If you regularly suffer from migraine pain (especially if you develop auras, which are visual or sensory phenomena that accompany the headache), your doctor has probably warned you about your susceptibility to heart attack or stroke. Now, thanks to findings announced in 2007, experts better understand which cardiac ailment is more likely to occur for any given migraine sufferer. Frequency matters. If you have fewer than one migraine a month, you're 50 percent more likely to have a heart attack than nonsufferers. If migraines strike at least weekly, you have three times the risk of stroke, compared with those who don't have this problem, says study co-author Tobias Kurth, MD, an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. Protect yourself: Unfortunately, existing research has not yet found that preventing migraines has the effect of lowering stroke or heart attack odds. However, by keeping your cardiovascular system as healthy as possible, you diminish your chance of a cardiac event, according to the National Stroke Association. To do this, control known hazards, such as high cholesterol and obesity, via diet and exercise. You should also quit smoking and limit alcohol intake (no more than one drink a day for women, according to the American Heart Association). © 2009 Rodale Inc.

Keyword: Pain & Touch
Link ID: 13071 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Scientists have found a way to block the genetic flaw that causes the most common form of muscular dystrophy. Tests on mice found injecting them with a compound that neutralises the faulty gene's activity led to muscle cells working more effectively. The US team's work, published in Science, could be a step towards treatments to reverse the symptoms of the disease. UK experts said the study results were "exciting". Around 7,500 children and adults in the UK have some form of muscular dystrophy. Myotonic dystrophy, like other forms of the condition, causes muscle weakness and wasting that is usually progressive. It typically affects muscles in the face, jaw and neck. Another symptom is muscle stiffness - myotonia - which tends to be seen in the hands. The condition can appear at any age, and currently there is no treatment that can halt its progress. It is caused by a mutation of a specific gene on chromosome 19. Scientists discovered RNA - which takes genetic messages from the nucleus to the rest of the cell in order to build proteins - was key to myotonic dystrophy. Each gene produces its own RNA. But in myotonic dystrophy, the genetic defect leads to production of a toxic RNA which blocks certain proteins from carrying out their normal functions by sticking to them like Velcro. In this study scientists from the University of Rochester in New York found the blocking of a protein called "muscleblind" causes the characteristic hand stiffness. The toxic RNA accumulates as deposits which are visible in the cell's nucleus. The team used a synthetic molecule, called an antisense morpholino oligonucleotide, that mimics a segment of the genetic code to break up these deposits and re-establish cellular activity. It was specifically designed to bind to the toxic RNA and neutralise its harmful effects. When it was injected into the muscle cells of mice with myotonic dystrophy, the stuck proteins were released and resumed their normal function. The abnormal electrical (myotonic) activity went away. (C)BBC

Keyword: Muscles; Movement Disorders
Link ID: 13070 - Posted: 07.20.2009

By John Cloud For the better part of the past half-century, feminists, their opponents and armies of academics have debated the differences between men and women. Only in the past few years have scientists been able to use imaging technology to look inside men's and women's heads to investigate whether those stereotypical gender differences have roots in the brain. No concrete results have emerged from these studies yet, but now a new functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study of children offers at least one explanation for some common tween social behaviors: girls are hardwired to care about one-on-one relationships with their BFFs (best friends forever), while the brains of boys are more attuned to group dynamics and competition with other boys. (See the top 10 medical breakthroughs of 2008.) The study, conducted by researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Georgia State University, begins with a premise that every parent of a tween knows: as kids emerge into puberty, their focus changes dramatically. They care less about their families and more about their peers. So what's actually going on inside these young brains? Scientists asked 34 healthy kids, ages 8 to 17, to look at pictures of 40 other boys and girls and judge how much they would like to interact with them online. The kids were asked to rate those in the photos on a scale from 0 ("not interested at all") to 100 ("very interested"). The NIMH scientists told the kids that their ratings would be revealed to the boys and girls in the pictures, and the scientists said they would arrange online chats between the kids and those they liked. The chats were supposed to occur two weeks later. (Read "The Myth of the Math Gender Gap.") © 2009 Time Inc

