Nervous System News and Research

Latest Nervous System News and Research

Polio making a comeback

The World Health Organization (WHO) says increasing numbers of people around the world are vulnerable to polio because they have not been previously exposed to the disease.

30 Jul 2006

Promising therapy for Lou Gehrig's disease delivers antisense drug directly to nervous system

Researchers have designed and tested a molecular therapy in animals that they hope will be a major development in the fight to treat amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease.

27 Jul 2006

High rates of off-label prescriptions for antidepressant, anticonvulsant and antipsychotic drugs

A University of Georgia study has found that three-quarters of people prescribed antidepressant drugs receive the medications for a reason not approved by the federal Food and Drug Administration.

26 Jul 2006

HIV mutation clue to why only some people develop AIDS dementia

The study of 18 HIV-positive subjects shows that HIV in the brain and central nervous system is genetically different from HIV that lives in the blood and peripheral tissues.

26 Jul 2006

NICE backs use of Enbrel and Raptiva to treat severe psoriasis

NICE has today issued guidance for the use of the targeted biological therapies, Enbrel (etanercept) and Raptiva (efalizumab), to treat adult patients with severe plaque psoriasis.

26 Jul 2006

First study to demonstrate IVIg effective longer than a year

A purified mixture of human antibodies called intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIg) provides lasting benefits to patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), according to researchers at the NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center.

25 Jul 2006

Research simplifies diagnosis of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease

Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT) disease is the most common hereditary disorder of the peripheral nervous system, leading to a weakening of the muscles in the lower legs, feet and hands as the nerves that run from the spinal cord to the muscles die off.

24 Jul 2006

Pig cell implants show potential for treatment of stroke, Huntington's disease

A review of accumulated evidence on the use of porcine brain choroid plexus (CP) cells published in the July issue of Xenotransplantation highlights that these cells have the potential to treat acute and chronic brain disease.

24 Jul 2006

Researchers identify potential ovarian cancer stem cells

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) researchers have identified potential ovarian cancer stem cells, which may be behind the difficulty of treating these tumors with standard chemotherapy.

21 Jul 2006

Study establishes safety of spinal cord stem cell transplantation

Transplanting human embryonic stem cells does not cause harm and can be used as a therapeutic strategy for the treatment of acute spinal cord injury, according to a recent study by UC Irvine researchers.

19 Jul 2006

Antibodies show promise in treating Alzheimer's

Researchers say infusing human antibodies into people with Alzheimer's disease appears to help stop the disease from getting worse and may even help the patients improve.

19 Jul 2006

Growing spinal cord nerves after injury

In tests on rats, researchers at Johns Hopkins and the University of Michigan have developed a treatment that helps spinal cord nerves regrow after injury.

18 Jul 2006

Scientists identify signals that regulate the formation of spinal marrow

A team of researchers at Umea University in Sweden under the leadership of Thomas Edlund, Umea Center for Molecular Medicine, is now publishing their discovery of the signal molecules that regulate the formation of spinal marrow during the fetal period.

17 Jul 2006