Brain cells in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease have surprised scientists with their ability to recuperate after the disorder’s characteristic brain plaques are removed.
Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis injected mice with an antibody for a key component of brain plaques, the amyloid beta (Abeta) peptide. In areas of the brain where antibodies cleared plaques, many of the swellings previously observed on nerve cell branches rapidl
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology and Technical University Munch have discovered evidence of a phenomenon that may lead to drastically lowering the cost of manufacturing of materials from plastics to fertilizers. Studying nano-sized clusters of gold on a magnesium oxide surface, scientists found direct evidence for electrical charging of a nano-sized catalyst. This is an important factor in increasing the rate of chemical reactions. The research will appear in the 21 January, 2
A UCLA-led study of children’s patient records at California’s public mental health clinics identifies strengths and gaps in quality of care.
Published in the February edition of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the study examines safety and appropriateness of care for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder and major depression in the public clinics. It is the first statewide study on quality of care for children.
For the last three years evidence has been building that the impact of a comet or asteroid triggered the biggest mass extinction in Earth history, but new research from a team headed by a University of Washington scientist disputes that notion.
In a paper published Jan. 20 by Science Express, the online version of the journal Science, the researchers say they have found no evidence for an impact at the time of “the Great Dying” 250 million years ago. Instead, their research indi
Low exercise capacity in rats associated with high levels of CV risk factors
If your New Year’s resolution to exercise is now just a distant memory, there are some rats at the University of Michigan Medical School that may convince you to climb back on the treadmill.
A new research study, to be published in the Jan. 21 issue of Science, found that rats selected and bred for low aerobic exercise capacity had more cardiovascular disease risk factors than rats bred for
Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine have shown that an antibody treatment administered to the brain surface in mice with Alzheimer disease is capable of rapidly reversing disease-related structural nerve damage. The study will appear online on January 20 in advance of print publication in the February 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
One of the many hallmarks of Alzheimer disease is the presence of deposits or “plaques” made up of amyloid-
After a break in antiretroviral drug therapy in HIV-positive patients, the virus rebounds and begins to multiply. While this was feared to destroy, perhaps irreversibly, patient HIV-specific CD4+ T cells that are preferentially infected by the virus, it has now be shown to actually boost HIV-specific T cell production and activation, thereby boosting the immune response to the virus.
Scheduled interruption and resumption of antiretroviral treatment of HIV-positive patients has gen
What is the world coming to? An unsuspecting reef fish steps up to have its parasites removed by its favourite cleaner fish, the bluestreak cleaner wrasse, but instead of a thorough going over, it gets a nasty nip from the cleverly disguised bluestriped fangblenny, intent on a quick feed.
Mimics in nature have usually evolved to resemble foul-tasting animals, in a bid to protect themselves from predators, but the bluestriped fangblenny fish mimics a model -the bluestreak cleaner wras
Additional evidence that a class of antidepressants can reduce the effectiveness of tamoxifen has been published by researchers from the Indiana University School of Medicine, the University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University.
Results of the trial are published in the current issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The large clinical trial confirmed data from an earlier study showing that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants may hinder th
For decades, hormone replacement therapy (HRT) was prescribed for postmenopausal women to protect them from cardiovascular disease (CVD). However, results from the Women’s Health Initiative questioned its effectiveness, which has led to more caution in prescribing and using HRT for this purpose.
So, are there other ways women can decrease their risk of heart disease? Yes – and new evidence shows that exercise may be the easiest. According to a new study, women who are more p
Words may be a clue to how people, regardless of their language, think about and process emotions, according to a Penn State researcher.
“It has been suggested in the past that all cultures have in common a small number of emotions or emotion words, but that every culture has multiple ways of nuancing them, sometimes quite differently,” says Dr. Robert W. Schrauf, associate professor of applied linguistics at Penn State.
These words include joy or happiness, fear, anger a
University of Pittsburgh findings published in leading European journal
Reduced blood concentrations of a protein called adiponectin appear to indicate a significant risk of cardiovascular disease in one of the first studies to focus on risk of the disorder among patients with diabetes mellitus type 1, previously known as juvenile diabetes. Recent studies suggest that adiponectin, a protein specific to fat tissue, is involved in obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Results of the
Stem cell transplantation using umbilical cord blood is a standard treatment option for blood disorders in children, but not for adults, due to the difficulty of obtaining a sufficiently large dose of cells. To solve this problem, researchers from the University of Minnesota examined a new technique that combines two cord blood units from different donors for transplantation into adult or adolescent leukemia patients. Their study is to be published in the February 1, 2005, issue of Blood, the o
Just one cellular pathway produces the raw ingredients plants use to make thousands of compounds, from molecules with anticancer properties to the active ingredient in catnip, according to a team of researchers at Purdue University and the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology.
This finding challenges long-held assumptions about how plants produce these commercially important products. The research also could have important implications for researchers trying to harness plant
If you’re a middle-aged guy who’s packed on the pounds and now is battling to take them off, it’s a 50-50 shot that your jeans are fitting tighter because of your genes, according to a Saint Louis University School of Public Health study.
“About 50 percent of adult onset weight change remains genetic,” says James C. Romeis, Ph.D., professor of health services research at Saint Louis University School of Public Health and the principal investigator of the study, wh
Liver disease sometimes causes hepatic encephalopathy, which involves brain damage, personality changes, and intellectual impairment due to hyperammonemia (high levels of ammonia in the blood). However, the mechanisms involved in both learning and how liver disease leads to learning impairment are unclear.
In a new study led by Vicente Felipo of the Laboratory of Neurobiology at the Fundacion Valenciana de Investigaciones Biomedicas in Valencia, Spain and published in the February
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