Keyword: Sexual Behavior; Emotions
Link ID: 13069 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By GRETCHEN REYNOLDS Recently, researchers in England discovered that simply rinsing your mouth with a sports drink may fight fatigue. In the experiment, which was published online in February in the Journal of Physiology, eight well-trained cyclists completed a strenuous, all-out time trial on stationary bicycles in a lab. The riders were hooked up to machines that measured their heart rate and power output. Throughout the ride, the cyclists swished various liquids in their mouths but did not swallow. Some of the drinks contained carbohydrates, the primary fuel used during exercise. The other drinks were just flavored, sugar-free water. By the end of the time trials, the cyclists who had rinsed with the carbohydrate drinks — and spit them out — finished significantly faster than the water group. Their heart rates and power output were also higher. But when rating the difficulty of the ride, on a numerical scale, their feelings about the effort involved matched those for the water group. In a separate portion of the experiment, the scientists, using a functional M.R.I., found that areas within the brain that are associated with reward, motivation and emotion were activated when subjects swished a carbohydrate drink. It seems that the brains of the riders getting the carboyhydrate-containing drinks sensed that the riders were about to get more fuel (in the form of calories), which appears to have allowed their muscles to work harder even though they never swallowed the liquid. The role of the brain in determining how far and hard we can exercise — its role, in other words, in fatigue — is contentious. Until recently, most researchers would have said that the brain played littlerole in determining how hard we can exercise. Muscles failed, physiologists thought, because of biochemical reactions within the muscles themselves. They began getting too little oxygen or were doused with too much lactic acid or calcium. They stiffened and seized. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Muscles; Emotions
Link ID: 13068 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Katherine Harmon People with Asperger's syndrome, a variety of autism spectrum disorder, characteristically have trouble perceiving the mental states of others, making social interactions difficult. But many adults with the disorder lead highly functional lives, leaving researchers to wonder how their brains differ from those of neurologically normal adults and children. A report published online yesterday in Science shows that many adults with Asperger's who cannot spontaneously anticipate another person’s state of mind, can still correctly guess it when given a simple verbal prompt to. To test the ability of adults with Asperger's to read another person’s state of mind, the study authors used a test often given to children called the Sally-Anne False Belief Test. In the experiment, subjects watch as an actor places an object in a box and then leaves the room. While the first actor is gone, another actor moves the object to a different location in the room. When the first actor returns to the room, the researchers track the eye movements of the subjects, which indicate where they think the first actor will look for the object. Research has shown that normally developing children as young as two years old correctly expect the first actor to look in the box in which he or she placed the object—not in the spot to which the second actor moved it—thereby imagining the world from someone else’s point of view. © 1996-2009 Scientific American Inc

