Study published in Journal of the American Medical Association Washington, DC Hopes that naproxen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), or rofecoxib, a COX-2 inhibitor, could slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease (AD) have been dashed as researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center report in the June 4 Journal of the American Medical Association that neither drug slows the cognitive deterioration that is the hallmark of AD. In addition, more adverse effects were reported in patients taking either drug as compared to the placebo group. In the first NIH-funded, multicenter, placebo-controlled study of its kind, the Georgetown researchers set out to test the efficacy of low-dose naproxen (sold under the brand name Aleve®) and rofecoxib (sold under the name Vioxx®) in slowing cognitive decline in patients with mild-to-moderate AD. Abundant laboratory and epidemiological evidence pointed to these two drugs as potential effective therapeutic agents, given that inflammation is a key feature of AD. Despite this encouraging body of evidence, neither drug held up under this new double-blinded, study. In the 351 patients enrolled in the 12-month study, placed either in the naproxen, rofecoxib, or placebo groups, neither active treatment had a beneficial effect on the mean change in score on the Alzheimer Disease Assessment Scale Cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog). This test measures memory, attention, reasoning, language, orientation, and complex motor function. In fact, patients taking rofecoxib experienced more rapid cognitive decline than the naproxen and placebo groups.

Keyword: Alzheimers
Link ID: 3888 - Posted: 06.05.2003

— Neurons transmit chemical signals in a fleeting “kiss-and-run” process, which in large part determines how quickly neurons can fire, according to new studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers. The transfer of information between nerve cells occurs when chemicals called neurotransmitters are released into the synapse, the junction between neurons. Electrical impulses in the neuron cause tiny vesicles loaded with neurotransmitters to move to the tip of the nerve terminal where they are released. In an article published in the June 5, 2003, issue of the journal Nature, HHMI investigator Charles F. Stevens and Sunil Gandhi, both at The Salk Institute, reported that they have devised a technique that permits them to visualize individual vesicles after they have released their cargo. The new findings are significant, said the researchers, because they answer questions about the rate at which synaptic vesicles can be recycled. This rate determines how much information nerve cells can transmit. ©2003 Howard Hughes Medical Institute

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 3887 - Posted: 06.24.2010

An antidepressant has been found to help women by reducing menopausal symptoms such as hot flushes. The study of the drug paroxetine was funded by its makers GlaxoSmithKline. Menopausal symptoms are usually treated with hormone replacement therapy, which reduces flushes by 80 to 90%. But concerns have been raised about HRT, after a study suggested an increased risk of heart attack, stroke, blood clots and breast cancer, so doctors have been looking for alternatives. It is thought hot flushes occur when falling oestrogen levels affect the central nervous system's temperature control mechanism. Drugs including paroxetine had been seen to reduce hot flushes in women with a history of breast cancer. It is believed they worked inhibited the brain's reuptake of serotonin, a natural chemical that modulates mood, emotion, sleep and appetite. (C) BBC

Keyword: Hormones & Behavior; Depression
Link ID: 3886 - Posted: 06.04.2003

Are psychedelic drugs good for you? By John Horgan A year ago, hoping to dispel the postpartum gloom that had gripped me after I finished writing a book, I hiked into a forest near my home and pitched a tent under some pine trees. I spent that day and evening listening to the forest, scribbling in my journal, and thinking—all while under the influence of a psychedelic drug. The next morning I returned to my wife and children feeling better than I had in months. What I did that day should not be illegal. Adults seeking solace or insight ought to be allowed to consume psychedelics such as LSD, psilocybin, and mescaline. U.S. laws now classify them as Schedule 1 drugs, banned for all purposes because of their health risks. But recent studies have shown that psychedelics—which more than 20 million Americans have ingested—can be harmless and even beneficial when taken under appropriate circumstances. Citing this research, some scholars and scientists are proposing that the prohibitions against psychedelics—or entheogens, "God engenderers," as believers in their spiritual benefits prefer to call them—should be reconsidered. This legal issue has recently been brought to a head by a religious sect in New Mexico that is suing the United States for the right to drink a hallucinogenic tea called ayahuasca in its ceremonies. A federal court is expected to rule on the potentially momentous case any day now. ©2003 Microsoft Corporation.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3885 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By JOHN LANGONE Slim to None: A Journey Through the Wasteland of Anorexia Treatment," by Jennifer Hendricks. Contemporary Books, $19.95. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, says the foreword to this book, which was published posthumously. They represent an "unrecognized epidemic" that afflicts seven million women and a million men in the United States, the writer says, and 86 percent of sufferers report its onset by age 20. Only half report that they are cured. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 3884 - Posted: 06.04.2003

