apr 2012

FDA issues draft guidelines on approval process for use of nanoparticles in food and cosmetics

The United States Food and Drugs Administraton (FDA) has proposed that food companies that want to use tiny engineered particles called nanoparticles in their packaging may have to provide extra testing data to show the products are safe.

23 Apr 2012

Liver may be the key to weight regulation: Study

A team of Australian researchers have found that the liver could hold the key to treating obesity. They found that the liver plays a major role in regulating weight by communicating with the brain. The study will be published in the Journal Diabetes.

23 Apr 2012

‘Brain freeze’ provides clue to migraine cause and therapy

According to latest reports by researchers the headache that is caused by eating something cold like an ice cream, may be caused by a sudden change in brain blood flow. The U.S. team of researchers add that this study may show targets to treat other, more troubling forms of headache such as migraine.

23 Apr 2012

Brain injury in amateur boxing similar to Alzheimer´s

Olympic boxers can exhibit changes in brain fluids after bouts, which indicates nerve cell damage. This is shown in a study of 30 top-level Swedish boxers that was conducted at the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, in collaboration with the Swedish Boxing Federation, published in PLoS ONE.

23 Apr 2012

Oligomerix to advance tau protease inhibitor program with $2M Series A financing

Oligomerix, Inc., a privately held company pioneering the development of disease modifying therapeutics for Alzheimer's disease and related neurodegenerative disorders, announced today the completion of approximately $2 million in Series A financing, which includes both issuance of new convertible preferred shares and debt conversion.

23 Apr 2012

Nano-devices cross blood-brain barrier to deliver drug to treat cerebral palsy

A team of scientists from Johns Hopkins and elsewhere have developed nano-devices that successfully cross the brain-blood barrier and deliver a drug that tames brain-damaging inflammation in rabbits with cerebral palsy.

23 Apr 2012

Mod5 yeast prion contributes to cell survival under environmental stress

One of the greatest mysterious in cellular biology has been given a new twist thanks to findings reported in Science. Researchers at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute show that prions, proteins that transmit heritable information without DNA or RNA, can contribute to drug resistance and cellular adaptation. Their discovery of a yeast prion with these properties demonstrates the active role of the prion conversion in cellular fitness adaptation, providing new insights into the potentially broader function of prions in living organisms.

23 Apr 2012

Moxonidine drug can improve heart function and reduce blood pressure

Heart failure is the most common cause of death throughout the world, typically the result of chronic high blood pressure, also known as hypertension. As a result, research efforts have focused on an array of approaches aimed at preventing and treating high blood pressure. Recently, Japanese researchers examined the utility of an anti-hypertensive drug, moxonidine, which acts on the imidazoline receptors in the cardiovascular center of the brainstem.

23 Apr 2012

Study shows how cocaine changes the shape and size of neuron rewards in mouse model

New research from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York reveals that repeated exposure to cocaine decreases the activity of a protein necessary for normal functioning of the brain's reward system, thus enhancing the reward for cocaine use, which leads to addiction. Investigators were also able to block the ability of repeated cocaine exposure, to induce addiction.

23 Apr 2012

Brain freeze may share common mechanism with other types of headaches

'Brain freeze' is a nearly universal experience—almost everyone has felt the near-instantaneous headache brought on by a bite of ice cream or slurp of ice-cold soda on the upper palate. However, scientists are still at a loss to explain this phenomenon. Since migraine sufferers are more likely to experience brain freeze than people who don't have this often-debilitating condition, brain freeze may share a common mechanism with other types of headaches, including those brought on by the trauma of blast-related combat injuries in soldiers.

23 Apr 2012

Estrone provides anti-inflammatory and antioxidant capabilities after TBI

With more than 1.7 million people sustaining a traumatic brain injury each year, the need to identify processes to limit inflammation and subsequent damage is critical. Approximately 275,000 people are hospitalized annually with traumatic brain injury, leaving 85,000 with long-term disabilities and taking the lives of more than 50,000. More than 5 million people live with disabilities caused by traumatic brain injuries, often the result of car accidents and falls. Direct and indirect costs exceed $75 billion.

23 Apr 2012