Opiates are powerful painkillers, but they come with some baggage: a troubling tendency to depress breathing. By giving an experimental drug along with a narcotic, a team of researchers has eliminated the opiate's potentially lethal side effect while preserving its ability to blunt pain. The result could have far-reaching clinical implications for anesthesia and the treatment of acute and chronic pain. Like morphine and other narcotics, a painkiller called fentanyl disrupts nerve cells deep in the brain that register pain as well as other cells that govern breathing rhythm. Well-controlled doses of the drug can work wonders, but overexposure can be disastrous: In October 2002, 129 people died in a Moscow theater when authorities subdued hostage-takers there by pumping what many believe was fentanyl into the building. Even before the hostage crisis, physiologist Diethelm Richter and his colleagues at the University of Göttingen, Germany, were wondering whether fentanyl's effects on breathing and pain could be separated. The group examined a small chunk of rodent brainstem called the pre-Bötzinger complex (PBC), which regulates breathing. Many cells in the PBC contain a receptor called 5-HT4(a). All these receptor-bearing cells in the PBC, the scientists found, also sport the [name] -opioid receptors that react to the drugs. That makes sense, given that opiates can depress breathing. The finding also raised the prospect of controlling pain without disturbing breathing. Copyright © 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 4028 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Study hints that men strive to win women and then sit back. HELEN R. PILCHER Male scientists are like criminals, a new study concludes1. Their productivity peaks at 30 and then goes rapidly downhill. Psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa of the London School of Economics and Political Science examined the lives of 280 eminent scientists, including Pierre Curie and Albert Einstein. He found that 65% had published their best paper by the age of 35. What's more, unmarried scientists peaked later in life than those who had tied the knot. Crime, similarly, is a bachelor's game. Picking locks and publishing papers are ways of catching the female eye, argues Kanazawa. As men find partners, get married and have children, he suggests, they no longer need to compete with each other. Indeed, testosterone levels, thought to boost action and conflict, fall after a man becomes a father. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Evolution; Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4027 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A study on mice suggests that a type of stem cells found in blood vessels may someday be able to regenerate wasting muscle in muscular dystrophy (MD) patients. The authors caution that more research must be done before researchers consider applying these findings to humans. Nonetheless, their results provide a possible new direction for efforts that have met largely with frustration thus far. The study appears in the journal Science, published by AAAS, the science society. The research team, led by Giulio Cossu of the Stem Cell Research Institute, in Milan, and the University of Rome and the Institute of Cell Biology and Tissue Engineering, in Rome, has found that these stem cells can cross from the bloodstream, into muscle tissue. There, they seem to take on a new identity, helping to generate new muscle fibers in mice with MD-like symptoms. MD is a collection of disorders caused by genetic defects that lead to increasing muscle weakness over time. These disorders currently have no cure.

Keyword: Muscles
Link ID: 4026 - Posted: 07.11.2003

Tampa, FL -- Higher education or a larger brain may protect against dementia, according to new findings by researchers from the University of South Florida and the University of Kentucky. The study, published in the June issue of the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, provides important new evidence that either more years of formal education or better early brain development may help delay dementia in later life. The findings were drawn from the Nun Study, a longitudinal study of aging and Alzheimer's disease. The study's first author James Mortimer, PhD, director of the USF Institute on Aging, reported that Catholic sisters who completed 16 or more years of formal education or whose head circumference was in the upper two-thirds were four times less likely to be demented than those with both smaller head circumferences and lower education. Head circumference has been shown in previous studies to be a good indicator of the volume or size of the brain.

