Newsline — Friday, October 10, 2014 9:00
Study Reveals Clues to Understanding Brain Stimulation
Scientists Identify the Signature of Aging in the Brain
Thursday, October 9, 2014 13:00
In research recently published in the journal Science, researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science found evidence of a unique “signature” that may be the missing link between cognitive decline and aging. The discovery may lead to future treatments that can slow or reverse cognitive decline in older people. In a long series of studies, the immune system proved to play an important role in healing the brain after injury and in maintaining the brain’s normal functioning. Researchers found that this brain-immune system interaction occurs across barrier that is actually a unique interface (choroid plexus) within the brain’s territory. The choroid plexus acts as a ‘remote control’ for the immune system to affect brain activity. During the study, researchers used next-generation sequencing technology to map changes in gene expression in 11 different organs, including the choroid plexus, in both young and aged mice, to identify and compare pathways involved in the aging process. Doing this allowed the researchers to identify a strikingly unique “signature of aging” that exists solely in the choroid plexus — not…
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Researchers Identify Factors Associated with Pediatric Brain Tumors
Thursday, October 9, 2014 9:00
According to new research published in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, researchers from Washington University in St. Louis identified some risk factors associated with brain tumors in children such as having older parents, birth defects, maternal nutrition, childhood exposure to CT scans and pesticides. The research team reviewed studies that examined potential genetic, immune system, developmental and birth characteristics, as well as environmental factors. “Our review shows that there is still not a lot known about the causes of childhood brain tumors,” said the study’s lead author. “The review identified some potentially fruitful paths to pursue. But I think the big question that still is to be answered with respect to causes of childhood brain tumors is what particular genes influence risk.” Part of the issue, noted the author, is that childhood brain tumors are rare, so it takes large-scale collaboration and effort across the world to collect samples in order to do these kinds of studies. To read more about this study, click here.
New Research Helps Explain Mental-sharpness Decline in Cancer Patients
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 13:00
In an effort to solve the mystery behind why as many as half of patients taking cancer-related drugs experience a decrease in mental sharpness, scientists at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) conducted an experiment in an animal memory model, published in The Journal of Neuroscience. In the study involving a sea snail — they share many of the same memory mechanisms as humans do — the scientists identified memory mechanisms blocked by a drug used to treat a variety of cancers. After that, they were able to counteract or unblock the mechanisms by administering another agent. “Our research has implications in the care of people given to cognitive deficits following drug treatment for cancer,” said the study’s senior author. “There is no satisfactory treatment at this time.” Understanding how these drugs impact the brain is an important first step in alleviating this condition characterized by forgetfulness, trouble concentrating and difficulty multitasking. To read more about this study, click here.
Memory Loss Associated with Alzheimer’s Reversed for First Time
Wednesday, October 8, 2014 9:00
In a recent study published in the journal Aging, researchers from the UCLA Mary S. Easton Center for Alzheimer’s Disease Research and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, is the first to suggest that memory loss in patients may be reversed. During the small trial conducted, improvement was sustained using a complex 36-point therapeutic program that involves comprehensive changes in diet, brain stimulation, exercise, optimization of sleep, specific pharmaceuticals, vitamins and multiple additional steps that affect brain chemistry. Nine of the 10 patients who participated displayed subjective or objective improvement in their memories beginning within three to six months after the program’s start. Of the six patients who had to discontinue working or were struggling with their jobs at the time they joined the study, all were able to return to work or continue working with improved performance. The study’s lead author noted, “This is the first successful demonstration, but the results are anecdotal, and therefore a more extensive, controlled clinical trial is needed.” To read more about this study, click here.
Too Much Practice Variation in Treating Brain Aneurysms?
