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Mechanism Of Learning
"We show what everyone has always believed: LTP (long-term potentiation) is indeed induced in the hippocampus when learning occurs," said Mark F. Bear, Picower Professor of Neuroscience. "This is a big deal for neuroscientists because such evidence has been absent for the 30-plus years we have known about LTP".
The findings described in the Bear paper and in a second, separate paper in the same issue of Science "substantially advance the case for LTP as a neural mechanism for memory," wrote Tim Bliss of the MRC National Institute for Medical Research in the UK, Graham Collingridge of the University of Bristol, and Serge Laroche of the Universite Paris Sud in a commentary on the work.
LTP is an example of plasticity -- the amazing ability of the brain to change in response to experience. LTP builds up synapses, or the connections between neurons, while its counterpart, long-term depression, or LTD, pares unused synapses.
Since LTP was discovered in the late 1960s, thousands of papers have been published based on the assumption that the phenomenon is an important learning and memory mechanism in the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain.........
Posted by: Jenn Permalink Source
Eating Habits Of Rain Forest Insects
"This is a big step forward in the quest to understand why there is so much biodiversity in the tropics," said Weiblen, principal investigator and senior author for the National Science Foundation-funded research. The study is reported in the Aug. 25 issue of the journal Science.
The research showed that insect species in tropical and temperate forests dine on about the same number of tree species, despite the more diverse menu in the tropics.
"The tropical forest cafeteria offers a number of more options than the temperate forest," Weiblen said. "Our study confirms that the choices tropical insects make are quite similar to those of insects in less diverse forests of places like Minnesota".
The study rejected an alternative theory that tropical insects are actually picky eaters who prefer fewer host plants than their temperate counterparts.
"Theory predicts that similar species coexist by dividing up resources like food and space," Weiblen said. "The unparalleled diversity of plant-eating insects in the tropics could be explained as per this theory if tropical insects were more choosy than those in temperate forests. But it hasn't been possible to compare what's on the menu until now".........
Posted by: Jenn Permalink Source
Is Canada too clean?
About one in 350 Canadians suffer from ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease, otherwise known collectively as Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD), the study shows. The study was published recently in the American Journal of Gasteroenterology.
IBD is a wearing away of the lining of the intestinal tract until it becomes red and raw and begins to bleeds, like a skinned knee. The difference between ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease is where they occur: ulcerative colitis occurs only in the large intestine, and Crohn's disease, which is more common, occurs in both the large and small intestines.
"The key issue about IBD is that if affects people in the prime of their lives--it's usually first diagnosed between the ages of 15 and 25--and it can be very debilitating," said Dr. Richard Fedorak, director of the University of Alberta Division of Gasteroenterology and a co-author of the study.
Fedorak and his colleagues are studying IBD incidence rates in Canada to gain insight into the causes of the disease and determine why, as other studies have shown, it occurs more often in northern regions of the world.
"We know that people need a certain genetic mutation to be vulnerable to the disease," said Fedorak. "However, we believe there is an environmental element to it, as well, because not all people with the genetic mutation develop the disease".........
Posted by: Jenn Permalink Source
Ending Hospital Stays For Blood Clots
When injected subcutaneously (beneath the skin), unfractionated (regular) heparin was shown in a randomized trial to work just as well as subcutaneous injection of the more expensive, low-molecular weight heparin in the therapy of venous thromboembolism. Traditionally, when unfractionated heparin is used in therapy, it is administered intravenously and accompanied by coagulation monitoring, which requires hospitalization. This standard approach includes ongoing dose adjustment in response to measurement of the APTT, a test that measures how fast the blood clots in a test tube under certain conditions.
The newer low-molecular weight heparins, which are administered by injection in fixed-weight doses, have gradually been replacing unfractionated heparin.
Kearon and his colleagues conducted a randomized trial to study how fixed-dose, subcutaneous injection of unfractionated heparin in comparison to injection with the newer heparin in the therapy of blood clots in the legs or lungs.........
Posted by: Jenn Permalink Source
Schizophrenics At Risk For Type 2 Diabetes
They are looking at newly diagnosed schizophrenics in an upper-middle-class Spanish community to find whether the disease that causes patients to hear voices and smell, feel and even taste unreal objects also increases their risk of diabetes.
Researchers know the drugs that best control the psychosis increase the risk. "We know it's the medicine; I'm asking whether it's the disease as well," says Dr. Brian Kirkpatrick, vice chair of the Medical College of Georgia Department of Psychiatry and Health Behavior and principal investigator on the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases-funded study.
Dr. Kirkpatrick and his colleagues at Hospital Clinic at the University of Barcelona in Spain and the University of Maryland note mounting evidence that developmental problems, resulting from significant maternal stress in the second or early third trimester of pregnancy, may cause schizophrenia and related problems.
"The brain has this incredibly complex development where cells are born here and march over here and send communication over here; that goes wrong from the very beginning probably," says Dr. Kirkpatrick of the complex process of laying down normal communication pathways that apparently go awry in about 1 percent of people.........