The old brain has more tricks up its sleeve than researchers thought. In addition to two previously identified regions, a third spot in the mammalian adult brain can generate neurons, according to a new study. This particular patch degenerates in Parkinson's and other diseases. But whether the new-growth phenomenon plays a role in age-related illness has yet to be determined. Researchers have known for several years that adult mammals can grow new neurons, but the only parts of the brain that have been found to do so are the hippocampus, where new memories are made, and the olfactory bulb. Scientists have been hoping to find signs of new growth in the substantia nigra, a midbrain region mangled by Parkinson's disease, which trashes neurons that produce the neurotransmitter dopamine. But last year, researchers looking for such growth in adult rats found none. In the new study, Ann Marie Janson of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and colleagues counted the number of dopamine-producing neurons in the substantia nigra of mice between 2 and 20 months of age. The team found that, over time, the number of neurons remained the same even though some neurons died. This suggested that the brain replaced the dead ones with new growth. The researchers then injected a dye that colors actively growing neurons into the brains of living mice. After continuously staining brains for 3 weeks, the team removed the brains and found about 20 new cells in each. Copyright © 2003 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Parkinsons; Stem Cells
Link ID: 3883 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scans hint connoisseurs respond differently to a tipple. HELEN R. PILCHER Appreciating fine wine takes brains as well as a practised palate and a florid vocabulary, new research suggests. In connoisseurs, a quick slurp seems to trigger a cerebral response that is absent in casual drinkers. It may help them to process and describe their tipple. The burst of activity is in the mid frontal cortex, a brain area involved in language and recognition, find Gisela Hagberg and her colleagues at the Santa Lucia Foundation in Rome, Italy. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 3882 - Posted: 06.24.2010

CHAPEL HILL - A new study links a protein discovered a few years ago at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with formation of scar tissue that occurs after injury to nerve cells in the brain or spinal cord. Such scarring apparently blocks neurons of the central nervous system from recovering after traumatic injury - inhibiting their axon filaments from regenerating and ferrying nerve impulses elsewhere, to other neurons and tissue, including muscle. Loss of nerve cell function and paralysis can result. The findings, published online today (June 4) in the journal Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, add new knowledge to a long-standing issue in neuroscience: why do nerve cells in the peripheral nervous system grow back after an injury such as a skin cut, but cells in the brain or spinal cord do not.

Keyword: Regeneration
Link ID: 3881 - Posted: 06.04.2003

By Katharine Arney Clever canines can do something which not even our closest relative, the chimp, can manage. They can follow the human gaze or a pointing hand, figure out what it is we are looking at and seek out the target. Dogs have spent thousands of years living with humans so a Hungarian research team set out to investigate whether this cunning ability came from wolves, the genetic ancestors of today's dogs, or developed during domestication. Dr Adam Miklosi, at Eotvos University in Budapest, compared the abilities of dogs with hand-reared wolves to find hidden food from human cues, such as pointing. These experiments are the first ever performed with such highly "humanised" wolves, brought up with round-the-clock care from volunteers in Dr Miklosi's department. (C) BBC

Keyword: Animal Communication; Intelligence
Link ID: 3880 - Posted: 06.03.2003

By RICHARD A. FRIEDMAN, M.D. We humans take our feelings very seriously. How else to explain the theatrical dread most of us have of boredom? After all, who among us hasn't threatened to die of it at some time or another? Recently faced with a long trans-Atlantic flight, I naïvely assumed I could trot out an assortment of diversions to beat the tedium of cramped confinement, airplane food and wailing infants. Shortly after takeoff, I pulled out a stack of magazines and books, feeling impervious to the ennui that would soon overtake my fellow passengers. Dead wrong. Copyright 2003 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Depression; Drug Abuse
Link ID: 3879 - Posted: 06.03.2003

Paralysed patients are looking to scientists working on spinal-cord regeneration to help them walk again. HELEN PEARSON It was a miracle of almost biblical proportions. In 1998, scientists in Israel revealed that rats whose spinal cords had been severed had walked again after an injection of healing immune cells called macrophages1. Their hopes buoyed by enthusiastic media coverage, paralysed patients began to dream of taking their own tentative steps. Five years on, the status of those dreams remains unclear. Proneuron Biotechnologies, a Los Angeles-based company founded on the back of the research of lead investigator Michal Schwartz at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, is expected soon to release the results of an initial trial of the procedure on eight patients with spinal injuries. Media reports have indicated that some patients have recovered some feeling and movement, but many researchers do not expect a repeat of the rodent miracle. Indeed, they claim that at least one group has since tried, and failed, to reproduce Schwartz's original animal results. Schwartz's study is not alone in this regard. Over the past few years, scientists working on spinal-cord repair have revealed encouraging results on several occasions, only to find that other groups have struggled to recreate the same outcome. Three papers published in Neuron2-4 last month underline the point, reporting contradictory findings in parallel studies of 'knockout' mice lacking proteins that are believed to be among the main inhibitors of nerve growth in the spinal cord. "Reproducibility has been a major problem in spinal-cord injury," says Oswald Steward, director of the Reeve-Irvine Research Center at the University of California, Irvine. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Regeneration; Movement Disorders
Link ID: 3878 - Posted: 06.24.2010

