Neuro

Neuronal 'traffic jam' marks early Alzheimer's disease

Early Alzheimer's disease may be precipitated by a "traffic jam" within neurons that causes swelling and prevents proper transport of proteins and structures in the cells, according to new studies by Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers. In mouse models of Alzheimer's disease and in human brain samples from people with the disease, researchers observed a characteristic breakdown in...

First 'atlas' of key brain genes could speed research on cancer, neurological diseases

Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institutehave compiled the first atlas showing the locations of crucial generegulators, or switches that determine how different parts of the braindevelop ?and, in some cases, develop abnormally or malfunction.The scientists say the map will accelerate research on brain tumors andneurological diseases that result from mutations in these switch genes?called...

New research questions basic tenet of neuron function

New findings by researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center challenge one of the established views of how nerve cells communicate with one another. Every time we move, feel emotions, think or remember, the nerve cells, or neurons, in our body transmit messages to one another via chemical signals called neurotransmitters. Within neurons are tiny organelles called synaptic vesicles that s...

First real-time view of developing neurons reveals surprises, say Stanford researchers

Scientists have believed that neurons need a long period of fine-tuning and training with other neurons before they take on their adult role. But after using new technology for the first time to watch these cells develop, a team of researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine found that neurons come into this world with a good idea about what they'll become as adults. The work...

Antibiotic might fight HIV-induced neurological problems

By studying animals, Johns Hopkins researchers have discovered that the antibiotic minocycline might help alleviate HIV's negative effects on the brain and central nervous system, problems that can develop even though antiretroviral therapy controls the virus elsewhere in the body. Five monkeys infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), a very close relative of HIV, and treated wi...

Use of Insecticides Linked to Lasting Neurological Problems for Farmers

New research shows that farmers who used agricultural insecticides experienced increased neurological symptoms, even when they were no longer using the products. Data from 18,782 North Carolina and Iowa farmers linked use of insecticides, including organophosphates and organochlorines, to reports of reoccurring headaches, fatigue, insomnia, dizziness, nausea, hand tremors, numbness and other neur...

Potential treatments for neurofibromatosis

Neurofibromatosis can leave its patients miserable and debilitated with chronic itching or pain from disfiguring tumors. Infants affected by the disease face possible paralysis or damage to the brain and other organs. The disease frustrates doctors because there's no effective treatment even though the responsible gene was identified more than a decade ago. Currently little can be done to...

UCLA launches $20 million stem cell institute to investigate HIV, cancer and neurological disorders

Experts in bioengineering, imaging, molecular genetics, immunology, ethics, hematology/oncology and cellular biology to collaborate on Proposition 71 research Drawing together experts from fields as diverse as engineering to molecular biology, UCLA officials announced March 16 the formation of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine to conduct embryonic and adult stem cell resear...

Scientists Propose Sweeping Changes to Naming of Bird Neurosystems to Acknowledge Their True Brainpower

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted approval to Mylan Technologies, Inc., for the first generic version of Alza Corporation's Duragesic Patch (Fentanyl Transdermal System) used to treat patients suffering from severe chronic pain that cannot be managed with alternative analgesics. When applied to the skin, this patch technology delivers fentanyl, an opioid pain medication that is s...

Chromosome Deletion Predicts Aggressive Neuroblastoma

When genes are deleted on a particular section of chromosome 11, the result is an aggressive form of the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. A new study suggests that detecting this genetic deletion during the initial evaluation of children with neuroblastoma may indicate to physicians that they should recommend a more aggressive regimen of chemotherapy to fight the cancer. Edward F. Attiyeh,...

One gene links newborn neurons with those that die in diseases such as Alzheimer's

In certain parts of the brain, cells called neurons go through a cycle of death and replenishment. New research from Rockefeller University's Fernando Nottebohm, Ph.D., shows that these replaceable neurons share something in common with the neurons that die in people with diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's: both have unusually low levels of a protein called UCHL1. "It would be ir...

Researchers make surprise discovery that some neurons can transmit three signals at once

Generations of neuroscientists have been indoctrinated into believing that our senses, thoughts, feelings and movements are orchestrated by a communication network of brain cells, or neurons, each responsible for relaying one specific chemical message called a neurotransmitter. Either neurons release a neurotransmitter that excites a neighboring cell, thereby triggering an electrical discharge an...

Mapping neuron connections in the brain

The human brain contains from 10 to 100 billion neurons, and each has hundreds of connections with neighboring neurons. Making sense of these intricate connections is essential to understanding brain function, and the task is a monumental one. Thanks to a new theoretical approach to mapping neuron connectivity published in PLoS Computational Biology by Bagrat Amirikian, a researcher at the...

