Newsline — Thursday, April 9, 2015 13:28
Bioelectricity Plays Key Role in Brain Development and Repair
Autism Detection Improved by Multimodal Neuroimaging
Wednesday, April 8, 2015 13:00
A researcher from the University of Alabama at Birmingham has combined three major measures of the brain in order to better diagnosis autism. The study, published in the journal Cortex, detailed an eclectic blend of anatomy, connectivity and neurochemical levels focused on autism classification, and compared a control group with individuals displaying various levels of Autism Spectrum Disorder. “We also found that combining different MRI techniques led to better classification of our participants with autism,” the author said. “Most previous studies have focused on using one technique at a time, even though we have evidence that there are alterations in the brain in autism in terms of structure, white-matter connectivity, and brain chemical concentrations. When we are looking at a disorder that is so complex, multiple modalities of investigation can be more efficient to separate autism from other disorders, or to identify subgroups within autism. Our study found a way to combine measures of brain structure, white matter diffusion, and neurochemical concentration to classify our participants by their diagnosis, as well as their level of…
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Immunotherapy Improves Glioblastoma Patient Survival
Wednesday, April 8, 2015 9:00
According to a recent study led by Duke Cancer Institute, research published in the journal Nature details an innovative approach for treating lethal brain tumors using a tetanus booster, which primes the immune system and enhances the effects of a vaccine therapy. The researchers presented survival data for a small, randomized trial, also detailing how the tetanus pre-conditioning technique works, providing a road map for enhancing dendritic cell immunotherapies that have shown promise treating the most lethal form of brain cancer. “Patients with glioblastoma usually survive for little more than one year. However, in patients who received the immunotherapy, half lived nearly five years or longer from their diagnosis, so the findings are promising and significant,” said the study’s lead author. The researchers built the study on earlier findings that found glioblastoma tumors harbor a strain of cytomegalovirus (CMV) that is not present in the surrounding brain tissue, creating a natural target for an immune therapy. To read more about this study, click here.
Drug Used for Leukemia Treatment May Also be Effective Against Glioblastoma
Monday, April 6, 2015 10:05
In a recent study, published in the journal Clinical Cancer Research, researchers from Columbia University Medical Center discovered that a drug similar to Gleevac (known for its effectiveness against chronic myeloid leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia), may also be effective in some cases of recurrent glioblastoma. The drug was specifically designed to target an abnormal molecule — a fusion of two normal cell proteins — that fuel a tumor’s growth. In the first human trial of the drug that targets half of the fusion protein, researchers analyzed two patients affected by recurrent glioblastoma, who responded with clinical improvement and radiological tumor reduction. The patients’ responses lasted 115 and 134 days, respectively. “This suggests that if we developed a drug that hits to fused protein more precisely, while leaving normal cells alone, we may get even better results,” said the lead author of the study. “The real test of that will have to wait for the development of such a drug and the clinical trials.” To read more about this study, click here.
Brain Development Controlled by Epigenetic Factor
Monday, April 6, 2015 9:00
Researchers from McGill University Health Center have discovered the role of a major epigenetic regulator in the development of the hippocampus; a brain region associated with learning, memory and neural stem cells. The study, published in the Journal Biological Chemistry, details using mutant mice to test manipulation of the epigenetic regulator known as BRPF1, and was found to directly impact overall learning development and intellectual level. “This research supports how important epigenetic regulation is to brain development and health during one’s lifetime, but this is something that we are just starting to understand,” said the author of the study. “The next step for us is to try and understand better how different epigenetic regulators in the brain interact with one another to integrate information from life experience and from the environment.” Future research in humans could determine direct causes for intellectual disabilities, possibly with merit for genetic testing in order to determine likelihood of complications in mental development. To learn more about this study, click here.
New Fluorescent Protein Permanently Marks Active Neurons
Friday, April 3, 2015 13:00
A new tool developed at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Janelia Research Campus lets scientists shine a light on an animals’ brain to permanently mark neurons that are active at a particular time. The tool — a fluorescent protein called Campari — changes from green to red when calcium floods a nerve cell after the cell fires. The permanent mark frees scientists from the need to focus a microscope on the right cells at the right time to observe neuronal activity. “The most enabling thing about this technology may be that you don’t have to have your organism under a microscope during your experiment,” said a group leader and protein chemist at Janelia, who engineers tools to study the brain. “So we can now visualize neural activity in fly larvae crawling on a plate or fish swimming in a dish.” To make CaMPARI, the team started with a fluorescent protein called Eos. Eos emits a green fluorescence until it is exposed to violet light, which permanently alters the protein so that it fluoresces in red….
