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Can Viagra prevent or reverse Alzheimer’s disease? Older men’s ship may be coming in. New research from the Cleveland Clinic suggests the erectile-dysfunction drug could ward off cognitive decline, illustrating how artificial intelligence can help scientists repurpose old medications for new diseases. The study, published this month in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, builds on earlier research by the Cleveland Clinic that identified sildenafil, the generic name for Viagra, as a promising Alzheimer’s treatment. Researchers first identified genes associated with the disease’s pathology, amyloid plaque and tau tangles in the brain. They then mapped out the molecular interplay among more...

Researchers have identified that a transient inflammatory pain causes mitochondrial and redox changes in sensory neurons that persist beyond pain resolution. These changes appear to predispose to a failure in resolving pain caused by subsequent inflammation. Additionally, targeting the cellular redox balance prevents and treats chronic inflammatory pain in rodents. Pain often persists in patients with an inflammatory disease, even after the inflammation has subsided. For some time, there have been clues that mitochondrial dysfunction may be involved. In a clinical study, approximately 70% of patients with heritable mitochondrial diseases develop chronic pain. To unravel the role of mitochondria in...

Neuroscientists have found that intensive exercise could slow the course of Parkinson's disease. The finding could pave the way for new non-drug approaches. The research has identified a new mechanism responsible for the positive effects of exercise on brain plasticity. Professor Paolo Calabresi, said, "We have discovered a never observed mechanism, through which exercise performed in the early stages of the disease induces beneficial effects on movement control that may last over time even after training is suspended." Previous work has shown that intensive physical activity is associated with increased production of a critical growth factor, the brain-derived neurotrophic factor...

Students sometimes pull an all-nighter to prepare for an exam. However, research has shown that sleep deprivation is bad for your memory. Now, neuroscientist Robbert Havekes discovered that what you learn while being sleep deprived is not necessarily lost, it is just difficult to recall. Together with his team, he has found a way to make this "hidden knowledge" accessible again days after studying while sleep-deprived using optogenetic approaches, and the human-approved asthma drug roflumilast. His team examined whether amnesia as a result of sleep deprivation was a direct result of information loss, or merely caused by difficulties retrieving information....

A drug typically used to treat enlarged prostates and high blood pressure has shown promise as a potential new therapy for motor neuron disease (MND)—also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS)—according to a new study. MND is a group of rare diseases that destroy nerve cells known as motor neurons, causing patients to slowly lose function of their muscles. In studies using zebrafish, mice and stem cell models, experts have demonstrated that the drug terazosin protects against the death of motor neurons by increasing their energy production. Researchers say the drug could help to slow the progression of a disease...

A team of researchers from CNRS and the Ecole Normale Supérieure in France develop the first prototype for an artificial neuron, according to a study published in Science (1). As in the brain, their system uses ions to carry information, and it relies on a thin layer of water transporting ions within long graphene incisions.Our brain can perform the most impressive and complex tasks. However, despite this complexity, it needs very little energy. This high efficiency comes from neurons, which have a membrane with tiny pores called ion channels. These channels can open and close according to the stimuli received...

SAN DIEGO – Sometimes, scientific breakthroughs occur when researchers aren’t exactly looking for them. While attempting to better understand the function of a protein in connective tissue cells, UC San Diego School of Medicine scientists found a way to transform multiple types of cells into neurons. This discovery has led to the development of a treatment that eliminates symptoms of Parkinson’s disease in mice. The protein researchers were studying, called PTB, is known for its general role in activating or deactivating genes within a cell. In an attempt to better understand how PTB contributes to cell function, researchers silenced the...

Professor Charles Lieber’s arrest on Jan. 28 made headlines on all the major U.S. media. After all, he was not only a Harvard professor, he was a world-class researcher in nanotechnology, working on highly sensitive research projects for the U.S. government. The FBI complaint alleges that he had been secretly participating in China’s “Thousand Talents Plan” since 2011, paid some $600,000 a year plus expenses to open and operate a lab at the Wuhan University of Technology (yes, that Wuhan). We know that China contracts with American experts in this way in order to steal their research and gain commercial...

Scientists think they've identified a previously unknown form of neural communication that self-propagates across brain tissue, and can leap wirelessly from neurons in one section of brain tissue to another – even if they've been surgically severed. The discovery offers some radical new insights about the way neurons might be talking to one another, via a mysterious process unrelated to conventionally understood mechanisms, such as synaptic transmission, axonal transport, and gap junction connections. "We don't know yet the 'So what?' part of this discovery entirely," says neural and biomedical engineer Dominique Durand from Case Western Reserve University. "But we do...

Unlike most cells in our bodies, the neurons in our brain can scramble their genes, scientists have discovered. This genome tampering may expand the brain’s protein repertoire, but it may also promote Alzheimer’s disease, their study suggests. “It’s potentially one of the biggest discoveries in molecular biology in years,” says Geoffrey Faulkner, a molecular biologist at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, who wasn’t connected to the research. “It is a landmark study,” agrees clinical neurologist Christos Proukakis of University College London. Scientists first discovered that certain cells could shuffle and edit DNA in the 1970s. Some immune cells...

