In multiple sclerosis, new drugs and new insights are giving rise to new hopes BY KATHERINE HOBSON Lawrence Vail knew something was terribly wrong. More than a year ago, he was walking across a busy street in Boston when his leg went numb. Then came double vision and a mental fog that was so bad the 44-year-old thought he'd have to quit his job. But almost as quickly as he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, his doctor at Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital put him on Avonex, one of several MS drugs approved over the past decade. After the disease changed his life, the medicine has changed it back. He can talk and express himself again. "The drug meant you go from the edge of the cliff to about 30 feet before the edge," he says. Tanya Pugliano, another MS patient at Brigham, also tried Avonex. But it didn't stop her legs from giving out or her hands from going numb. Neither did another MS drug, Copaxone. Now the 29-year-old is undergoing monthly chemotherapy treatments, like a cancer patient, trying yet another way of fighting back against the disease. Had either patient developed MS 15 years ago, even doctors at renowned medical centers like Brigham would have had little to offer them. They would have been powerless to stop the basic disaster of MS: a patient's immune system that savagely assaults the nerves in the brain and spinal cord. Now, thanks to a handful of recently developed drugs–one just approved a few months ago–physicians can blunt this attack. "It's not a cure, but it's a far cry from what we had before," says neurologist Fred Lublin, director of the Corinne Goldsmith Dickinson Center for Multiple Sclerosis at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. Copyright © 2002 U.S. News & World Report, L.P.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis; Neuroimmunology
Link ID: 2747 - Posted: 06.24.2010

LARA JAKES JORDAN Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Scientists are hopeful that the discovery of a fatal gene mutation, now found only in Amish newborns, could be a major step toward preventing brain defects in babies worldwide. The genetic disorder, known as Amish microcephaly, is specific to the Old Order Amish community in Lancaster County, Pa. It amounts to a breakdown in DNA creation that causes abnormally small heads and brains in fetuses and, eventually, death. The 2 1/2-year study by the National Genome Research Institute in Bethesda, Md., is the first of its kind to link problems with DNA production to fetal brain development, said Dr. Leslie Biesecker, the report's lead author. It was first reported in the September issue of Nature Genetics.

Keyword: Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2746 - Posted: 10.02.2002

Fears are growing for the safety of a rare bird of prey which got lost at sea while making a record migration from Scotland to Africa. The young honey buzzard, which only learned to fly a month ago, went off course after it was caught in difficult weather conditions over the Atlantic. A satellite tracking system estimates that it has made the longest flight ever recorded by a bird of prey and was in the air for more than 100 hours during a journey in excess of 5,000 kilometres. However, concern about the fate of the bird is growing among conservationists and enthusiasts who have been following its progress over the internet. Two honey buzzards were being tracked as part of an attempt to learn the mysteries of their migration south. The Forestry Commission and the Highland Foundation for Wildlife teamed up to follow their journey. (C) BBC

Keyword: Animal Migration
Link ID: 2745 - Posted: 10.01.2002

By CLAUDIA DREIFUS CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Among the high-flying lawyers who roam the halls of Harvard Law School, Steven M. Wise, 51, is an oddity. Instead of devoting himself to the fine points of torts or contracts, he teaches the school's first ever course in animal rights law. Moreover, Mr. Wise, who runs a small law firm that litigates for the interests of animals, has written two well-reviewed books on the subject, "Rattling the Cage: Toward Legal Rights for Animals" and the recently released "Drawing the Line: Science and the Case for Animal Rights." Mr. Wise spends much of his time trying to develop legal theories to advance his cause. "Almost all my work is directed toward breaching the legal wall that separates humans from nonhumans," he said over coffee at the Charles Hotel. "I'm interested in getting the first nonhuman animals their rights because I think once that happens the paradigm will shift. I'm very practical about this. It's going to take a while." Copyright The New York Times Company

Keyword: ADHD
Link ID: 2744 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By MARY DUENWALD An 11-month-old baby, her face spattered with food and her lips wet with drool, pushes her chin toward the camera and says, "Da da da da da" in a soft singsong voice. A few seconds later, though, the picture freezes and a small grid appears, superimposed over the baby's mouth. Look carefully and the lines enable you to see that as the baby babbles, her mouth opens wider on the right side than on the left. Suddenly, what was merely cute becomes scientifically interesting. If the baby babbles mainly on the right, the researchers say, it means that babbling is a form of language. Copyright The New York Times Company

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Language
Link ID: 2743 - Posted: 10.01.2002