Speak up: Louder neurons form more connections

As the brain develops, neurons reach out helter-skelter forming new connections, only a small number of which take hold. How the brain chooses which connections to keep and which to prune back appears to be governed by which branches have the most electrical activity—a finding that could help to explain how early experiences guide brain development. The work, published in the April 21 issu...

Pinpointing the cause of a neurodegenerative disorder

New understanding of spinocerebellar ataxiaResearchers have discovered how the abnormal repetition of a genetic sequence can have disastrous consequences that lead to the death of neurons that govern balance and motor coordination. The studies bolster the emerging theory that neurodegenerative disorders can be caused by having extra copies of a normal protein, not just a mutated one. Peopl...

Molecular Partners Required For Appropriate Neuronal Gene Repression

Oregon Health & Science University researchers have identified some of the key factors that prevent the repair of brain damage caused by multiple sclerosis (MS), complications of premature birth, and other diseases and conditions. The findings offer important clues about why the nervous system fails to repair itself and suggest ways that at least some forms of brain damage could be reversed....

Most important actors in the growth process of neurons identified

Defects in the growth process of our neurons often underlie brain or nerve diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease or multiple sclerosis. Scientists from the Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) connected to the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, led by Bassem Hassan, have achieved a major step in unraveling the growth process of axons, the offshoots of neurons. They have identif...

Neurologix announces positive results of gene therapy clinical trial in Parkinson's disease

Investigators report safety findings and statistically significant improvements in clinical measures of movement, PET Scans at 19th Annual Symposia on the Etiology, Pathogenesis and Treatment of Parkinson's Disease and Other Movement DisordersNeurologix's Phase I trial showed positive interim results in patients with Parkinson's disease. One year following treatment, patients exhibited a statist...

Scientists use gene transfer technology and common virus to block neuropathic pain in animals

Remember how it felt the last time you burned your finger on a hot stove? Imagine what it's like to have that burning pain in your hands or feet all the time and know there's virtually nothing you can do about it. David Fink, M.D.It's called neuropathic pain, and it's a common complication of many diseases and medical conditions, especially diabetes. Drugs have little effect on this type...

Scientists use gene transfer technology and common virus to block neuropathic pain

Remember how it felt the last time you burned your finger on a hot stove? Imagine what it's like to have that burning pain in your hands or feet all the time and know there's virtually nothing you can do about it. It's called neuropathic pain, and it's a common complication of many diseases and medical conditions, especially diabetes. Drugs have little effect on this type of pain, which is...

Eating, body weight regulated by specific neurons

In findings with implications for pandemic influenza, a new study reports for the first time that a less-virulent strain of avian influenza virus can spread from poultry to humans. The research appears in the October 1 issue of The Journal of Infectious Diseases, now available online. Crossing the species barrier is an important step in the development of a flu virus with pandemic potenti...

Neurotransmitters signal aggressive cancer, offer potential for early diagnosis

Nerves talk to each other using chemicals called neurotransmitters. One of those "communication chemicals," aptly named GABA (gamma amino butyric acid), shows up in unusually high amounts in some aggressive tumors, according to a new study from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The researchers investigated metastatic neuroendocrine tumors, which include aggressive type...

MIT researcher finds neuron growth in adult brain

Despite the prevailing belief that adult brain cells don't grow, a researcher at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory reports in the Dec. 27 issue of Public Library of Science (PLoS) Biology that structural remodeling of neurons does in fact occur in mature brains. This finding means that it may one day be possible to grow new cells to replace ones damaged by disease or spinal...

New neurons take baby steps in the adult brain

In experiments with mice, scientists from Johns Hopkins' Institute for Cell Engineering have discovered the steps required to integrate new neurons into the brain's existing operations. For more than a century, scientists thought the adult brain could only lose nerve cells, not gain them, but in fact, new neurons do form during adulthood in all mammals, including humans, and become a worki...

Neurons generated in the adult brain learn to respond to novel stimuli

New brain cells that develop in the olfactory system of adult mice appear to play a role in the brain different from that of older neurons. The new olfactory neurons are especially sensitive to novel stimuli, preferentially learning to respond to new odors. This level of flexibility suggests that such newly-generated neurons could be induced to adapt to and integrate into other regions of the b...

Algal protein in worm neurons allows remote control of behavior by light

By introducing expression of a special green-algae gene into neurons of the tiny, transparent nematode C. elegans, researchers have been able to elicit specific behavioral responses by simply illuminating animals with blue light. The work paves the way for better understanding of how neurons communicate with each other, and with muscles, to regulate behavior in intact, living organisms. Generally...