Keyword: Autism
Link ID: 13067 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Ewen Callaway We're all familiar with the stereotype of the tortured artist. Salvador Dali's various disorders and Sylvia Plath's depression spring to mind. Now new research seems to show why: a genetic mutation linked to psychosis and schizophrenia also influences creativity. The finding could help to explain why mutations that increase a person's risk of developing mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar syndrome have been preserved, even preferred, during human evolution, says Szabolcs Kéri, a researcher at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, who carried out the study. Kéri examined a gene involved in brain development called neuregulin 1, which previous studies have linked to a slightly increased risk of schizophrenia. Moreover, a single DNA letter mutation that affects how much of the neuregulin 1 protein is made in the brain has been linked to psychosis, poor memory and sensitivity to criticism. About 50 per cent of healthy Europeans have one copy of this mutation, while 15 per cent possess two copies. To determine how these variations affect creativity, Kéri genotyped 200 adults who responded to adverts seeking creative and accomplished volunteers. He also gave the volunteers two tests of creative thinking, and devised an objective score of their creative achievements, such as filing a patent or writing a book. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Schizophrenia; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13066 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Michael Price A hungry bat screeches out ultrasonic waves and listens as they echo off surrounding objects. One of those echoes sounds an awful lot like a tasty moth, so it swoops in for the kill--but grabs only air. Thwarted again by the tiger moth Bertholdia trigona. New research explains the clever defense; the moth emits ultrasonic clicks that throw off bats' sonarlike echolocation, like jamming a radio signal. It's the first time this type of acoustic interference has been demonstrated in the natural world. For about 40 years, researchers have been intrigued by the clicking tiger moth, which ranges from Central America to Colorado. Lots of moths click by vibrating membranes on their abdomens, but B. trigona is an order of magnitude louder. "You can hold them up to your ear and hear them," says the study's co-author, biologist William Conner of Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Researchers have noticed that clicking moths were eaten less often than their quieter cousins, but how the rapid, high-pitched zzt-zzt-zzt wards off bats has been a mystery. Three possible explanations have emerged. One is that the clicks startle the bats. If that were the case, though, you'd expect bats to learn to ignore the sound, Conner says. Another hypothesis is that the clicks serve as a warning, letting bats know the moth is distasteful. That's thought to be the case with some toxic moths, such as the related dogbane tiger moth, Cycnia tenera; and other nontoxic moths might mimic the technique. Finally, the moths may somehow jam the bats' echolocation, because the clicks occur in the same frequency range as the ultrasound used by the bats. © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Hearing
Link ID: 13065 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Susan Gaidos It started as a quiet dinner conversation, punctuated with laughter. Soon, the rapid-fire “ha-ha-has” took on the tone of gunfire. Convinced it was directed at him, the young man got up to confront the noisy diners. Naturally, the guests at the next table had no idea what the problem was. They were simply enjoying themselves and … laughing. Embarrassed by his outburst, the young man left the restaurant and never returned. By most accounts, laughter is good medicine, the best even. But for some, such as the embarrassed diner, a good-natured chuckle isn’t funny at all. Morbidly averse to being the butt of a joke, these folks will go out of their way to avoid certain people or situations for fear of being ridiculed. For them, merely being around others who are talking and laughing can cause tension and apprehension. Until recently, such people might have been written off as spoilsports. But in the mid-1990s, an astute German psychologist recognized the problem for what it is: a debilitating fear of being laughed at. Over the past decade, psychologists, sociologists, linguists and humor experts have examined this trait, technically known as gelotophobia. Though it sounds like an ailment involving Italian ice cream, scientists worldwide now recognize it as a distinct social phobia. Studies of causes and consequences of gelotophobia were among the topics presented in June in Long Beach, Calif., at a meeting of the International Society for Humor Studies. © Society for Science & the Public 2000 - 2009

Keyword: Emotions
Link ID: 13063 - Posted: 06.24.2010

by Bijal Trivedi STANDING in line at the coffee shop you feel a little peckish. So what will you choose to keep you going until lunchtime? Will it be that scrumptious-looking chocolate brownie or perhaps a small, nut-based muesli bar. You check the labels: the brownie contains around 250 kilocalories (kcal), while the muesli bar contains more than 300. Surprised at the higher calorie count of what looks like the healthy option, you go for the brownie. This is the kind of decision that people watching their weight - or even just keeping a casual eye on it - make every day. As long as we keep our calorie intake at around the recommended daily values of 2000 for women and 2500 for men, and get a good mix of nutrients, surely we can eat whatever we like? This is broadly true; after all, maintaining a healthy weight is largely a matter of balancing calories in and calories out. Yet according to a small band of researchers, using the information on food labels to estimate calorie intake could be a very bad idea. They argue that calorie estimates on food labels are based on flawed and outdated science, and provide misleading information on how much energy your body will actually get from a food. Some food labels may over or underestimate this figure by as much as 25 per cent, enough to foil any diet, and over time even lead to obesity. As the western world's waistlines expand at an alarming rate, they argue, it is time consumers were told the true value of their food. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd

Keyword: Obesity
Link ID: 13062 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Emily Sohn, Discovery News -- Watching a fish or two swim around a tank can be relaxing for you -- but surprisingly stressful for the fish. A new study found that common aquarium fish fight more and act less like themselves when they're lonely. Just as people choose to squeeze into a crowded nightclub rather than roam around an empty bar, it seems, certain fish prefer to have lots of companions. It was the first study to look at the well-being of fish in home aquariums, and the results suggest that we may owe more to our fish than just keeping them from going belly-up. "I think we need to make sure they are not only alive," said Katherine Sloman, a fish biologist at the University of Plymouth in the United Kingdom. "I think we need to get them to display behaviors they might show in the wild." Advocates for the welfare of animals talk about five freedoms: freedom from hunger and thirst; freedom from discomfort; freedom from pain, injury and disease; freedom to express normal behaviors; and freedom from fear and distress. How many of those things fish can actually experience is still up for debate. Some still controversial evidence suggests that fish might feel pain. © 2009 Discovery Communications,