Keyword: Alzheimers; Intelligence
Link ID: 4025 - Posted: 07.11.2003

The most potent psychedelic is the semi-synthetic ergot derivative lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which has detectable effects at microscopic doses. This drug was discovered by the Swiss chemist Albert Hoffman in 1943. While handling vials containing the chemical, he accidentally absorbed some of it through his skin, and later experienced a strange state of consciousness. Suspecting that LSD was the cause, Hoffman decided to test the drug on himself, starting with what he thought would be a small and probably ineffective dose - only ¼ of a milligram. However, for LSD this is a rather large dose. Hoffman’s ensuing “trip” was overwhelmingly intense and he assumed he was either dying or going insane (Hoffman, 1981). Hoffman recovered and a period of scientific research on LSD began. Researchers first thought LSD induced a “model psychosis” that might shed light on the nature of schizophrenia.However, as the psychedelic experience or “trip” does not resemble endogenous psychoses, this interpretation was later discarded. In the 1950s the therapeutic potential of LSD was investigated under the assumption that LSD was a key that could unlock the secrets of the unconscious mind. Thousands of people in the U.S., including the actor Cary Grant, underwent “psycholytic” (“mind-loosening”) therapy under LSD during the 1950s and early 1960s (Grinspoon & Bakalar, 1979). Other work investigated the religious aspect of high-dose psychedelic experiences. In a 1961 experiment known as the “Miracle of March Chapel,” Boston Divinity Students were given psilocybin or placebo in a double-blind design; most subjects in the psilocybin group (and none in the placebo group) reported profound religious experiences with lasting beneficial consequences (Doblin, 1991). Scientific and clinical work with psychedelics was interrupted when the drugs were outlawed in the U.S. in 1965 as a response to their growing non-medical use, but in recent years, renewed scientific interest in consciousness has led to a small revival of psychedelic drug research. Copyright © 2003, M. Lyvers

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4024 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Two cheap blood tests could help multiple sclerosis patients work out if they are at risk of having a relapse within months. The information could help doctors prescribe the right drugs to stop this happening. Many multiple sclerosis patients, particularly in the early stages of the disease, do not suffer constant symptoms. Attacks of the disease, called "relapses", can bring nerve-related symptoms such as fatigue, poor coordination and paralysis. However most patients find that, at first, these symptoms can disappear, with a gap of months or even years before they come back. This presents problems for doctors, who are trying to give the patient a firm diagnosis, and an idea of what to expect. (C) BBC

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 4023 - Posted: 07.10.2003

By CLIFFORD KRAUSS TORONTO, — The Canadian government announced an interim plan today that will provide marijuana on a regular basis to several hundred people who are authorized to use the drug for medical reasons. Coming six weeks after the federal government introduced a bill decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana and only days after it approved a trial "safe injection site" in Vancouver for intravenous drug users, the marijuana plan was one more sign that Ottawa is moving in a very different direction on drug policy from the Bush administration. Thousands of Canadians already visit so-called "compassion clubs" in Vancouver and a few other cities, which distribute marijuana to those who come with a note from a doctor saying that the drug can help their condition. The police have occasionally entered some of the clinics and seized marijuana, but for the most part they function in the open. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 4022 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Two studies from researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) address the challenges of diagnosing and treating individuals with both attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and bipolar disorder (BPD). Published in the July, 2003, issue of Biological Psychiatry, one report clearly identifies symptoms of both disorders in study participants, supporting the theory that some individuals truly suffer from both disorders. The second study in the same issue finds that the antidepressant bupropion may be helpful in treating those with both ADHD and BPD. "The question of whether ADHD and BPD can exist together has been controversial, with some believing that such diagnoses reflected particularly bad ADHD or that the manic symptoms of bipolarity were simple hyperactivity," says Timothy Wilens, MD, of the MGH Pediatric Psychopharmacology Unit, lead author of both papers. "The first study tells us these are distinct disorders that can occur and be identified in adults. "Treating adults with ADHD and BPD has been difficult because the stimulants and many other medications used for ADHD may exacerbate manic symptoms," he continues. "However, not addressing both disorders in these individuals can make their lives more difficult."

Keyword: ADHD; Depression
Link ID: 4021 - Posted: 07.10.2003

Difficulties that children with autism have in pointing and showing objects to other people may emerge from earlier problems with simple face-to-face interaction, according to new research sponsored by the ESRC. Findings from a two-year study led by Dr Susan Leekam, of the Department of Psychology, University of Durham, could be important for understanding the early language and communication problems found in these children. Dr Leekam said: "We have known for a long time that children with autism have special difficulties with pointing and showing objects to other people. Until recently, however, many researchers believed that this problem was due to the child's lack of awareness that people's thoughts and reactions were directed towards objects and events in the world around them.

