A hormone found naturally in the gut is the basis of a new drug to tackle obesity to be developed through one of three inaugural awards under the Wellcome Trust’s Seeding Drug Discovery initiative. The drug is being developed by one of the world’s leading obesity experts, Professor Steve Bloom at Imperial College London’s Hammersmith Hospital campus.
Brain injury causes glutamate, a substance necessary for proper brain function, to flood areas surrounding the trauma and kill other cells. Weizmann Institute scientists have developed a new way to rid the brain of excess glutamate. This method — which uses an enzyme found in blood — could lead to new therapies not only for brain injury, but also for stroke and other conditions, and holds promise for prevention of damage from meningitis or nerve gas.
For the first time, a set of screening guidelines for the detection of carotid stenosis, the thickening of the blood vessel that supplies blood to the brain and a leading cause of stroke, has been developed by a multidisciplinary committee of internationally recognized neurologists and surgeons. These guidelines will help reduce the death and disability rates associated with stroke by identifying carotid stenosis in a timely manner, allowing treatment before a stroke occurs. These guidelines appear in the latest issue of Journal of Neuroimaging.
Scientists from Cleveland, Ohio, and Paris, France, reached an important milestone in understanding a molecular cause of a rare, but serious birth defect, Holoprosencephaly. In this February’s FASEB Journal, researchers explain why and how some fetal brains fail to develop two lobes, as well as why and how the related skull and facial defects occur. Information from this study will enable researchers to pursue better approaches toward detecting, preventing, and treating this serious disorder.
The first study examining the relationship between parasite infections and MS in humans suggests that such infections may affect the immune response in a way that alters the course of MS.
Researchers have found a marker on head and neck tumor cells that indicates which cells are capable of fueling the cancer’s growth. The finding is the first evidence of cancer stem cells in head and neck tumors.
Students who entered college when they were 12 to 14 years old don’t fit the stereotype of unhappy “nerds,” according to a new study. In fact, University of Washington research paints a different and much more positive portrait of these gifted students
Northwestern University researchers have discovered a genetic cause of a mysterious neurological disease in which people have trouble recalling and using words. The illness, Primary Progressive Aphasia, differs from Alzheimer’s Disease in which a person’s memory becomes impaired. In PPA, which can begin in the 40’s and 50’s, people eventually lose the ability to express themselves and understand speech. Although people lose the ability to communicate, they are still able to perform complicated tasks.
Researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Cancer Center have found that AZD2171 (RECENTIN(tm)), a new angiogenesis inhibitor, can significantly reduce the size of the deadly brain tumors called glioblastomas and has the potential of improving the effectiveness of other therapeutic techniques.
Researchers at the University of Alberta have shown that a nontoxic molecule shrinks cancers tumors, including lung, breast and brain. The results of the research will be published in the journal Cancer Cell.