Keyword: Aggression
Link ID: 13061 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By DENISE GRADY A genetic test that can find an increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease does no psychological harm to people who take it, even if they test positive for a risky gene, a new study finds. The results challenge views long held by the medical establishment, which has discouraged people from being tested, arguing that the test is not definitive, that it may needlessly frighten people into thinking a terrible disease is hanging over them and that testing is pointless anyway because there is no way to cure or prevent the dementia caused by Alzheimer’s. “There has been this extraordinary worry that disclosing risk was going to devastate people,” said Dr. Robert C. Green, a professor of neurology, genetics and epidemiology at Boston University, and the lead author of the study, which is being published on Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine. “This has upended those assumptions.” The idea behind the study was to treat information like a drug, something with risks and benefits that could be measured, Dr. Green said. Dr. Green led a large team in the study, called Reveal, in which 162 adults who had a close relative with Alzheimer’s could find out if they had the genes that increased their risk for the disease. All participants had genetic testing, but 51, picked at random, were not told the results. The other 111 were told, and the two groups were compared. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Alzheimers; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13060 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By PETER JARET For years, glaucoma was defined as elevated pressure within the eye that leads to vision loss. And for years experts knew there were glaring gaps in that definition. Many people with abnormally high intraocular pressure never develop glaucoma. As many as one in three people who do get the disease have normal or even low pressure. As researchers have tried to resolve those contradictions, a new paradigm for understanding glaucoma has emerged. Glaucoma isn’t simply an eye disease, experts now say, but rather a degenerative nerve disorder, not unlike Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. “All three of these diseases affect aging populations and involve selective loss of certain populations of neurons,” said Dr. Neeru Gupta, a professor of ophthalmology and director of the glaucoma unit at the University of Toronto. “Parkinson’s affects motor control. Alzheimer’s affects cognition. Glaucoma disrupts vision. But the closer we look, the more they seem to have in common.” Even the official definition of glaucoma, a disease that accounts for more than eight million cases of blindness worldwide, has changed. Today, diagnosis is based on just two features: visible damage to the optic nerve, which leads from the retina at the back of the eye to the brain, and loss of peripheral vision, which can be measured by a simple test in an eye doctor’s office. “Intraocular pressure is nowhere to be found in the definition, which shows you how the field has changed,” said Dr. Stuart McKinnon, an associate professor of ophthalmology and neurobiology at Duke University School of Medicine. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Vision
Link ID: 13059 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Robert Koenig In elephant society, nothing is more important than family. From traveling packs of mothers and calves to larger groups that contain aunts and cousins, all segments of the creature's complex social structure are typically composed of relatives. But what happens when these populations are decimated by humans? New research reveals that elephants sometimes bring in non-kin to keep their social groups viable. The finding is based on a survey of about 400 elephants living in Kenya's Samburu National Reserve. The elephants are part of a larger population that lost three-quarters of its members to ivory poachers in the 1970s. Today, the group remains vulnerable to illegal killing by nomadic tribes, farmers, and others. Curious about how such devastation has affected the social structure of the Samburu elephants, conservation biologist George Wittemyer of Colorado State University in Fort Collins and colleagues studied the creatures for 5 years. They pinpointed the elephants' genetic relationships to each other by sequencing DNA from fresh dung samples. The researchers found that when they looked at the largest groupings of elephants in this society--so-called "clan" and "bond" groups--many of the elephants had opened up to include nonrelatives. Wittemyer, whose team reports its findings today in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, says the elephants may be willing to accept nonrelatives into their group to ensure they have the critical mass needed to gather food and protect themselves. "The results indicate that the illegal killing of elephants can erode the genetic basis for their social structure but does not necessarily destabilize their social organization." Co-author Iain Douglas-Hamilton, an Oxford University zoologist who also directs the Kenya-based Save the Elephants charity, says the research "helps us to understand the extent to which an elephant society is disrupted by ongoing mortality from poaching but can yet adapt and recover." © 2009 American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Keyword: Intelligence; Evolution
Link ID: 13058 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Katherine Harmon The human brain has long been known to perceive things that aren't there—from phantom limbs to patterns in chaos. But a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) shows for the first time that it is surprisingly quick to bend reality when normal perception is disrupted. The results were published yesterday in The Journal of Neuroscience. A case study from 2007 found that a stroke patient was experiencing distorted vision after having lost the optical pathways from the upper left field of his vision. The patient's mind was apparently striving to compensate for the loss, but in doing so things viewed in the lower left field appeared to be stretched vertically toward the blank area. A square would, for example, appear to be a tall rectangle. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) showed that the part of the brain that had been deprived of the information was taking on info from an adjacent area. But researchers wondered how—and how long after the loss—the brain had been trying to compensate for the missing pathways. Other than to satisfy simple curiosity, the time element could help them pinpoint how the change happened: Were new pathways in the visual cortex being built or existing but quiet ones being utilized? Daniel Dilks, a postdoctoral researcher at M.I.T.'s Kanwisher Lab, who was an author on both the 2007 case study and this paper, says that because he didn't begin working with the patient until six months after the stroke, he didn't know when the changes in the brain had occurred. © 1996-2009 Scientific American Inc.

