Dopamine News and Research

Latest Dopamine News and Research

Magnetic nano-sized disks could restore function for Lou Gehrig’s disease patients

For decades the renowned English physicist Stephen Hawking lived with a motor neuron disease until his death last year.

5 Dec 2019

Discovery of protein function opens door to potential therapies for addiction, behavioral disorders

The human brain consists of several intricate networks or "circuits." One such complex circuit, called the "reward circuit," is involved in reward-associated learning, a process in which nerve cell activity changes in response to a "reward" stimulus (something that the brain perceives as a reward).

5 Dec 2019

New computational method can help predict and design allosteric functions in proteins

Called the "second secret of life", allostery is one of the most fundamental processes of biology and has been a central focus among scientists across the life sciences spectrum, from fundamental biology to drug development.

3 Dec 2019

Study reveals clue to preventing addiction relapse

With any addiction in which a user has successfully resisted a chemical, activity or substance, relapse is vexing. And with opioids, it's often deadly. Fatal overdoses following relapse from an opioid addiction is reaching epidemic proportions.

2 Dec 2019

Scientists discover new molecular drivers of Parkinson's disease

Scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have uncovered new molecular drivers of Parkinson's disease using a sophisticated statistical technique called multiscale gene network analysis.

20 Nov 2019

Dopamine may worsen lung inflammation in asthma

A new study on a mouse model of asthma shows that nerve cells producing dopamine, a neurotransmitter, signal T cells in the body to promote inflammation due to allergic reactions in the lungs during childhood but not in adult mice.

19 Nov 2019

New light-based method to capture the epicenter of neural activity in the brain

Researchers from Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia and University of Salento, both in Lecce, Italy, and Harvard Medical School in Boston have developed a new light-based method to capture and pinpoint the epicenter of neural activity in the brain.

19 Nov 2019

Dopamine D2 receptor modulates Wnt expression, controls cell proliferation

The dopamine D2 receptor has a previously unobserved role in modulating Wnt expression and control of cell proliferation, according to a new study from the George Washington University and the University of Pittsburgh.

14 Nov 2019

New technique enables the study of transporter proteins at a single-molecule level

Like a boat helping passengers cross a river, transporters move substances across cell membranes. This process is fundamental to the healthy functioning of cells in life forms from bacteria to humans.

14 Nov 2019

Chronic psychosocial adversity impairs dopamine production

People exposed to a lifetime of psychosocial adversity may have an impaired ability to produce the dopamine levels needed for coping with acutely stressful situations.

12 Nov 2019

Depression in middle and older adulthood associated with nutrition

Your diet can put you at risk of depression, according to a new study. The study also found that the likelihood of depression is higher among middle-aged and older women who were immigrants to Canada when compared to Canadian-born women.

12 Nov 2019

Scientists identify new mechanism for the development of Parkinson's disease

An international research team including scientists from the University of Cologne have identified a new mechanism for the development of Parkinson's disease, which could prove to be the starting point for the development of a more targeted therapy.

12 Nov 2019

Parkinson's Foundation and Parkinson's UK form new partnership

Each year, Parkinson's UK, their supporters and partners invest more than £4 million into the Parkinson's Virtual Biotech to rapidly develop and test the most promising research findings with the aim of turning them into treatments that will transform the lives of people with Parkinson's.

12 Nov 2019

Future drugs aimed at halting cell-inactivation process may help prevent Parkinson's disease

In neurodegenerative conditions like Parkinson's disease, a specific group of neurons start to die one by one, causing movement problems and other symptoms. Scientists have long focused on finding out why these neurons die. Now it turns out, they might not even be dead.

11 Nov 2019

New study sheds light on how memories are formed

How does the brain translate information from the outside world into something we remember? An international team of researchers working in the Human Brain Project have zoomed in on the neuronal circuits in the striatum, a brain structure involved in memory, behavior and reward learning.

7 Nov 2019

Does Parkinson's disease start in the brain or gut?

Does Parkinson's disease start in the brain or the gut? In a new contribution published in the Journal of Parkinson's Disease, scientists hypothesize that PD can be divided into two subtypes: gut-first, originating in the peripheral nervous system of the gut and spreading to the brain; and brain-first, originating in the brain, or entering the brain via the olfactory system, and spreading to the brainstem and peripheral nervous system.

7 Nov 2019

New way to slow and reverse fibrosis identified

In cell and mouse models, Mayo Clinic researchers and collaborators have identified a way to slow and reverse the process of uncontrolled internal scarring, called fibrosis.

30 Oct 2019

Brain function changes could help diagnose and manage depression

Ever heard of the lateral habenula? Very few, outside of neuroscience, probably have. Yet a new study, published in the journal Neuron, shows that characteristic changes in the way this area of the brain fires can result in a total loss of will to do anything – which is characteristic of one form of depression.

29 Oct 2019

Discovery of causal link between hydrogen sulfide and schizophrenia

Researchers from the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Japan have found certain chemical markers that are associated with schizophrenia. They worked with lab mice with models of schizophrenia as well as post mortem brain specimens of persons with schizophrenia. The study titled, “Excess hydrogen sulfide and polysulfides production underlies a schizophrenia pathophysiology,” was published in the latest issue of the journal EMBO Molecular Medicine.

28 Oct 2019

MPST enzyme levels in hair could be a good biomarker for schizophrenia

Working with model mice, post-mortem human brains, and people with schizophrenia, researchers at the RIKEN Center for Brain Science in Japan have discovered that a subtype of schizophrenia is related to abnormally high levels hydrogen sulfide in the brain.

28 Oct 2019