Bethesda, Maryland —The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today the award of a contract to Chimp Haven, Inc., a private, non-profit organization, to establish and operate a chimpanzee sanctuary. The sanctuary will provide lifetime care for Federally owned or supported chimpanzees that are no longer needed for biomedical research. The contractor will maintain high standards for quality care and ensure state-of-the-art treatment of the chimpanzees. The ten-year, cost-sharing contract was awarded by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), a component of NIH. Over the term of the contract, NCRR will provide approximately $19 million in total costs, and Chimp Haven will contribute approximately $4 million toward direct costs. Chimp Haven was selected for the contract through a competitive, technical review process conducted by a group of outside experts in the fields of nonhuman primate management, behavioral sciences, and veterinary medical care. “NCRR takes very seriously its responsibility for the health and welfare of research animals,” said Dr. Judith Vaitukaitis, director of NCRR. “With this contract, our goal is to ensure that the highest level of humane care is provided to these animals, which have contributed to biomedical research. We are pleased that a contractor such as Chimp Haven has undertaken this important task and know from our interactions with them that they will show compassion for these chimpanzees and will ensure that the animals receive quality care and treatment.”

Keyword: Miscellaneous
Link ID: 2742 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Two independent research groups, led by Drs. Haruhiko Siomi (Institute for Genome Research, University of Tokushima, Japan) and Gregory Hannon (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, USA) have discovered that the Drosophila version of the human fragile X mental retardation protein associates with components of the RNAi pathway, suggesting that the molecular mechanism underlying fragile X syndrome may involve an RNAi-related process. "It has been our feeling since we became involved in the field several years ago that only through an understanding of the mechanism of RNAi would we be able to understand the biological implications of this process," states Dr. Hannon. Fragile X syndrome is the most common form of hereditary mental retardation, affecting 1 in 4000 males and 1 in 8000 females. Fragile X syndrome is the result of a genetic mutation at one end of the fragile X mental retardation 1 gene (FMR1) that causes the abnormal inactivation of the gene. It is known that the protein encoded by FMR1 -- the so-called fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) -- binds to RNA and is thought to regulate the expression of specific genes during neural development, but the mode of FMRP action in cells is yet to be defined.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 2741 - Posted: 10.01.2002

Berkeley - Although boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) greatly outnumber girls, girls have been underdiagnosed and their condition is greatly underappreciated, according to a pair of studies in the October issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. The lead author is Stephen Hinshaw, professor of psychology at University of California, Berkeley. These new studies contradict earlier findings about girls with ADHD. But Hinshaw's explanation is simple: Unlike the six-to-12-year-old girls in his studies, girls in several previous studies were taking ADHD medication. Hinshaw's work also included a much larger sample than nearly all earlier studies and was conducted over a longer period of time. "These girls, compared to a matched comparison group, are very impaired, academically and socially," said Hinshaw, an expert in child clinical psychology and developmental psychopathology, who continues to study them.

Keyword: ADHD; Development of the Brain
Link ID: 2740 - Posted: 10.01.2002

Gene finding may shed light on normal brain development Bethesda, Maryland — An international team, led by researchers from the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI), has discovered the genetic cause for a rare form of microcephaly, a devastating brain disorder that has stricken infants among the Older Order Amish for nine generations. The study, published in the September issue of Nature Genetics, describes the gene mutation that underlies Amish microcephaly (MCPHA), a birth defect marked by a profoundly small head and brain size. Over the past 40 years, 61 babies with MCPHA have been born to 23 nuclear families in the Old Order Amish community in Lancaster County, Pa. None of the children has lived beyond the age of 14 months, and most die between 4-6 months. In their study in Nature Genetics, the NHGRI team found the gene defect causes developing cells to lose their normal ability to transport the building blocks of DNA, called base pairs, across the inner membrane walls of the mitochondria, which are tiny structures that function as the cells’ metabolic power houses. Researchers believe that without this carrying ability, called mitochondrial deoxynucleotide transport, the cell’s mitochondria cannot make DNA properly, causing the brain of the unborn child to develop abnormally. The NHGRI data also indicate that mitochondrial deoxynucleotide transport may play a crucial role in normal prenatal brain growth.