A group of researchers from The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI) and the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF) have identified a small chemical molecule that controls the fate of embryonic stem cells. "We found molecules that can direct the embryonic stem cells to [become] neurons," says Sheng Ding, who recently completed his Ph.D. work at TSRI and is becoming an assistant professor in the chemistry department. Ding is the lead author on the study, which is described in an upcoming issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. "This is an important step in our efforts to understand how to modulate stem cell proliferation and fate," says Peter Schultz, Ph.D., TSRI professor of chemistry and Scripps Family Chair of TSRI's Skaggs Institute for Chemical Biology.

Keyword: Stem Cells
Link ID: 3877 - Posted: 06.03.2003

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Stroke victims may retain more motor coordination than previously thought, according to research led by Purdue University. The findings challenge current understanding of brain function and open new possibilities for aiding the physically challenged. The research team, which included faculty from Purdue and University of California-Berkeley, was led by Purdue professor Howard Zelaznik. The team found that the cerebellum may not be as fully responsible for the timing of "continuous" motions, such as drawing circles repeatedly on paper, as it is for "discontinuous" motions that have a more start-stop nature, such as tapping your finger rhythmically on a table. Patients with cerebellum damage who participated in the study had difficulty tapping a steady beat, but no such trouble with drawing circles in rhythm. The study indicates that stroke victims may retain some motor skills thought to have been lost to cerebellar damage.

Keyword: Stroke; Movement Disorders
Link ID: 3876 - Posted: 06.24.2010

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- How infants respond to their mother's touches and smiles influences their development in a manner much like what young birds experience when learning to sing, according to a research project involving the Department of Psychology at Indiana University Bloomington and the Biological Foundations of Behavior program at Franklin and Marshall College. An article on the research, titled "Social interaction shapes babbling: Testing parallels between birdsong and speech," will be published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The Web site for the journal is http://www.pnas.org/misc/highlights.shtml. The academy's Web site is http://www4.nationalacademies.org/nas/nashome.nsf. "The main point of our research is how the reaction of the babies to their mother's touches and smiles changes how they talk, and this corresponds to what birds do when learning to sing," said Meredith West, a professor of psychology and biology at IU. She collaborated on the article with Andrew King, a senior scientist at IU, and Michael Goldstein, an assistant professor of psychology at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. Copyright 2002, the Trustees of Indiana University

Keyword: Language; Animal Communication
Link ID: 3875 - Posted: 06.03.2003

Even casual smoking during pregnancy produces behavioural changes in newborn babies similar to those induced by illegal drugs, research has found. Scientists found that women who smoked just six to seven cigarettes per day gave birth to babies who more jittery, more excitable, stiffer and more difficult to console than newborns of non-smokers. And the higher the dose of nicotine measured in a mother, the greater the signs of stress in her new baby. The behavioural changes were similar to those found in newborns of women who use crack cocaine or heroin while pregnant - and were strong enough to suggest that babies go through a "nicotine withdrawal" response. Researcher Karen Law, from Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, said: "We have a legal drug in nicotine that may have the same toxic effect as illegal drugs. "It is a huge public health concern that so many people are suffering the costs of smoking, including newborns." (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 3874 - Posted: 06.02.2003

