New research from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease details exactly how a mutant form of the protein apolipoprotein E, also known as apoE, is a causative factor for Alzheimer’s disease.
It pinpoints mitochondria, the organelles within cells designed to turn glucose into energy, as a key site that specific fragments of a particular form of apoE attack, leading to the neuronal death characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease (AD).
The findings are
The National High Magnetic Field Laboratory is ending its year with another achievement of international importance as engineers and technicians this week completed testing of a world-record magnet.
With the completion of a new, 35-tesla magnet, the highest-field “resistive” magnet in the world is located at the Tallahassee facility. The state-of-the-art magnet, which incorporates “Florida-Bitter” technology invented at the lab, was designed and built on-site and is immediately
A University of California, Berkeley, study of methane-producing bacteria frozen at the bottom of Greenland’s two-mile thick ice sheet could help guide scientists searching for similar bacterial life on Mars.
Methane is a greenhouse gas present in the atmospheres of both Earth and Mars. If a class of ancient microbes called Archaea are the source of Mars’ methane, as some scientists have proposed, then unmanned probes to the Martian surface should look for them at depths wher
The circulation of cancer cells through the blood vessels is often the cause of metastasis. These cancer cells contaminate normal cells and the pathology spreads throughout the body. Metastasis is the main risk in cancers. In order to prevent this process from occurring, a team from the Chemistry Faculty at the Donostia-San Sebastián campus of the University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU) analysed the connections between cancer and normal cells.
Concretely, the UPV-EHU analysed
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a two-step process. The primary injury is mechanical, resulting from impact, compression or some other insult to the spinal column. The secondary injury is biochemical, as cellular reactions cause tissue destruction. By interrupting this second process, it may be possible to speed healing and minimize permanent effects.
In a paper published in the current issue of Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, researchers from the Anadolu Cinar Hospital and t
Through the Human Genome Project, the HapMap Project and other efforts, we are beginning to identify genes that are modified in some diseases. More difficult to measure and identify are the regulatory regions in DNA – the ‘managers’ of genes – that control gene activity and might be important in causing disease.
Today, a team led by the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, together with colleagues in the USA and Switzerland, provide a measure of just how important regulatory region var
Scientists at the John Innes Centre (JIC), Norwich, UK[1], today report a breakthrough in understanding how plant cells control the direction of their growth. The report, in the international scientific journal Nature[2], describes a gene (called SCN1) which controls the activity of an enzyme that is critical to cell growth. The researchers have found that SCN1 keeps cell growth in check.
“This is an exciting discovery because the direction of cell growth is very important in de
More than 50% of buyers put location as the number one influencing factor in their choice of a new home. Things like low crime rate, good local amenities, road network and schools all influencing their decision of location. And we all know ‘good location’ homes sell at a price premium.
After location it traditionally used to be factors such as friendly neighbours, large gardens and fitted kitchens that weighed heavily in the buyer’s mind for choosing a home. But what is surpris
Scientists at the University of York used a ‘protein time capsule’ to confirm the earliest record of human activity in Northern Europe.
A team of bio-archaeologists from York were able to provide the final piece of scientific evidence which confirmed that primitive stone tools discovered in East Anglia dated back around 700,000 years – 200,000 years earlier than any other traces of human colonisation of northern latitudes.
Dr Kirsty Penkman and Dr Matthew Collins were p
The sweet taste of temperature
Why does a beer taste better if it comes from the fridge and does a warm beer taste bitter? Why is red Bordeaux wine best drunk at room temperature? And what causes that unique taste sensation of ice cream? Researchers from the Physiology section of the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (K.U.Leuven, Belgium) have discovered, together with their Japanese and American colleagues, how the temperature sensitivity of our sense of taste works. Today, they pu
One of the great challenges for treating Parkinson’s diseases and other neurodegenerative disorders is getting medicine to the right place in the brain.
The brain is a complex organ with many different types of cells and structures, and it is fortified with a protective barrier erected by blood vessels and glial cells — the brain’s structural building blocks — that effectively blocks the delivery of most drugs from the bloodstream.
But now scientists have fou
EAAC1 protein is the main transporter of cysteine into neurons, providing vital antioxidant protection
A study conducted at the San Francisco VA Medical Center has identified a protein found in both mice and humans that appears to play a key role in protecting neurons from oxidative stress, a toxic process linked to neurodegenerative illnesses including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases.
The study, led by Raymond Swanson, MD, chief of neurology and rehabil
Discuss uses for diagnosing oral health problems
Cone beam computerized tomography (CBCT) increasingly has become the newest technology for orthodontists to use in diagnosing complicated oral health problems.
Reporting on four new CBCT systems in the December issue of the Journal of Orthodontics are J. Martin Palomo and Mark Hans from the department of orthodontics at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and C.H. Kau and S. Richmond from the de
Parents of toddlers may be serving up stereotypes about body image that could contribute to eating disorders or behavioral problems later in life, according to a pair of new Florida State University studies.
Researchers found that parents of 3-year-olds worried that their sons but not their daughters were underweight – even though the weights and body mass index of the boys and girls in the study were nearly identical. They also said that their daughters ate enough food, but thei
Discovery mirrors expectations for genetic complexity of common diseases
Johns Hopkins scientists studying a rare inherited syndrome marked by eye and kidney problems, learning disabilities and obesity have discovered a genetic mutation that makes the syndrome more severe but that alone doesn’t cause it. Their report appears in the advance online edition of Nature (Dec. 4).
The new discovery about Bardet-Beidl syndrome (BBS) came from a panoply of studies — star
NT-proBNP test results comparable to those of BNP blood test in patients with kidney disease
A large-scale analysis has shown that a blood test previously found useful in diagnosing or ruling out heart failure in emergency room patients remains effective in patients with chronic kidney disease. The study also demonstrates that the test for a marker called NT-proBNP can identify patients at a higher risk for death, independent of kidney dysfunction. The report from investigators
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