Keyword: Development of the Brain; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 2739 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Study Suggesting Risk of Brain Damage Questioned by Critics of Methodology By Rick Weiss Washington Post Staff Writer New research has escalated a decades-old scientific and political battle over the risks inherent in the popular street drug known as Ecstasy. A synthetic chemical cousin of "speed," Ecstasy already had a rap sheet as long as its chemical name: 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, or MDMA. Studies in animals have suggested it may be toxic to brain cells that help regulate mood. It's been linked to memory impairment in some users. And rarely the drug triggers a mysterious reaction in which the body becomes radically overheated, causing sudden death. If that weren't enough to make potential users think twice, Ecstasy is highly illegal. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has placed it in its most restrictive "schedule 1" category, meaning it has no medical value and carries serious risks. © 2002 The Washington Post Company

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2738 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Drug-related deaths have soared in recent years Thousands of lives could be saved each year if addiction services were improved, experts have said. The charity Action on Addiction estimates that 150,000 people die as a result of an addiction every year. According to the charity, one in three British adults has an addiction which damages their health because they are hooked to alcohol, smoking or drugs. The charity has launched a campaign called Angels Against Addiction in an effort to improve services and boost research. It believes that current services are failing people with an addiction. And it has warned that the problem is increasingly affecting women and young people. (C) BBC

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 2737 - Posted: 09.30.2002

The whites of a cow's eyes could be a measure of its welfare. CHARLOTTE WESTNEY Want to know how a cow is feeling? Look into its eyes. The more stressed a cow is, the bigger the whites of its eyes, say researchers in Norway1. Farmers and inspectors might use the difference as a measure of cattle welfare. Agnethe Sandem and colleagues of the Agricultural University of Norway, Ås, gave one group of 12 Norwegian Red cows an open box of fresh grass and gave another 12 a similar box with a transparent perforated lid that stopped them eating the grass they could see and smell. The team video-d the animals' reactions. The eye-whites of the frustrated group - even animals showing no other signs of stress - were over twice normal size. Stressed cows might open their eyes more to take in extra visual information that may help them deal with their situation, the researchers speculate. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Stress
Link ID: 2736 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Even the best baseball players dither more than an archer fish. CHARLOTTE WESTNEY Archer fish are better than the best baseball players at predicting where plummeting prey will land, suggests a new study. They need only one glance. The fish (Toxotes jaculatrix) shoot water jets from their mouths at insects perched overhead. After a hit, they have to guess where their lunch will land, and get to it before it's gobbled by fellow fish. "It's very important for them to be quick," says Stefan Schuster of Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany. He took high-speed videos of the fish and found it takes them just a tenth of a second to judge when and where in the water their food will fall. They then flip towards their target and swim there without looking back1. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 2735 - Posted: 06.24.2010

EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern University scientists have made a key molecular discovery that has implications for a wide range of diseases characterized by the loss of nerve function, including Huntington's, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's diseases, cystic fibrosis and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, the human form of mad cow disease. The findings, which will be published in the Oct. 1 issue of Nature Cell Biology, could lead to an understanding of how to prevent these diseases and to the development of effective drugs. All human neurodegenerative diseases have two things in common. First, misfolded and damaged proteins clump together to form toxic species that aggregate, destroy cell function and cause disease. Second, studies have shown that special protective proteins, called molecular chaperones, can suppress these toxic effects. This question remained: How do the chaperones and aggregates interact with each other?

Keyword: Huntingtons; Parkinsons
Link ID: 2734 - Posted: 09.30.2002

Scientists prove that cleaning is bad for you By Sarah-Kate Templeton Health Editor SCOTTISH researchers have proved what housewives always knew: the more housework women do, the more depressed they become. Washing dishes, pounding the floor with the vacuum cleaner and scrubbing the bath really do get you down -- and that's official. Anecdotal experience previously led doctors to recommend physical activity as a means of raising the spirits. Scientists later confirmed their observations by proving that exercise causes the body to release feel-good chemicals called endorphins which have a positive effect on the brain. But a closer analysis of the theory has found that not all physical activity cheers you up, and housework actually makes you feel worse. ©2002 smg sunday newspapers ltd

Keyword: Depression
Link ID: 2733 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By ALESSANDRA STANLEY When Nancy Reagan received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House last summer, she cast her eyes demurely downward as President Bush praised her 1980's "Just Say No," campaign against teenage drug use. Mr. Bush did not cite Mrs. Reagan's current and far more divisive cause — federal financing for embryonic stem cell research, which anti-abortion groups oppose. Last year Mr. Bush sharply limited such research. At 81, the former first lady is obliquely but persistently campaigning — through friends, advisers, lawmakers and her own well-placed calls and letters — to reverse the president's decision. Mrs. Reagan believes that embryonic stem cell research could uncover a cure for Alzheimer's, the disease that has wiped out her husband's memory. She was dismayed, friends say, when the White House took issue on Monday with a new California law that encourages embryonic stem cell research. Copyright The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers; Stem Cells
Link ID: 2732 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By The Associated Press WASHINGTON — The epilepsy drug topiramate appears to prevent migraine headaches — and unlike some other migraine medications that seem to attract pounds, its main side effect is weight loss, said a study released yesterday. About 28 million Americans suffer from migraines. A number of drugs to prevent migraines are sold, but they don't work for everyone, so scientists are seeking new medications. In recent years that search has included epilepsy drugs — after scientists discovered that migraines are caused not by abnormal blood vessels but by an electrical disorder of brain cells. Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company