Evidence links free radicals generated from iron accumulation to this disorder By Mark Greener Patients with Parkinson disease endure a progressive loss of neurons, especially dopaminergic, in the substantia nigra and other subcortical nuclei. Hallmarks of PD also include intracytoplasmic Lewy bodies and abnormal neurites, especially in the subcortical nuclei and hippocampus of affected patients. Recent research shows that iron is associated with several of these hallmarks, as the evidence links PD with free radicals generated from iron accumulation in the midbrain. Lewy bodies, for example, include redox-active iron in patients with PD, and postmortem analyses reveal elevated iron levels in the substantia nigra. Iron, however, is a cofactor for tyrosine hydroxylase, the enzyme responsible for dopamine synthesis. The precise mechanism through which iron could lead to PD's symptoms is not fully characterized; researchers need to determine if it is a primary phenomenon or a secondary issue, notes Jack Sipe, adjunct professor and senior consultant in neurology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif.1 "However, there are tantalizing clues that iron accumulation in specific brain areas, such as the substantia nigra in PD or hippocampus in Alzheimer's, may play a role in promoting neurodegeneration through the formation of highly destructive oxygen free radicals," he says. ©2003, The Scientist Inc.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 3873 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Swallowing that broccoli and cauliflower is more difficult for some By Ricki Lewis Asking students to taste PTC-soaked paper is a classic classroom exercise to demonstrate a simple inherited trait. Some grimace, others look puzzled. "PTC perception is arguably one of the most studied human traits," says Sun-Wei Guo, a professor of pediatrics and biostatistics at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. A new investigation reveals more to chew on: Rare individuals who are not quite sure whether they taste phenylthiocarbamide (PTC) have provided a hint that the inheritance might not be straightforward. "PTC tasting was considered a Mendelian trait for 50 years. Only in the past 25 years has this model begun to fray," says Dennis Drayna, special expert at the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Drayna and colleagues from Stanford University and the University of Utah identified a major gene controlling PTC taste sensitivity. They described haplotypes that account for the differing proportions of tasters and nontasters in human populations.1 This new way of looking at inheritance of PTC-tasting ability also provides a tool to follow the trait in the primate cousins. In 1931 DuPont chemist A.L. Fox synthesized phenylthiocarbamide (similar compounds are in cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts and cauliflower) while researching artificial sweeteners. "He discovered accidentally that some people found the chemical intensely bitter, although he himself found it tasteless as chalk," relates Guo. "This taste dimorphism later was found to be hereditary." Danielle R. Reed, an associate member of the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, investigates the inheritance of PTC tasting with Guo.2 "PTC is a member of a large class of compounds characterized by their antithyroid properties and chemical structure, which includes an N-C=S group," she explains. The aforementioned veggies share this chemical group. ©2003, The Scientist Inc.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste)
Link ID: 3872 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Hunting hits monogamous species hardest. JOHN WHITFIELD Mammal species that stay true to just one partner are more likely to go extinct than those that play the field, according a study of Ghanaian nature reserves1. The finding is the first to link mating behaviour to extinction, and could change conservation priorities. "Many species that we assumed we didn't need to worry about are getting hammered as a result of their behaviour," says ecologist Justin Brashares of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, who carried out the study. Buffalo, for example, in which a few males monopolize all of the females are thriving, Brashares found. Monogamous antelopes, such as the dikdik, on the other hand, are in decline. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Keyword: Sexual Behavior
Link ID: 3871 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Research led by scientists at the U of T and Caprion Pharmaceuticals have uncovered the basis for a diagnostic, immunotherapy and vaccine, providing a way to detect and treat the brain-wasting damage of infectious prions like those found in mad cow disease and its human version, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. Dr. Neil Cashman, a principal investigator at U of T's Centre for Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases and professor in the Department of Medicine (neurology) and a Caprion founder, says a vaccine approach - which would likely be of most use in animals and livestock - could prevent animals from becoming infected. For humans with diseases like classical or variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob, an immunotherapeutic would provide patients with antibodies that bind infectious prions, enabling the immune system to recognize and attack them. For both humans and animals, the diagnostic screening potential of this discovery could significantly improve the safety of the human blood and food systems. Cashman, who also holds the Jeno Diener Chair in Neurodegenerative Diseases at U of T, says his team tried a new approach in studying infectious prions, which are particles thought to be composed of normal prion proteins that have been compromised and folded into rogue shapes.

Keyword: Prions
Link ID: 3870 - Posted: 06.02.2003

Younger Adults Find it Harder to Filter Out Negative Images WASHINGTON — Here’s good news about aging: When it comes to remembering emotional images, we tend -- as we get older -- to do what the song said, and “accentuate the positive, eliminate the negative.” Three California psychologists found that compared with younger adults, older adults recalled fewer negative than positive images. The memory bias favoring the recall of positive images increased in successively older age groups. The findings appear in the June issue of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, which is published by the American Psychological Association (APA). Psychologists have recently documented the tendency of older people to regulate their emotions more effectively than younger people, by maintaining positive feelings and lowering negative feelings. Researchers led by Susan Turk Charles, Ph.D., of the University of California, Irvine, wanted to understand how this happens -- and focused on the role of memory. © 2003 American Psychological Association

Keyword: Learning & Memory
Link ID: 3869 - Posted: 06.24.2010