In a mysterious addition to the brain’s family of cells, researchers have discovered a new kind of neuron—a dense, bushy bundle (above) that is present in people but seems to be missing in mice. These “rosehip neurons,” were found in the uppermost layer of the cortex, which is home to many different types of neurons that inhibit the activity of other neurons. Scientists spotted the neurons in slices of human brain tissue as part of a larger effort to inventory human brain cells by combining microscopic study of brain anatomy and the genetic analysis of individual cells. The cells were...

Researchers find evidence that neural systems actively remove memories, which suggests that forgetting may be the default mode of the brain. “Without forgetting, we would have no memory at all,” The reason, he thinks, is that the brain doesn’t know straight away what is important and what isn’t, so it tries to remember as much as possible at first, but gradually forgets most things. “Forgetting serves as a filter,” Hardt said. “It filters out the stuff that the brain deems unimportant.”

Scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have shown how transplanted stem cells can connect with and rescue threatened neurons and brain tissue. The results point the way to new possible treatments for brain damage and neurodegenerative diseases. A possible strategy for treating neurodegenerative diseases is to transplant stem cells into the brain that prevent existing nerve cells from dying. The method has proved successful in different models, but the mechanisms behind it are still unknown. According to one hypothesis, the stem cells mature into fully-mature neurons that communicate with the threatened brain tissue; according to another, the stem...

Skin cells turned directly into neurons By Clive Cookson Published: January 28 2010 02:00 | Last updated: January 28 2010 02:00 Stem cell scientists at Stanford University in California announced "a huge step forward" last night, with the publication of research that turned skin into nerve cells without any intermediate step. The production of neurons [nerve cells] directly from other adult cells, without making stem cells en route, could transform "regenerative medicine" - providing a plentiful supply of neurons for treating people with degenerative brain diseases such as Parkinson's or those with spinal injuries. "We actively and directly induced one...

UCLA researchers find that genes determine brain's processing speed They say a picture tells a thousand stories, but can it also tell how smart you are? Actually, say UCLA researchers, it can. In a study published in the Journal of Neuroscience Feb. 18, UCLA neurology professor Paul Thompson and colleagues used a new type of brain-imaging scanner to show that intelligence is strongly influenced by the quality of the brain's axons, or wiring that sends signals throughout the brain. The faster the signaling, the faster the brain processes information. And since the integrity of the brain's wiring is influenced by...

University of Reading scientists have developed a robot controlled by a biological brain formed from cultured neurons. And this is a world's premiere. Other research teams have tried to control robots with 'brains,' but there was always a computer in the loop. This new project is the first one to examine 'how memories manifest themselves in the brain, and how a brain stores specific pieces of data.' As life expectancy is increasing in most countries, this new research could provide insights into how the brain works and help aging people. In fact, the main goal of this project is to...

Canadian scientists have produced neurons from human skin stem cells in a breakthrough that might revolutionize neurodegenerative disease treatments. The Laval University researchers succeeded in producing neurons in vitro using stem cells extracted from adult human skin. That marks the first time such an advanced state of nerve cell differentiation has been achieved from human skin, according to lead researcher professor Francois Berthod. The scientists say the breakthrough could eventually lead to revolutionary advances in the treatment of neurodegenerative illnesses such as Parkinson's disease. Berthod and his team described the method used to produce the neurons in a recent issue...

THE immune cells that attack the brains and nerves of people with multiple sclerosis could be turned into a weapon against the disease.This month sees the beginning of a trial of a personalised vaccine for MS, designed to rein in and destroy the renegade white blood cells that attack myelin cells lining the brain and nerves of patients.To make the vaccine, PharmaFrontiers of Woodlands, Texas, takes blood from an MS patient and extracts a sample of these renegade cells. The cells are then multiplied and weakened with radiation before being re-injected into the patient, whose immune system will then recognise...

Video (movie will open in a separate window)Choose your format: Quicktime Realmedia Plan on wearing green this St. Patrick's Day? Bet you can't top a mouse with green skin. As this ScienCentral News video explains, this mouse is green for a very serious reason. It's invaluable to researchers learning how to grow nerve cells. Knitting New NeuronsEven for scientists, it's not every day you see a hairless mouse glowing bright green under a fluorescent light. And for scientists searching for stem cells that could grow into nerve or brain cells, seeing such a mouse meant finding a possible whole...

Abstract: Among a fringe community of paranoids, aluminum helmets serve as the protective measure of choice against invasive radio signals. We investigate the efficacy of three aluminum helmet designs on a sample group of four individuals. Using a $250,000 network analyser, we find that although on average all helmets attenuate invasive radio frequencies in either directions (either emanating from an outside source, or emanating from the cranium of the subject), certain frequencies are in fact greatly amplified. These amplified frequencies coincide with radio bands reserved for government use according to the Federal Communication Commission (FCC). Statistical evidence suggests the use...