Tuesday, October 7, 2014 13:20
According to a recent report, there is considerable regional variation in the U.S. in the treatment of ruptured and unruptured cerebral aneurysms. The report suggests that some of this variation is not warranted and implies that patients need more information to be able to make reasonable choices. For example, the rates of endovascular coiling for unruptured aneurysms among Medicare beneficiaries ranged from a low of 35.0 percent in Modesto, Calif., to a high of 98.6 percent in Tacoma, Wash. For ruptured aneurysms, similar variation in the rate of coiling was seen — ranging from 36.3 percent in Atlandta, Ga., to 98.8 percent in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., according to the Dartmouth Atlas of Health Care report. “There’s obviously a question, why is that happening? I don’t think there’s a clear answer. But these variations can’t be attributed just to patient choice,” said Kimon Bekelis, MD, of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. Patients are faced with complex decisions revolving around whether treatment is needed and what approach should be taken, particularly as they age and develop other illnesses, the…
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Sleep Twitches Connected to Brain Development
Tuesday, October 7, 2014 9:20
In a recent study published in the journal Current Biology, researchers from the University of Iowa found that twitches that occur during sleep activate the brains of mammals differently than movements made during awake. Researchers say the findings show twitches during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep comprise a different class of movement and provide further evidence that sleep twitches activate circuits throughout the developing brain. In this way, twitches teach newborns about their limbs and what they can do with them. “Every time we move while awake, there is a mechanism in our brain that allows us to understand that it is we who made the movement,” said the study’s lead author. “But twitches seems to be different in that the brain is unaware that they are self-generated. And this difference between sleep and wake movements may be critical for how twitches, which are most frequent in early infancy, contribute to brain development.” The latest discovery is further evidence that sleep twitches — whether in dogs, cats or humans — are connected to brain development,…
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Lift Weights, Improve Your Memory
Monday, October 6, 2014 13:30
A new study conducted by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology found that an intense workout of as little as 20 minutes can enhance episodic memory (long-term memory), by about 10 percent in healthy young adults. Existing studies have demonstrated that months of aerobic exercise such as running can improve memory, but the current study had participants lift weights just one time, two days before testing them. The researchers had participants study events just before the exercise, rather than afterwards. They did because prior research suggests that the period after learning is when the stress caused by exercise is most likely to benefit memory. “Our study indicates that people don’t have to dedicate large amounts of time to give their brain a boost,” said the graduate student who led the research. And although the study used weight exercise, the lead researcher noted that resistance activities such as squats or knee bends would likely produce the same results. To read more about this study, click here.
New Pathway Linking the Brain to High Blood Pressure Identified
Monday, October 6, 2014 9:30
In a recent study published in the journal PLOS One, scientists at the University of Maryland School of Medicine (UM SOM), and the Ottawa Heart Institute uncovered a new pathway by which the brain uses an unusual steroid to control blood pressure. The study also suggests new approaches for treating high blood pressure and heart failure. “This research gives us an entirely new way of understanding how the brain and the cardiovascular system work together,” said one of the study’s lead authors. “It opens a new and exciting way for us to work on innovative treatment approaches that could one day help patients. Working with an animal model of hypertension, the researchers found a new link between the brain and increased blood pressure, a little-known steroid called ouabain. Ouabain was discovered in human blood more than 20 years ago, and the study is the first to identify the particular pathway that connected the brain to ouabain’s effects on proteins that regulate arterial calcium and contraction. Through this mechanism, ouabain makes arteries more sensitive to sympathetic…
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Childhood Neurodegenerative Diseases Linked to Common DNA Repair Problem
Friday, October 3, 2014 13:00
In a recent study published in the journal Nature Neuroscience, researchers at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital linked two rare, inherited childhood neurodegenerative diseases to a new source of DNA damage that may play a role in a wide range of health problems, including cancer. During the study, researchers found that an enzyme required for normal DNA functioning causes DNA damage in the developing brain. The enzyme, topoisomerase 1 (Top1), works by temporarily attaching to and forming a short-lived molecule called a Top1 cleavage complex (Top1cc). Top1ccs cause reversible breaks in one strange of the double-stranded DNA molecule. Different factors, including the free radicals that are a byproduct of oxygen metabolism, result in Top1ccs becoming trapped on DNA and accumulating in cells. This study is the first to link the buildup to disease and the results broaden the scientific understanding of the mechanisms that maintain brain health. Researchers made the connection between DNA damage and accumulation of Top1ccs while studying DNA repair problems in the rare neurodegenerative disorders ataxia telangiectasia (A-T) and spinocerebellar ataxia with…
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