Tag: "disorders" at biology news

Scratch no more: Gene for itch sensation discovered

... is a widespread problem. It can be caused by skin disorders like eczema, or it can stem from a deeper problem such as kidney failure or liver disease. It can be a serious side effect of cancer therapies or powerful painkillers like morphine. For some people, chronic itching can be very disruptive, interfering...

Modeling the restless brain

...lications, offering new diagnostic tools for brain disorders such as Alzheimer's disease that are known to affect the brain's connections. It also could help explain why humans do not think alike. "If fluctuations in brain activity are shaped by anatomy," Sporns said, "then individual differences in the wa...

Loss of stem cells correlates with premature aging in animal study

...esponse underlie certain types of cancer and other disorders in humans. This work appears in the inaugural issue of Cell Stem Cell. “The reason we’re seeing the early signs of aging in these mice is that we’re exhausting their ability to renew tissues,” says Eric J. Brown, PhD, Assistant Professor of Cancer...

In mice, drug protects against diabetes and atherosclerosis

...o be protective against asthma and other metabolic disorders as well." The laboratory animals showed no harmful effects from the treatment, though Hotamisligil cautioned that experiments were not designed to look for such effects rigorously. While it is not certain that the experimental compound or othe...

Brain holds clues to bipolar disorder

...d director of functional neuroimaging in emotional disorders at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC, will discuss the emerging role of brain imaging techniques in psychiatry in general as well as in bipolar disorder. Using neuroimaging, Dr. Phillips has identified patterns of abnormalities in the ...

Newly found sensing system enables certain bacteria to resist human immune defenses

...uch as those that can lead to food poisoning, skin disorders and toxic shock—avoid being killed by AMPs. AMPs are made by virtually all groups of organisms, including amphibians, insects, several invertebrates and mammals, including humans. “Gram-positive bacteria are major threats to human health, especial...

Researchers reveal structure of protein altered in autism

... the Skaggs School of Pharmacy. Autism spectrum disorders are developmental disabilities that cause impairme... at synapses helps explain why the autism spectrum disorders are manifested in subtle behavioral abnormalities that are seen at an early age. “Abnormal synapt...

Runners -- Let thirst be your guide

... intoxication, say international experts who study disorders of water metabolism. Such exercise includes marathons, triathlons, and long distance cycling. This serious condition, known as exercise-induced hyponatremia (EAH), could be prevented if only people would respect their personal thirst “meter,” or wou...

Fat fish put obesity on the hook

...ding author Roger Cone, “Being able to model human disorders like obesity in zebrafish allows scientists to understand the molecular basis of disease. This may ultimately increase the efficiency and power of the drug discovery process, thus bringing new medicines to the market faster and cheaper.” In the s...

'Smart' mice teach scientists about learning process, brain disorders

...ich might serve in humans as a target for treating disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder, Alzheimer’s disease or drug addiction, the researchers said. "It’s pretty rare that you make mice ‘smarter,’ so there are a lot of cognitive implications," said Dr. James Bibb, assistant professor of psychia...

Common treatment for methamphetamine overdose may damage brain cells

...part of the brain known to play a role in movement disorders such as Huntington's disease. After examining the long-term effects of the combination, they found that glutamate concentrations in the substantia nigra were twice as high in methamphetamine-treated rats as in saline-treated ones two days after i...

How brain pacemakers erase diseased messages

...people with Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders seem to work by drowning out the electrical signal...on, another acceptable treatment for severe tremor disorders and epilepsies. But the electronic device has the advantage of being adjustable or reversible. Th...

An 'elegant' idea proves its worth 25 years later

...n estimated 80 percent of patients with urea cycle disorders --- most of them children – according to a report in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine summarizing a quarter century of experience with the treatment. The effectiveness of sodium phenylacetate and sodium benzoate, two chemicals the body a...

Gene malfunctions cause schizophrenia, depression symptoms in mice

...aid their findings support the theory that the two disorders share common genetic mechanisms. Steven Clapcote, David Porteous, John Roder, and colleagues reported their findings in the May 3, 2007 issue of the journal Neuron, published by Cell Press. In their experiments, the researchers sought to explore ...

Nitric oxide: Key to cardiovascular and pulmonary function and drug effectiveness

...e activity of nitric oxide, which occurs in common disorders such as high blood pressure, diabetes, atherosclerosis, cystic fibrosis and neurodegenerative conditions, as well as in aging, may interfere with the G-protein coupled receptor signaling." ...

Traumas like Sept. 11 make brains more reactive to fear

... that excluded people who did not have such mental disorders as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or major depression. One of the first studies to look at the effects of trauma on the brains of healthy people, it is published in the May issue of the journal Emotion. "These people appear to be doing okay,...

Egyptians, not Greeks were true fathers of medicine

.... Further evidence showed that musculo-skeletal disorders were treated with rubefacients to stimulate blood flow and poultices to warm and soothe. They used celery and saffron for rheumatism, which are currently topics of pharmaceutical research, and pomegranate was used to eradicate tapeworms, a remedy tha...

New study examines 'brain's own marijuana'

...ve, it cannot be used to treat stress-related mood disorders such as anxiety. An alternative strategy may be to directly target the ‘brain’s own marijuana.’? The success of such a strategy requires a better understanding of how endocannabinoid moderates stress-related behaviors and how stress and stress horm...

Do fruit flies have free will?

...ntaneous nonrandom behavior and may help combating disorders leading to compromised spontaneous behavioral variability in humans such as depression, schizophrenia or obsessive compulsive disorder. The research will appear in the May 16, 2007 issue of the open-access journal PLoS ONE. ...

Intelligent materials to regenerate bone tissue

...ion and a million in the United States suffer from disorders in or serious defects of some part of their bone s...al deficiencies, degenerative illnesses, cancerous disorders and other damage caused by accidents. The implants required for this type of solutions are more comp...

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