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 4020 - Posted: 07.10.2003

A 12-year-old girl, whose family thought she suffered from anorexia, in fact died from a rare brain tumour which caused her to waste away, an inquest has heard. Charlotte Collett, who weighed just three stone and nine pounds (23 kilograms) when she died, was found unconscious by her mother in her bedroom at their home in Well Road, East Cowes, Isle of Wight last July. An inquiry had been launched and Charlotte's mother, Katrina, 47, arrested in connection with her death. No charges were brought after medical reports showed Charlotte died as a result of a brain tumour. The inquest heard that when Charlotte was taken to hospital, her sister and mother told paramedics she had been suffering from anorexia and had been bullied at school. But the coroner returned a verdict of death by natural causes. (C) BBC

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 4019 - Posted: 07.09.2003

As the brain dies, new artistry is born Brad Evenson, National Post Jancy Chang began losing her mind in tiny brushstrokes. In the mid-1980s, the San Francisco high school art teacher noticed she had trouble reading. Soon, she found it difficult to plan lessons. At first, she hid her problems by getting her teenage son to help her. But later, words would slip from her grasp and eventually she could not remember the names of any of her students or control her classroom. Like a portrait painted in reverse, the familiar likeness of Jancy Chang was becoming a blank canvas. Yet at the same time, a strange but exciting image was taking its place. Two years before retiring in 1995, Ms. Chang abandoned her solitary art studio, where she painted demure watercolours of Chinese folklore. Paper and pen in hand, she began sketching people in cafés and at concerts. The ink drawings were less refined than her earlier work, but more intriguing. Her personality changed, too. Ordinarily a reserved woman, Ms. Chang grew uncharacteristically friendly, ignoring social cues and entering the conversations of strangers. Suddenly, in 1997, amid a growing inability to speak or read, Ms. Chang produced some of her wildest and most original paintings. The constraints of her formal training slipped away. She splashed large swatches of red, turquoise and purple acrylics on paper. © Copyright 2003 National Post

Keyword: Language
Link ID: 4018 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Pain is such a personal, subjective experience that it has always been difficult to objectively measure it. “We’ve all met people who seem like they’re very sensitive to pain and people who seem like they’re not sensitive at all to pain,” says Robert Coghill, assistant professor at the department of neurobiology and anatomy at Wake Forest University School of Medicine. And because of this difference in pain sensitivity, doctors are not always confident about the accuracy of their patients’ self-reports of pain. This makes it difficult for doctors to prescribe the right dose of pain medication. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 4017 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Huntington's disease is an inherited condition that can strike people as young as 30. Some symptoms include mood swings, depression, irritability, and involuntary movements which make it difficult for patients to drive and feed themselves. Concentration on intellectual tasks becomes increasingly difficult, and patients have trouble learning new things, remembering facts, or making decisions. "We have no cures," says Henry Paulson, associate professor of neurology at the University of Iowa School of Medicine. "It's a devastating, ultimately fatal disease." Humans have two copies of most genes. Huntington's disease is one of several degenerative diseases caused by an error in the DNA code of one copy of a gene. While the good copy tells brain cells how to build a needed protein, the bad copy results in a toxic protein that kills brain cells. © ScienCentral, 2000-2003.

Keyword: Huntingtons
Link ID: 4016 - Posted: 06.24.2010

To sleep, perchance to dream, said Shakespeare's Hamlet, was perhaps nobler than bearing the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. But sleeping offers no such graceful escape for patients with obstructive sleep apnea and REM behavior disorder. Now a pair of new studies provide the first hint that faulty brain chemistry leads to these sleep disorders--a first step toward treatments that get at the roots of the problems. Most people lie still while they dream, but patients with REM behavior disorder act out their dreams: They thrash around, fall out of bed, and occasionally pummel their partners. Similar symptoms appear in patients with a rare and fatal neurological disease called multiple symptoms atrophy (MSA); these patients sometimes lose neurons in a brain structure called the striatum that coordinates movement. So a team led by neurologist Sid Gilman of the University of Michigan Medical School in Ann Arbor looked to see if the failure of their dopamine-producing neurons might lead to REM behavior disorder. They studied 13 patients as they slept wired to instruments that measured the extent to which their brains told muscles to contract. They also ran PET scans to measure how many dopamine-producing neurons the patients had left in the striatum. In results reported in the first of two July issues of Neurology, the MSA patients had just two-thirds the dopamine-producing neurons as normal subjects. Moreover, the patients with the fewest neurons flailed the most, suggesting that "dopamine deficiency may lead to REM behavior disorder," Gilman says. Copyright © 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Sleep
Link ID: 4015 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Tasteless compound first found to heighten more than one taste. MICHAEL HOPKIN Food researchers have found a compound that enhances salty, sweet and savoury tastes. The chemical is the first known to heighten more than one type of flavour. The discovery could aid the quest for foods with reduced levels of salt, sugar and monosodium glutamate (MSG). MSG is thought to cause the brief but agonizing headaches sometimes dubbed 'Chinese restaurant syndrome'. There are five categories of taste receptor: salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami. The most recently recognized, umami, detects 'meaty' or 'savoury' sensations. It is stimulated by foods such as soy sauce that contain glutamate compounds. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 4014 - Posted: 06.24.2010