Keyword: Vision; Attention
Link ID: 13057 - Posted: 06.24.2010

The National Institutes of Health Blueprint for Neuroscience Research is launching a $30 million project that will use cutting-edge brain imaging technologies to map the circuitry of the healthy adult human brain. By systematically collecting brain imaging data from hundreds of subjects, the Human Connectome Project (HCP) will yield insight into how brain connections underlie brain function, and will open up new lines of inquiry for human neuroscience. Investigators have been invited to submit detailed proposals to carry out the HCP, which will be funded at up to $6 million per year for five years. The HCP is the first of three Blueprint Grand Challenges, projects that address major questions and issues in neuroscience research. The Blueprint Grand Challenges are intended to promote major leaps in the understanding of brain function, and in approaches for treating brain disorders. The three Blueprint Grand Challenges to be launched in 2009 and 2010 address: * The connectivity of the adult, human brain * Targeted drug development for neurological diseases * The neural basis of chronic pain disorders Scientists have studied the relationship between the structure and function of the human brain since the 1800s. Some parts of the brain serve basic functions such as movement, sensation, emotion, learning and memory. Others are more important for uniquely human functions such as abstract thinking. The connections between brain regions are important for shaping and coordinating these functions, but scientists know little about how different parts of the human brain connect.

Keyword: Brain imaging
Link ID: 13056 - Posted: 06.24.2010

There is a strong link in obesity between mothers and daughters and fathers and sons, but not across the gender divide, research suggests. A study of 226 families by Plymouth's Peninsula Medical School found obese mothers were 10 times more likely to have obese daughters. For fathers and sons, there was a six-fold rise. But in both cases children of the opposite sex were not affected. The researchers believe the link is behavioural rather than genetic. They say the findings mean policy on obesity should be re-thought. Researchers said it was "highly unlikely" that genetics was playing a role in the findings as it would be unusual for them to influence children along gender lines. Instead, they said it was probably because of some form of "behavioural sympathy" where daughters copied the lifestyles of their mothers and sons their fathers. It is because of this conclusion that experts believe government policy on tackling obesity should be re-thought. Much of the focus so far in the UK - in terms of targets and monitoring - has been targeted at younger age groups in the belief that obese children become obese adults. But the researchers said the assumption ignored the fact that eight in 10 obese adults were not severely overweight when they were children. In fact, they said their findings suggested the opposite was true - that obese adults led to obese children, the International Journal of Obesity reported. Study leader Professor Terry Wilkin said: "It is the reverse of what we have thought and this has fundamental implications for policy. "We should be targeting the parents and that is not something we have really done to date." (C)BBC

Keyword: Obesity; Genes & Behavior
Link ID: 13055 - Posted: 07.14.2009

By Judy Foreman Massachusetts does not allow medical marijuana, but the Legislature’s public health committee held hearings on a bill this spring that would allow patients with specified conditions to use marijuana with written certification from a physician or other practitioner licensed to prescribe controlled substances. Last year, voters approved ballot Question 2, which removed the possibility of jail for simple marijuana possession. Now, possession of an ounce or less is punishable by only a $100 fine and forfeiture of the marijuana. That ballot initiative did nothing to change the law regarding drug paraphernalia - such as the machines that vaporize marijuana. This means that vaporizers are “probably’’ still illegal, says Michael Cutler, a lawyer. But marijuana, says the 48-year-old Ware resident, is the only thing that even begins to control the migraine headaches that plague her nine days a month, which she describes as feeling like “hot, hot ice picks in the left side of my head.’’ Duda has always had migraines. But they got much worse 10 years ago after two operations to remove life-threatening aneurysms, weak areas in the blood vessels in her brain. None of the standard drugs her doctors prescribe help much with her post-surgical symptoms, which include nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and pain on her left side “as if my body were cut in half.’’ © 2009 NY Times Co.