How the neuron sprouts its branches

Neurobiologists have gained new insights into how neurons control growth of the intricate tracery of branches called dendrites that enable them to connect with their neighbors. Dendritic connections are the basic receiving stations by which neurons form the signaling networks that constitute the brain's circuitry. Such basic insights into neuronal growth will help researchers better unders...

Scientists crack code for motor neuron wiring

Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) researchers have deciphered a key part of the regulatory code that governs how motor neurons in the spinal cord connect to specific target muscles in the limbs. The researchers said that understanding this code may help guide progress in restoring motor neuron function in people whose spinal cords have been damaged by trauma or disease. The studies su...

UCLA imaging study of children with autism finds broken mirror neuron system

New imaging research at UCLA detailed Dec. 4 as an advance online publication of the journal Nature Neuroscience shows children with autism have virtually no activity in a key part of the brain's mirror neuron system while imitating and observing emotions. Mirror neurons fire when a person performs a goal-directed action and while he or she observes the same action performed by others. Neu...

Neurons find their place in the developing nervous system with the help of a sticky molecule

The brain, that exquisite network of billions of communicating cells, starts to take form with the genesis of nerve cells. Most newborn nerve cells, also called neurons, must travel from their birthplace to the position they will occupy in the adult brain. Researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a molecule expressed on the surface of certain migrating neurons that...

Picking apart how neurons learn

Johns Hopkins researchers have used mouse mutants to define critical steps involved in learning basic motor skills. The study focuses on the behavior of two proteins and the specific steps they take to control a neuron's ability to learn by adapting to signals from other nerve cells. The findings, published in the March 16 issue of Neuron, pull together a growing body of evidence from the...

Researchers get neurons and silicon talking

The ultimate applications are potentially limitless. In the long term it will possibly enable the creation of very sophisticated neural prostheses to combat neurological disorders. What's more, it could allow the creation of organic computers that use living neurons as their CPU. Those applications are potentially decades away, but in the much nearer term the new technology could enable ve...

Mechanism for memory revealed in neurons of electric fish

Researchers from The University of Texas at Austin studying electric fish have gained new insight into how memory is stored at the level of neurons. Dr. Harold Zakon, Dr. Jörg Oestreich and colleagues show that when electr...

Cell therapy slows progression of an inherited neurological disease; Improves motor skills in mice

In an important discovery, scientists have demonstrated that the progression of a type of genetic brain disease is slowed and symptoms are improved in mice that received cell transplants. , may have implications for developing new therapies for metachromatic leukodystrophy, or MLD, a fatal, relatively rare...

Attention shoppers: Researchers find neurons that encode the value of different goods

Researchers at Harvard Medical School (HMS) report in the April 23 issue of Nature that they have identified neurons that encode the values that subjects assign to different items. The activity of these neurons might facilitate the process of decision-making that occurs when someone chooses between different goods. "We have long known that different neurons in various parts of the brain re...

Neuroscientists discover new cell type that may help brain maintain memories of smells

Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have discovered a new cell type in the part of the brain that processes our sense of smell. This new cell type, the Blanes cell, is a member of a group of previously unstudied brain cells described by the Spanish neuroanatomist Blanes (pronounced blon ?es) in the late 1800s. Blanes cells have unusual properties which may help...

Growth factor-promoting angiogenesis expressed in tumor cells and normal neurons

Scientists have discovered that a stem cell factor overexpressed both in brain tumor cells and in neurons following brain injury promotes tumor survival by inducing angiogenesis. The research study, published in the April issue of Cancer Cell, examines the interaction between tumor cells and surrounding tissues and may have substantial significance for design of more effective therapeutics for on...

Tramiprosate (Alzhemed? preclinical results published in Neurobiology of Aging

Neurochem Inc. (NASDAQ: NRMX; TSX: NRM) is pleased to announce that Neurobiology of Aging, one of the world's leading peer-reviewed medical journals in the fields of gerontology and neuroscience, has published an online version of a publication on the preclinical development of tramiprosate (3-amino-1-propanesulfonic acid; Alzhemed?, including efficacy results in a mouse model of brain amyloidosi...

Neuronal cell cultures kept on the straight and narrow

An improved technique for culturing cells, developed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), may enable new, fundamental insights into the behavior of neuronal cells. Culturing particular types of cells in isolation is a basic technique for measuring how they respond to various stimuli, testing new drugs, and similar cell biology tasks. Neuronal cells, which make up t...

Nanowire arrays can detect signals along individual neurons

Opening a whole new interface between nanotechnology and neuroscience, scientists at Harvard University have used slender silicon nanowires to detect, stimulate, and inhibit nerve signals along the axons and dendrites of live mammalian neurons. "We d...