Keyword: Epilepsy; Obesity
Link ID: 2731 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Electronic sensors explain how being sick can stink By Brendan A. Maher Volatile odorants spewing forth from every living thing reveal a hidden trove of factors like diet, health, and genetic composition. With astonishing acuteness, most animals can read these olfactory messages and model their behaviors accordingly. "Odors are their windows on the world," one researcher says of mice. Others have noted that some honeybees recognize illness in hives and avoid them.1 Dogs have alerted their owners to such maladies as melanoma2 and epileptic seizures.3 For years, the industrial and defense arenas have used electronic sensors to detect toxic gases. Now, life scientists want to know if similar instruments, dubbed 'E-noses,' could be designed to make accurate medical diagnoses: A clinician might simply wave a wand over a patient and check for olfactory signatures. The future for such technologies evokes images more familiar to Star Trek fans, but throughout history doctors have relied on their noses to assess patients.4 Physicians have associated scrofula with a beer odor, typhoid with a brown-bread aroma, and diabetes with a chewing gum (Juicy Fruit) scent on the breath. The Latin fetor hepaticus describes malodor associated with severe liver disease--even kidney failure has a reported reek. Despite the historical associations between disease and smell, most authors of medical handbooks have ignored the sniff test, because the nose is subjective but diagnostic technologies are not. Clinical results are promising so far, researchers say. The growing complexity and usability of these E-noses keeps churning up new applications both within and outside the medical arena. The devices now monitor food quality, and applications are blooming for various infections, environmental hazards, explosives, and even innocuous odors in the home. ©2002, The Scientist Inc.

Keyword: Chemical Senses (Smell & Taste); Robotics
Link ID: 2730 - Posted: 06.24.2010

There are plenty of genes to work with when treating epilepsy, but real therapeutic results lie in the distant future By Laura DeFrancesco Treating people who have seizure disorders is a little like playing roulette. Place a bet on a drug from column A and hope for a hit. If that drug doesn't work, try one from column B. This process can drag on for months or years, and for many people with epilepsy--between 25% and 30%--relief from seizures never comes. With 40 to 50 million people experiencing seizures worldwide, this means that huge numbers of people receive no benefit from treatment. One might think that epilepsy would be the poster child for pharmacogenomics. Steering people to the right personal drug would save billions in medical costs, plus reduce their pain and suffering. An Epilepsy Foundation study found that this disease costs the United States $12.5 billion annually, mostly stemming from loss of productivity borne largely by those with intractable or poorly controlled epilepsy.1 But what makes epilepsy so difficult to treat is that more often than not, the seizure's cause is unknown. Familial forms exist, and certain injuries and conditions such as head trauma or a brain tumor can cause it, but these cases are the exception. Most people who have seizures don't know why, and physicians cannot predict whether another will occur, and whether patients need treatment. ©2002, The Scientist Inc.

Keyword: Epilepsy; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 2729 - Posted: 06.24.2010

ST. PAUL, MN – Researchers analyzing the records of 1,378 patients from three clinical trials of mitoxantrone as a treatment for multiple sclerosis (MS) reveal a small, but significant risk for developing diminished left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), which is a decrease in function of the left ventrical, and a lesser risk for congestive heart failure following treatment. The study is reported in the latest issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Mitoxantrone (MITO) is approved in the United States for the treatment of worsening relapsing-remitting, secondary-progressive, and progressive-relapsing MS. Unlike patients with leukemia and solid tumors who most often receive MITO in combination with other drugs, patients with MS are treated with MITO as a single drug to alleviate disease symptoms, said study author Donald Goodkin, MD, medical affairs director with Amgen Corp., a U.S. marketer of mitoxantrone in the United States. Cardiac toxicity, which may cause tachycardia and arrhythmia, LVEF, or congestive heart failure, has already been observed and reported in cancer patients who receive mitoxantrone as a chemotherapeutic agent.

Keyword: Multiple Sclerosis
Link ID: 2728 - Posted: 06.24.2010