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Research offers novel insights into root causes of schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a mysterious and devastating disorder that afflicts one percent of the adult population worldwide. Its symptoms — hallucinations, emotional withdrawal, and cognitive impairment — are chronic and typically emerge just as individuals are entering adulthood. Today's medications treat just one of these symptoms (psychosis); treatments for the underlying disease and its many other symptoms have been hard to develop, because no one really understands what causes the disorder.

31 Jan 2016

New findings offer roadmap for development of novel therapies to target common brain disorders

Scientists have pinpointed the cells that are likely to trigger common brain disorders, including Alzheimer's disease, Multiple Sclerosis and intellectual disabilities.

28 Jan 2016

Study findings may help explain why risk of stroke changes after menopause

Risk of stroke in women may come down to a compound the body produces from estrogen known as 2-methoxyestradiol (2-ME). Furthermore, the compound's therapeutic potential may extend beyond treating stroke in women to healing brain injuries in men, a new study in American Journal of Physiology—Endocrinology and Metabolism reports.

20 Jan 2016

Johns Hopkins study shows high doses of cocaine kill brain cells

Working with mice, researchers at Johns Hopkins have contributed significant new evidence to support the idea that high doses of cocaine kill brain cells by triggering overactive autophagy, a process in which cells literally digest their own insides. Their results, moreover, bring with them a possible antidote, an experimental compound dubbed CGP3466B.

19 Jan 2016

Blocking brain inflammation could protect against memory, behaviour changes

A University of Southampton-led study has found that blocking a receptor in the brain responsible for regulating immune cells could protect against the memory and behaviour changes seen in the progression of Alzheimer's disease.

11 Jan 2016

Infusing small dose of cytokine can prevent or reverse diabetes-related kidney failure

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, and scientists have found that infusing just a small dose of a cytokine, thought to help cause that failure, can instead prevent or reverse it.

29 Dec 2015

Novel drug candidate prevents nerve cell damage in mouse model of Parkinson's disease

A team of scientists at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) and Longevity Biotech, Inc., has demonstrated that neuroprotection could be attained in preclinical models by a novel drug candidate that changes immune responses.

18 Dec 2015

Cancer drug may protect kidneys from damage caused by chemotherapy agent cisplatin

A class of drugs used increasingly to help fight cancer may have the additional benefit of protecting the kidneys when packaged with the powerful chemotherapy agent cisplatin.

16 Dec 2015

High-fat diet appears to prompt immune cells to start consuming connections between neurons

When a high-fat diet causes us to become obese, it also appears to prompt normally bustling immune cells in our brain to become sedentary and start consuming the connections between our neurons, scientists say.

24 Nov 2015

Harnessing the brain's immune system to combat Alzheimer's disease

A new study appearing in the Journal of Neuroinflammation suggests that the brain's immune system could potentially be harnessed to help clear the amyloid plaques that are a hallmark of Alzheimer's disease.

5 Nov 2015

New research may have profound impact on future development of anti-depressant medications

Major depression, which afflicts one in six people at some point in their life, is the leading global cause of disability - surpassing cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, cancer and HIV/AIDS combined.

22 Oct 2015

Discovery may lead to new anti-metastasis therapies for advanced-stage brain cancer patients

It's no surprise that people enjoy warm places like Hawaii but may suffer in hostile locales such as Antarctica. A tumor suppressor gene called PTEN is similar in that it is affected by the microenvironments of certain bodily organs to which it travels.

20 Oct 2015

Single drop of blood in the brain can activate autoimmune response akin to multiple sclerosis

A new study from the Gladstone Institutes shows that a single drop of blood in the brain is sufficient to activate an autoimmune response akin to multiple sclerosis (MS). This is the first demonstration that introduction of blood in the healthy brain is sufficient to cause peripheral immune cells to enter the brain, which then go on to cause brain damage.

12 Oct 2015

IU-led scientists discover new gene that increases Alzheimer's disease risk

In a newly published study, a multi-institutional team led by scientists at the Indiana University School of Medicine have discovered an immune system gene associated with higher rates of amyloid plaque buildup in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and older adults at risk for the disease.

6 Oct 2015

Researchers identify role of microglia during early stages of Alzheimer's disease

For the first time, researchers have determined how toxic tau fibrils spread by the help of brain immune cells called microglia during the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The discovery of this new pathway may lead to a therapeutic target for AD, one that has not been previously identified.

5 Oct 2015

Stanford researchers identify iron-containing microglia in the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease

Examining post-mortem tissue from the brains of people with Alzheimer's disease, Stanford University School of Medicine investigators identified what appear to be iron-containing microglia -- specialized scavenger cells that sometimes become inflammatory -- in a particular part of the hippocampus, a key brain structure whose integrity is critical to memory formation.

21 Jul 2015

New NEI study shows that microglia can accelerate damage wrought by blinding eye disorders

Spider-like cells inside the brain, spinal cord and eye hunt for invaders, capturing and then devouring them. These cells, called microglia, often play a beneficial role by helping to clear trash and protect the central nervous system against infection. But a new study by researchers at the National Eye Institute (NEI) shows that they also accelerate damage wrought by blinding eye disorders, such as retinitis pigmentosa.

2 Jul 2015

New research reveals that male and female mice use different cells to process pain

New research released today in Nature Neuroscience reveals for the first time that pain is processed in male and female mice using different cells. These findings have far-reaching implications for our basic understanding of pain, how we develop the next generation of medications for chronic pain—which is by far the most prevalent human health condition—and the way we execute basic biomedical research using mice.

30 Jun 2015

Potential new class of drugs lessen neurodegeneration in rat model of Parkinson's disease

The first test in a mammalian model of a potential new class of drugs to treat Parkinson's disease shows abatement of neurodegeneration in the brains of test rats and no significant toxicities, University of Alabama at Birmingham and Pfizer Inc. researchers report online in The Journal of Biological Chemistry.

26 Jun 2015

Drug discovery experts receive £3m to find new treatments for Alzheimer's disease

Funding worth nearly half a million pounds will unite academics at the University of Southampton with drug discovery experts at the medical research charity MRC Technology, to target the immune system in the hunt for new treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

19 Jun 2015