Keyword: Drug Abuse
Link ID: 13054 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By RANDI HUTTER EPSTEIN Margie Hodgin, a nurse in Kernersville, N.C., had struggled to lose weight since she was a teenager. But it wasn't until she turned 40 that she finally took off the extra pounds, and then some. Margie Hodgin, a nurse in Kernersville, N.C., had struggled to lose weight since she was a teenager. But it wasn’t until she turned 40 that she finally took off the extra pounds, and then some. “It was a real sense of empowerment, that I can do this all on my own and no one is helping me, and I’m achieving what I want and fitting into my clothes better,” she said of her initial delight in shedding the excess weight. But what started as discipline transformed into disorder. Ms. Hodgin would not eat more than 200 calories a meal, and if she did, she made herself vomit. She surfed pro-ANA, or pro-anorexia, Web sites for advice. She knew that what she was doing was wrong — more like adolescent, she said — but she figured she was only hurting herself. Meanwhile, her chronic state of starvation was triggering wild mood swings. It was only after she and her husband had several therapy sessions that she came to realize that her eating disorder was wreaking havoc on him, as well as their three boys. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company

Keyword: Anorexia & Bulimia
Link ID: 13053 - Posted: 06.24.2010

By Rachael Rettner There are many ways to try to explain why human brains today are so big compared to those of early humans, but the major cause may be social competition, new research suggests. But with several competing ideas, the issue remains a matter of debate. Compared to almost all other animals, human brains are larger as a percentage of body weight. And since the emergence of the first species in our Homo genus (Homo habilis) about 2 million years ago, the human brain has doubled in size. And when compared to earlier ancestors, such as australopithecines that lived 4 million to 2 million years ago, our brains are three times as large. For years, scientists have wondered what could account for this increase. Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here The three major hypotheses have focused on climate change, the demands of ecology and social competition. A new statistical analysis of data on 175 fossil skulls supports the latter hypothesis. The climate idea proposes that dealing with unpredictable weather and major climate shifts may have increased the ability of our ancestors to think ahead and prepare for these environmental changes, which in turn led to a larger, more cognitively adept brain. © 2009 Microsoft

Keyword: Evolution
Link ID: 13052 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Researchers funded by the National Institutes of Health have turned simple baker’s yeast into a virtual army of medicinal chemists capable of rapidly searching for drugs to treat Parkinson’s disease. In a study published online today in Nature Chemical Biology, the researchers showed that they can rescue yeast cells from toxic levels of a protein implicated in Parkinson’s disease by stimulating the cells to make very small proteins called cyclic peptides. Two of the cyclic peptides had a protective effect on the yeast cells and on neurons in an animal model of Parkinson’s disease. "This biological approach to compound development opens up an entirely new direction for drug discovery, not only for Parkinson’s disease, but theoretically for any disease where key aspects of the pathology can be reproduced in yeast," says Margaret Sutherland, Ph.D., a program director at NIH’s National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). "A key step for the future will be to identify the cellular pathways that are affected by these cyclic peptides." The research emerged from the lab of Susan Lindquist, Ph.D., a professor of biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Parkinson’s disease attacks cells in a part of the brain responsible for motor control and coordination. As those neurons degenerate, the disease leads to progressive deterioration of motor function including involuntary shaking, slowed movement, stiffened muscles, and impaired balance. The neurons normally produce a chemical called dopamine. A synthetic precursor of dopamine called L-DOPA or drugs that mimic dopamine’s action can provide symptomatic relief from Parkinson’s disease. Unfortunately, these drugs lose much of their effectiveness in later stages of the disease, and there is currently no means to slow the disease’s progressive course.

Keyword: Parkinsons
Link ID: 13051 - Posted: 06.24.2010