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Major advance in treatment of brain disorders with external genes

In the October 17 issue of Nature Methods, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University describe how they can transfer genes into brain neurons intravenously, using a viral gene delivery vehicle (vector) that causes no side effects.

18 Oct 2010

Genetic link to depression: New avenues for therapy

Yale University scientists have found a gene that appears to play a key role in the onset of depression. This could mean new avenues of therapy for the disease. The gene in question is called MKP-1 and was identified after comparing the genetic codes of 21 deceased people who had been diagnosed with depression with those of 18 otherwise healthy individuals. The findings were published in the journal Nature Medicine on 17th of October.

18 Oct 2010

Knopp Neurosciences forms new parent entity

Knopp Neurosciences Inc. announced today that it has formed a new parent entity called Knopp Biosciences LLC to expand operations with the goal of becoming a more broadly integrated biopharmaceutical company.

15 Oct 2010

ApoE4 protein causes GABAergic interneuron loss, learning and memory deficits

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an extremely complicated disease. Several proteins seem to be involved in its cause and progression. For example, the lipid-transport protein apolipoprotein E4 (apoE4) is the major genetic risk factor for AD, and apoE4 carriers account for 65% of all Alzheimer's cases, but exactly how apoE4 contributes to the disease is unclear.

14 Oct 2010

Drugs that restore mitochondria function may treat Alzheimer's disease at early stages: Research

Before Alzheimer's patients experience memory loss, the brain's neurons have already suffered harm for years. A new study in mouse models by researchers at Columbia University Medical Center has found that the brain's mitochondria, the powerhouses of the cell, are one of the earliest casualties of the disease. The study, which appeared in the online Early Edition of PNAS, also found that impaired mitochondria then injure the neurons' synapses, which are necessary for normal brain function.

14 Oct 2010

Stimulating brain's nicotine receptors may eliminate side effects of Alzheimer's drug: Research

A team of neuroscientists has discovered important new information in the search for an effective treatment for Alzheimer's disease, the debilitating neurological disorder that afflicts more than 5.3 million Americans and is the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States. Hey-Kyoung Lee, associate professor in the University of Maryland Department of Biology, and her research team have shown that they may be able to eliminate debilitating side effects caused by a promising Alzheimer's drug by stimulating the brain's nicotine receptors.

14 Oct 2010

New microchip technology to identify neuronal regenerators

Scientists have long sought the ability to regenerate nerve cells, or neurons, which could offer a new way to treat spinal-cord damage as well as neurological diseases such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's. Many chemicals can regenerate neurons grown in Petri dishes in the lab, but it's difficult and time-consuming to identify those chemicals that work in live animals, which is critical for developing drugs for humans.

12 Oct 2010

Researchers discover rhythmic changes in synapse numbers regulate sleep cycles

With the help of tiny, see-through fish, Stanford University School of Medicine researchers are homing in on what happens in the brain while you sleep. In a new study, they show how the circadian clock and sleep affect the scope of neuron-to-neuron connections in a particular region of the brain, and they identified a gene that appears to regulate the number of these connections, called synapses.

8 Oct 2010

Researchers reveal neural responses associated with empathy for others' pain

Witnessing a person from our own group or an outsider suffer pain causes neural responses in two very different regions of the brain. And, the specific region activated reveals whether or not we will help the person in need. Researchers at the University of Zurich studied the brain responses of soccer fans and now have neurobiological evidence for why we are most willing to help members of our own group.

8 Oct 2010

Blind people can use visual cortex to refine sensation: Study

People who have been blind from birth make use of the visual parts of their brain to refine their sensation of sound and touch, according to an international team of researchers led by neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC).

7 Oct 2010

Microglial inflammation promotes MAPT pathologies

Cells that help to protect the central nervous system may also contribute to pathological changes in the brain. New research, published by Cell Press in the October 7th issue of the journal Neuron, provides mechanistic insight into a link between the immune system and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease that are associated with abnormal accumulation of tau protein.

7 Oct 2010

New hope for patients with brain injury

New neuroscience research by life scientists from UCLA and Australia may potentially help people who have lost their ability to remember due to brain injury or disease.

6 Oct 2010

NIH to award $64M under Transformative Research Projects program

The National Institutes of Health will award up to $64 million over five years to encourage exploration of exceptionally innovative and original research ideas that have the potential for extraordinary impact.

4 Oct 2010

Scientists discover c-Abl protein role in Parkinson's disease progression

Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that the over-activation of a single protein may shut down the brain-protecting effects of a molecule and facilitate the most common form of Parkinson's disease.

4 Oct 2010

Study indicates neurotransmitters are abnormal in people with psychotic illness

There is growing evidence that two neurotransmitters - dopamine and glutamate - are abnormal in people with psychotic illness, including schizophrenia. Among many other things, these chemicals play a role in cognitive functions, such as memory, learning, and problem-solving.

1 Oct 2010

Universitat Jaume I evaluates ruthenium compounds for neurodegenerative disease treatment

The pharmaceutical division of the company Neuron BPh and the research group of Organometallic Chemistry and Homogeneous Catalysis of the Universitat Jaume I, have evaluated the possible applications of a series of ruthenium compounds for their future use in the treatment of neurodegenerative disease such as Alzheimer.

30 Sep 2010

Study suggests drugs targeting glutamatergic transmission may help treat psychotic illness

There is growing evidence that two neurotransmitters dopamine and glutamate are abnormal in people with psychotic illness, including schizophrenia. Among many other things, these chemicals play a role in cognitive functions, such as memory, learning, and problem solving.

30 Sep 2010

Researchers receive NIH award to investigate regenerative potential of retinal cells

Zhang and co-principal investigators Sheng Ding, PhD, from The Scripps Research Institute, and Thomas Reh, PhD from the University of Washington, received the highest possible scores for their proposal to investigate the regenerative potential of retinal cells. Their long-term goal is to restore visual function lost through diseases such as macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa.

30 Sep 2010

Neurons that control sexual behavior mapped

How the bundles of neurons in the brain controls behaviour remains an ongoing mystery. Researchers from the Institute of Molecular Pathology (IMP), in Vienna, Austria, and the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB/MRC), Cambridge, United Kingdom, have mapped neurons of the fruit fly, Drosophila, that controls sexual behavior. "We literally untangled the mess of wires in the fly brain and laid the ground plans for investigating a complex behavior in a simple organism," says Jai Yu, whose doctoral work is published in Current Biology.

29 Sep 2010

New computational model provides mathematical description of interactions between cortical neurons

The appearance of a spot of light on the retina causes sudden activation of millions of neurons in the brain within tenths of milliseconds. At the first cortical processing stage, the primary visual cortex, each neuron thereby receives thousands of inputs from both close neighbors and further distant neurons, and also sends-out an equal amount of output to others.

28 Sep 2010