Astrocyte News and Research

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Biogen Idec's MS franchise to present at the 25th Congress of ECTRIMS

Biogen Idec today announced more than 70 platform and poster presentations from the company’s multiple sclerosis (MS) franchise being presented during the 25th Congress of the European Committee for Treatment and Research in Multiple Sclerosis (ECTRIMS) in Düsseldorf, Germany.

3 Sep 2009

Astrocytes play a key role in the generation of fMRI signals

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a technique widely used in studying the human brain. However, it has long been unclear exactly how fMRI signals are generated at brain cell level. This information is crucially important to interpreting these imaging signals. Scientists from the Academy of Finland's Neuroscience Research Programme (NEURO) have discovered that astrocytes, support cells in brain tissue, play a key role in the generation of fMRI signals.

29 Aug 2009

Scientists study the impact of nerve growth factors for treating Parkinson's disease

Scientists in the Academy of Finland's Neuroscience Research Programme have reported promising new results with potential implications for the treatment of Parkinson's disease. They have been studying the impacts of nerve growth factors in the treatment of PD, and their latest results show that a certain growth factor can be used to halt the progress of damage brought on by a nerve poison and possibly even restore the function of damaged cells.

28 Aug 2009

Researches report new results that may help in better treament for patients with Parkinson's disease

28 Aug 2009

Compound from coral offers hope fpr neuropathic pain

A compound initially isolated from a soft coral (Capnella imbricata) collected at Green Island off Taiwan, could lead scientists to develop a new set of treatments for neuropathic pain - chronic pain that sometimes follows damage to the nervous system.

4 Aug 2009

Discovery of gene that regulates tumors in neuroblastoma

Virginia Commonwealth University researchers have identified a gene that may play a key role in regulating tumor progression in neuroblastoma, a form of cancer usually found in young children. Scientists hope the finding could lead to an effective therapy to inhibit the expression of this gene.

1 Jun 2009

oct3 protein key to Parkinson's, drug addiction

Scientists have identified a protein that appears not only to be central to the process that causes Parkinson's disease but could also play a role in muting the high from methamphetamine and other addictive drugs.

4 May 2009

Brain metastases hijack neuron-supporting cells to resist chemotherapy

Cancer that spreads to other organs finds a particularly inviting hideout in the brain, where these metastases are usually far harder to treat than they are in other locations.

20 Apr 2009

Scientists use RNA to reprogram 1 cell type into another

For the past decade, researchers have tried to tweak cells at the gene and nucleus level to reprogram their identity.

16 Apr 2009

New common pathway in neurodegenerative disease is a possible door to a point of no return

A just-out study suggests that what keeps chronic nervous system diseases such as Alzheimer's, Huntington's and ALS going - until they overcome the internal protective mechanisms a body can throw at them - may largely come down to poor conversational skills.

9 Apr 2009

West Nile virus studies show how star-shaped brain cells cope with infection

A new study published as the cover article for the April 2009 issue of The FASEB Journal promises to give physicians new ways to reduce deadly responses to viral infections of the brain and spinal cord.

1 Apr 2009

New insights into how brain responds to viral infection

Scientists at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health have discovered that astrocytes, supportive cells in the brain that are not derived from an immune cell lineage, respond to a molecule that mimics a viral infection using cellular machinery similar to that used by classical immune cells in the blood.

1 Apr 2009

Astrocytes help separate man from mouse

A type of brain cell that was long overlooked by researchers embodies one of very few ways in which the human brain differs fundamentally from that of a mouse or rat, according to researchers who published their findings as the cover story in the March 11 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience.

23 Mar 2009

A living representation of the brain created by scientists

Researchers in the School of Life & Health Sciences at Aston University in Birmingham, UK are developing a novel new way to model how the human brain works by creating a living representation of the brain.

17 Mar 2009

Amyloid plaques may increase the activity of astrocytes

The impact of the amyloid plaques that appear in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease may extend beyond the deposits' effects on neurons – the cells that transmit electrochemical signals throughout the nervous system.

26 Feb 2009

Significant Rett syndrome discovery

A paper published online today in Nature Neuroscience reveals the presence of methyl CpG binding protein 2 (MeCP2) in glia. MeCP2 is a protein associated with a variety of neurological disorders, including Rett Syndrome, the most physically disabling of the autism spectrum disorders.

23 Feb 2009

Genetic change prevents cell death in mouse model of Parkinson's disease

By shifting a normal protective mechanism into overdrive, a University of Wisconsin-Madison scientist has completely shielded mice from a toxic chemical that would otherwise cause Parkinson's disease.

2 Feb 2009

Brain cells called astrocytes, not neurons, lull the brain to sleep

Brain cells called astrocytes help to cause the urge to sleep that comes with prolonged wakefulness, according to a study in mice, funded by the National Institutes of Health.

2 Feb 2009

A novel glioblastoma mouse model developed

Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have developed a versatile mouse model of glioblastoma-the most common and deadly brain cancer in humans-that closely resembles the development and progression of human brain tumors that arise naturally.

5 Jan 2009