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Eye-tracking Test Shown Effective in Diagnosing Concussion in Student Athletes
Friday, April 3, 2015 9:00
A simple eye tracking test which can easily be administered on the sidelines of youth sports events can determine immediate symptoms of concussion in children as young as five-years old. A study by the NYU Langone Concussion Center published in the Journal of Neuro-Ophthalmology repurposes a King-Devick eyesight test devised in 1976, with a new focus on its ability to gauge neurological function. Testing the process on youth athletes, it was determined that the method showed a 92-percent accuracy rate in diagnosing concussion. “Our findings in children and collegiate athletes show how a simple vision test can aid in diagnosis of concussion at all levels of sport,” said the lead researcher. “Adding the King-Devick test to the sideline assessment of student athletes following a head injury can eliminate the guesswork for coaches and parents when deciding whether or not a student should return to play.” Future refinements will study the rapid eye movements analyzed in this testing to determine more precise diagnosis. To learn more about this study, click here.
Groundbreaking Technique Developed to Measure Oxygen in Deep-sited Tumors
Thursday, April 2, 2015 13:00
A novel Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) oximetry technique will help clinicians directly measure oxygen and schedule treatments at times of high oxygen levels in cancer and stroke patients to improve outcomes, according to a recent study published in the journal Stroke. A certain level of oxygen in a cell of tissue is necessary to maintain normal processes, and it plays a pivotal role in the development and treatment of various diseases. The effectiveness of several therapies depends on the oxygen levels in a malignancy. For example, a very low level of oxygen in cancer (solid tumors) is known to develop aggressive phenotypes, varies with the growth of tumors and it also compromises the effectiveness of chemotherapy and radiation. Oxygen measurement in deep-sited tissue has been a challenge for several existing techniques, which has unfortunately limited the understanding of various pathologies in large animals and humans. In their most recent experiment, which demonstrated the efficacy of in vivo EPR oximetry, researchers from Darmouth University used a one-time implementation of the oxygen probes in the brain of…
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Skin Test May Shed New Light on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s Disease
Thursday, April 2, 2015 9:00
New research has determined that a simple skin biopsy may be able to detect physical indicators of both Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers from the University of San Luis Patosi in San Luis, Mexico are presenting their study at the American Academy of Neurology’s 67th Annual Meeting. Using skin biopsies from both healthy individuals and those with various neurological diseases, researchers found that those with Parkinson’s possessed seven times the typical amount of tau proteins while those with Alzheimer’s presented eight times the usual amount of alpha-synuclein protein. “More research is needed to confirm these results, but the findings are exciting because we could potentially begin to use skin biopsies from living patients to study and learn more about these diseases. This also means tissue will be much more readily available for scientists to study,” said the lead researcher of the study. “This procedure could be used to study not only Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, but also other neurodegenerative diseases.” To learn more about this study, click here.
Several Mental Disorders Share Changes in Certain Brain Regions
Wednesday, April 1, 2015 11:12
A new study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, revealed that many mental disorders share a common structure in the brain. Six conditions were examined and found to be connected by the loss of gray matter in three specific areas related to cognitive functions, such as self-control. During the study, researchers conducted a meta-analysis of structural neuroimaging studies involving six different mental disorders from three large data sets, such as addiction, anxiety, bipolar disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder and schizophrenia. In the past, most neuroimaging studies focused on brain function in patients with a single, specific diagnosis and compared them to healthy participants. However, both clinical and genetic analyses have observed similarities among several different disorders, suggesting an underlying neurobiological link between forms of mental illness. Across the six psychiatric diagnoses analyzed during the study, the authors found gray matter loss occurred in three regions of the brain — the dorsal anterior cingulate (dACC), the right insula and the left insula. Analysis of these brain regions in the healthy participants revealed they form an interconnected network…
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