PHILADELPHIA -- Scientists at the University of Pennsylvania have found new support for the age-old advice to "sleep on it." Mice allowed to sleep after being trained remembered what they had learned far better than those deprived of sleep for several hours afterward. The researchers also determined that the five hours following learning are crucial for memory consolidation; mice deprived of sleep five to 10 hours after learning a task showed no memory impairment. The results are reported in the May/June issue of the journal Learning & Memory. "Memory consolidation happens over a period of hours after training for a task, and certain cellular processes have to occur at precise times," said senior author Ted Abel, assistant professor of biology at Penn. "We set out to pinpoint the specific window of time and area of the brain that are sensitive to sleep deprivation after learning."

Keyword: Sleep; Learning & Memory
Link ID: 4013 - Posted: 07.09.2003

Independent research groups have uncovered a new class of proteins, called the chaplins, that function like amyloid fibrils to allow reproductive growth in the bacterium Streptomyces coelicolor. Amyloid proteins are most commonly recognized for their role in Alzheimer's disease, where they aggregate into insoluble, mesh-like plaques in the brains of Alzheimer's patients. This finding reveals an unprecedented role for amyloid-like proteins in Gram-positive bacteria. S. coelicolor is a soil-dwelling bacterium that, along with its relatives, produces the majority of naturally derived antibiotics (e.g., tetracycline and erythromycin), as well as many antitumor, antifungal, and immunosuppressant agents. Unlike most other prokaryotes, S. coelicolor has a complex life cycle, producing two different cell types depending upon environmental conditions: vegetative substrate hyphae that grow in moist soil, and aerial hyphae that grow in air and give rise to reproductive spores.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 4012 - Posted: 07.09.2003

Atlanta —Working from their university labs in two different corners of the world, U.S. and Australian researchers have created what they call a new class of creative beings, “the semi-living artist” – a picture-drawing robot in Perth, Australia whose movements are controlled by the brain signals of cultured rat cells in Atlanta. Gripping three colored markers positioned above a white canvas, the robotic drawing arm operates based on the neural activity of a few thousand rat neurons placed in a special petri dish that keeps the cells alive. The dish, a Multi-Electrode Array (MEA), is instrumented with 60 two-way electrodes for communication between the neurons and external electronics. The neural signals are recorded and sent to a computer that translates neural activity into robotic movement. ©2003 Georgia Institute of Technology

Keyword: Robotics
Link ID: 4011 - Posted: 06.24.2010

NewScientist.com news service A single viral protein causes behavioural changes in mice similar to those experienced by people with mental illness, reveals a study by Japanese researchers The effects of the protein, produced by a common pathogen called the Borna disease virus (BDV), may help scientists understand how viruses could contribute to psychiatric disease in humans. Viruses like BDV, influenza and HIV are suspected of playing a role in the development of psychiatric disorders, but so far no specific link has been shown. While one in three healthy people are infected with BDV - which attacks the central nervous system ­nearly 100 per cent of people with severe mood disorders have the virus, found a study in 2001. Animal models have revealed a more direct link between viruses and altered behaviour - mice infected with different viruses develop hyperactivity and cognitive deficits. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Keyword: Schizophrenia
Link ID: 4010 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News — For the first time, scientists have identified a member of the animal kingdom that dies spontaneously during sex. While other animals, such as salmon and mayflies, die shortly after mating, the male Argiope aurantia is the first known species for which mating is an instantaneous trigger for death. According to a paper published in the current Royal Society Biology Letters , the male spider must insert both of his sexual organs, called palps, into the female's genital opening. Death happens just after insertion of the second palp. Copyright © 2003 Discovery Communications Inc.

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 4009 - Posted: 06.24.2010