Neurodegeneration News and Research

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Neurodegeneration is the umbrella term for the progressive loss of structure or function of neurons, including death of neurons.

Nitric oxide shuts down brain's repair mechanisms

Nitric oxide, a gaseous molecule produced in the brain, can damage neurons. When the brain produces too much nitric oxide, it contributes to the severity and progression of stroke and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute recently discovered that nitric oxide not only damages neurons, it also shuts down the brain's repair mechanisms.

5 Feb 2013

Scientists receive honorary doctorate for research on Alzheimer's disease

On Monday 4 February, Dennis J. Selkoe and five other "brain teasers" will receive an honorary doctorate from the KU Leuven. The promoters for this honorary doctorate - VIB-KU Leuven professors Bart De Strooper and Wim Robberecht - will honor Dennis J. Selkoe for his scientific insights, but also for his relentless search for new medicines to treat Alzheimer's Disease and other conditions that cause severe damage in the brain.

4 Feb 2013

PKCζ protein plays a critical role in regulating tumor metabolism

Cancer cells need food to survive and grow. They're very good at getting it, too, even when nutrients are scarce. Many scientists have tried killing cancer cells by taking away their favorite food, a sugar called glucose. Unfortunately, this treatment approach not only fails to work, it backfires-glucose-starved tumors actually get more aggressive.

2 Feb 2013

Researchers unveil first maturation-based ‘disease in a dish’ model for ARVD/C

Most patients with an inherited heart condition known as arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) don't know they have a problem until they're in their early 20s. The lack of symptoms at younger ages makes it very difficult for researchers to study how ARVD/C evolves or to develop treatments. A new stem cell-based technology created by 2012 Nobel Prize winner Shinya Yamanaka, M.D., Ph.D., helps solve this problem.

29 Jan 2013

Children's Oakland recruits patients for deferiprone clinical trial to treat PKAN

A groundbreaking, international clinical trial of an iron chelation drug, deferiprone, to treat the rare and devastating neurodegenerative disease, pantothenate kinase-associated neurodegeneration (PKAN), began last month at the trial's only North American site, Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland.

17 Jan 2013

Scientists wrestle to understand why Huntington's can produce variable symptoms

Scientists have wrestled to understand why Huntington's disease, which is caused by a single gene mutation, can produce such variable symptoms. An authoritative review by a group of leading experts summarizes the progress relating cell loss in the striatum and cerebral cortex to symptom profile in Huntington's disease, suggesting a possible direction for developing targeted therapies.

9 Jan 2013

Study demonstrates effects of obesity on 'Taupathies'

In France, more than 860,000 people suffer from Alzheimer's disease and related disorders, making them the largest cause of age-related loss of intellectual function. Cognitive impairments observed in Alzheimer's disease result from the accumulation of abnormal tau proteins in nerve cells undergoing degeneration . We know that obesity, a major risk factor in the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, increases the risk of dementia during the aging process.

9 Jan 2013

Researchers show that protein p62 balances metabolism in fat tissue

In many cases, obesity is caused by more than just overeating and a lack of exercise. Something in the body goes haywire, causing it to store more fat and burn less energy. But what is it? Researchers at Sanford-Burnham Medical Research Institute have a new theory-a protein called p62.

7 Jan 2013

Top-line results from Biogen Idec’s dexpramipexole Phase 3 trial on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Today Biogen Idec reported top-line results of EMPOWER, a Phase 3 trial investigating dexpramipexole in people with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

3 Jan 2013

Study identifies mechanism by which bacterium S. aureus colonizes nasal passages

A collaboration between researchers at the School of Biochemistry and Immunology and the Department of Microbiology at Trinity College Dublin has identified a mechanism by which the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) colonizes our nasal passages. The study, published today in the Open Access journal PLOS Pathogens, shows for the first time that a protein located on the bacterial surface called clumping factor B (ClfB) has high affinity for the skin protein loricrin.

29 Dec 2012

FUS RNA binding ability essential for development of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Research led by Dr. Udai Pandey, Assistant Professor of Genetics at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has found that the ability of a protein made by a gene called FUS to bind to RNA is essential to the development of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). This discovery identifies a possible therapeutic target for the fatal neurological disease.

20 Dec 2012

Link between silent stroke and Parkinson's disease

Scientists at The University of Manchester have for the first time identified why a patient who appears outwardly healthy may develop Parkinson's disease.

19 Dec 2012

Administration of N2O + ISO appears to have negative effect on fetal development

An anesthetic regimen typically used during surgery on pregnant mothers appears to have a negative effect on the development of the fetus, according to a new study on mice conducted by neurobiologists from the National Center for Toxicological Research, in Arizona.

14 Dec 2012

Dementia therapy: an interview with Assoc Prof. Olivier Piguet and Sharon Savage

Dementia is the umbrella term used to describe a number of neurodegenerative brain disorders that cause progressive changes in thinking abilities and behaviour. The kind of deficits experienced by individuals diagnosed with dementia depends on the location and severity of the pathology in the brain.

11 Dec 2012

Lack of TDP-43 protein can lead to frontotemporal dementia/ALS

Researchers at Mayo Clinic in Florida have uncovered a toxic cellular process by which a protein that maintains the health of neurons becomes deficient and can lead to dementia.

11 Dec 2012

Scientists develop MitoFish for in vivo studies of mitochondria transport in nerve cells

Scientists have demonstrated a new way to investigate mechanisms at work in Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases, which also could prove useful in the search for effective drugs. For new insights, they turned to the zebrafish, which is transparent in the early stages of its life. The researchers developed a transgenic variety, the "MitoFish," that enables them to see - within individual neurons of living animals - how brain diseases disturb the transport of mitochondria, the power plants of the cell.

6 Dec 2012

psi-GSH prevents neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer's in mouse model

Researchers at the University of Minnesota's Center for Drug Design have developed a synthetic compound that, in a mouse model, successfully prevents the neurodegeneration associated with Alzheimer's disease.

4 Dec 2012

Study describes 68 cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in athletes, military veterans

A study done by investigators at the Boston University Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy (CSTE) and the Veterans Affairs Boston Healthcare System, in collaboration with the Sports Legacy Institute (SLI), describes 68 cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) among deceased athletes and military veterans whose brain and spinal cords were donated to the VA CSTE Brain Bank.

4 Dec 2012

microRNAs play an important role during embryonic development

Sanford-Burnham researchers discover that microRNAs play an important role in germ layer formation-the process that determines which cells become which organs during embryonic development

3 Dec 2012

Lewy pathology out of favor as Parkinson’s culprit

Neurodegeneration and cellular dysfunction may precede the appearance of Lewy bodies in the substantia nigra, shows research that challenges the role of Lewy pathology in Parkinson’s disease.

30 Nov 2012