Researchers at The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia have manipulated cell activity that occurs during the interruption of blood flow to strongly protect heart tissue in animal studies. The finding has the potential to become an emergency treatment for heart attack patients, particularly since already existing drugs might be pressed into service to produce the protective effects.
Brain
Each thought or action sends a million electrical signals pulsing through your body. At the heart of the process of generating these electrical impulses is the ion channel.
A new study by researchers from the University of Illinois measures movements smaller than one-billionth of a meter in ion channels. This movement is critical to how these tiny pores in the cell membrane open and close in response to changes in voltage across the membrane. The findings appear this week in the journal Neuron.
A genetic change in the dopamine transporter one of the brain's dopamine-handling proteins makes it behave as if amphetamine is present and "run backward," Vanderbilt University Medical Center investigators report this week in The Journal of Neuroscience.
A particular gene variant might make women more susceptible to alcoholism. At least, a study carried out by the Universities of Bonn and Sweden's Karolinska Institute makes this a plausible conclusion. Accord-ing to this, a gene in the endorphin metabolism is altered in a typical fashion more often in women alcoholics than in healthy women. In mice too, endorphins seem to play an important role in the amount of alcohol consumed, particularly among females.
The humble tomato could be a suitable carrier for an oral vaccine against Alzheimer's disease, according to HyunSoon Kim from the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology (KRIBB) in Korea and colleagues from Digital Biotech Inc. and the Department of Biological Science at Wonkwang University. Although their research (1), just published online in Springer's journal Biotechnology Letters, is still in the early stages, it is a promising first step towards finding an edible vaccine against the neurodegenerative disease.
CHAPEL HILL Scientific evidence has long suggested that moderate drinking offers some protection against heart disease, certain types of stroke and some forms of cancer.
But new research shows that stopping drinking including at moderate levels may lead to health problems including depression and a reduced capacity of the brain to produce new neurons, a process called neurogenesis.
The findings from the Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill appear online in the journal Neuropsychopharmacology.
Irvine, Calif., July 8, 2008 — A method of resuscitation for victims of severe traumatic injury will be the subject of a clinical trial to be undertaken by a team of Orange County emergency care providers.
The Orange County Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium will include UC Irvine, Orange County Health Care Agency, Mission Hospital, Western Medical Center Santa Ana, Orange County Fire Authority, and fire departments from other Orange County cities.
After many years of heavy drinking, alcohol produces pathological alterations in the brain. In many alcoholics these changes culminate in massive social deterioration and disorders of memory and learning. Severe cognitive impairments occur in approximately 10% of heavy drinkers. Alcoholic dementia is the second leading course of adult dementia in the Western countries, accounting for 10% of the cases, and still represents an unresolved problem. So far no effective pharmacotherapy for memory problems in alcoholics is available.
The brain is the key organ in the response to stress. Brain reactions determine what in the world is threatening and might be stressful for us, and regulate the stress responses that can be either adaptive or maladaptive. Chronic stress can affect the brain and lead into depression: Environmental stressors related to job or family situation are important triggers of depressive episodes and major life events such as trauma or abuse amongst the most potent factors inducing depression.
The autistic disorder, a neurodevelopmental disease first described in 1943, represents a challenge for treatment and a puzzle for research. Alongside Asperger syndrome, a milder form of the disorder, autism is classified in the continuum of various Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), all of which are characterized by deficits in language, social interaction, and a strangely restricted and repetitive behaviour (stereotypy). Disease onset occurs during the first three years of life.
Bipolar disorder is one of the most complex and challenging mental disorder in the spectrum. Bipolar disorder is typically associated with considerable acute and longterm treatment needs and may be associated in the course of illness with times of tremendous social burden for both the individual and family. It is typically referred to as an episodic, yet lifelong and clinically severe mood disorder. The disorder is called bipolar, because depressive and manic mood episodes alternate in the course of illness.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A dietary cocktail that includes a type of omega-3 fatty acid can improve memory and learning in gerbils, according to the latest study from MIT researchers that points to a possible beverage-based treatment for Alzheimer's and other brain diseases.
The combination of supplements, which contains three compounds normally found in the bloodstream, is now being tested in Alzheimer's patients. The cocktail has previously been shown to promote growth of new brain connections in rodents.
PITTSBURGH—University of Pittsburgh-led researchers could provide new insight into how two common congenital circulatory problems—aortic arch deformity and arteriovenous malformations (AVMs)—develop in humans, as reported in the June 15 edition of Developmental Biology.
Good things may come to those who wait, but research has proven that humans and animals actually prefer an immediate rather than a delayed reward. Now, a study published by Cell Press in the July 10 issue of the journal Neuron reveals how a decision-making region of the brain encodes information associated with the magnitude and delay of rewards.