Posted by: Jenn Permalink Source
Leadership Role In TMJ Research
Boston--The Forsyth Institute has announced the appointment of Lin Xu, MD, PhD, as the Milton & Renee Glass Family Fellow in Jaw Joints & Allied Musculo-Skeletal Research. Dr. Dominick DePaola, President and Chief Executive of Forsyth said, "I am delighted with the appointment and with the entry into this exciting new field of research for Forsyth. It represents a breakthrough in the application of basic science into a craniofacial disorder affecting millions of Americans." Dr. Xu's current research focuses on the underlying causes including genetic factors, of osteoarthritis in the jaw joints. Arthritis is widely considered a co-morbid condition of temporomandibular muscle (jaw) joint disorders/disease (TMJ/TMJD) the same painful and disabling condition that affects other joints in the body.
Dr. Xu's experience and breadth of scientific inquiry fits well within the fellowship mission to explore growth and development of healthy jaw joints in children as they develop pre- and post- natally. Subsequently, the investigation will explore the disorders/diseases of the temporomandibular joints and overlapping or co-morbid health disorders, through genetic and molecular science.........
Posted by: Jenn Permalink Source
Reversing Friedreich's Ataxia Defect
In the new study, the researchers tested a variety of compounds that inhibited a class of enzymes known as histone deacetylases in a cell line derived from blood cells from a Fredreich's ataxia sufferer. One of these inhibitors had the effect of reactivating the frataxin gene, which is silenced in those with the disease. The researchers then went on to improve on this molecule by synthesis of novel derivatives, identifying compounds that would reactivate the frataxin gene in blood cells taken from 13 Friedreich's ataxia patients.
In fact, one of the compounds the researchers tested produced what amounted to full reactivation of the frataxin gene in 100 percent of cells tested.
"This is marvelous," said Joel Gottesfeld, Ph.D., a professor in the Scripps Research Department of Molecular Biology and leader of the project. "I've met the parents of many children affected with the disease and some of the patients and it would be just a dream to be able to help them".
"Dr. Gottesfeld's work holds tremendous promise of real therapeutic benefit for Friedreich's ataxia patients," said Ron Bartek, president of Friedreich's Ataxia Research Alliance (FARA). "This discovery appears to be our only near-term prospect for significantly increasing transcription of the frataxin gene. FARA is pleased to have been able to support this important work".........
Posted by: Jenn Permalink Source
Ozone forecaster unveiled
With the intent to not only increase public awareness, but also help Texas manage air quality issues, the Institute for Multi-dimensional Air Quality Studies (IMAQS) at UH has been operating an air quality forecasting system for a year that has been tested, fine-tuned and now determined ready for public use. Over the course of this past year, the system has been expanded and improved to serve the entire eastern half of Texas, including the Houston and Dallas metropolitan areas.
"Our ozone forecaster is more localized than others and goes into further detail," said Daewon Byun, director of IMAQS and a professor in UH's geosciences department. "For instance, while the ozone conditions may be rated unhealthy in downtown Houston on a given day, suburbs like Sugar Land and The Woodlands may actually be experiencing a good day that still is safe for outdoor activities in those specific areas. Other days, the opposite is true with downtown-area ozone levels being lower than in certain suburbs."
By clicking on the local, regional or national maps at http://www.imaqs.uh.edu/ozone_forecast.htm, the public can obtain a map view of daily maximum ozone levels color-coded with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) health alert index. Also included are links to animations of a two-day forecast in one-hour increments. These maps and animations can help individuals, especially those with respiratory problems, plan their day's outside activities. The Web site is updated daily with the most recent 48-hour local, regional and national forecasts, providing graphical analysis of the onset, intensity, duration and area of poor air quality conditions via access to hourly data from 165 East Texas air pollution monitors. The near real-time hourly air pollution and meteorological data, air quality indices and animations from 3-D simulations performed by IMAQS use the EPA's Community Multiscale Air Quality modeling system co-developed by Byun in 1999 while at the EPA before coming to UH.........
Posted by: Jenn Permalink Source
Bulls-eye For Antibiotic Target
This research is applicable to the treatment of many diseases because that same protein is found in numerous harmful bacteria, including those that cause ulcers, leprosy, food poisoning, whooping cough, meningitis, sexually transmitted diseases, respiratory infections and stomach cancer, said David Sanders, an associate professor of biology. Sanders, who is part of the Markey Center for Structural Biology at Purdue, detailed his research in a paper published in the Aug. 16 issue of the journal Structure.
"This is an important discovery for the field of antibiotics, which was greatly in need of something new," Sanders said. "The antibiotics available today face a challenge of increasing resistance and failure. This research suggests a whole new approach to combat bacterial infections. In addition, this protein is an excellent antibiotic target because it only exists in bacteria and some plants, which means the treatment will only affect the targeted bacterial cells and will be harmless to human cells".
Sanders and his collaborator, Miriam Hasson, studied the structure of exopolyphosphatase, a protein in E. coli bacteria that functions as an enzyme and catalyzes chemical reactions within the bacteria. This enzyme provides the signal for bacteria to enter starvation mode and limit.........
Posted by: Jenn Permalink Source
Exam nerves affects students' immune system
While diseases like asthma and allergies are becoming increasingly common in the West, a number of people think that we are living ever stressful lives. A new study from Karolinska Institutet backs up what a number of people have suspected: that there are important links between mental stress and the complex physical inflammation reactions characteristic of allergies.
In order to understand the link between stress and allergy, the researchers have examined how a major medical exam at Karolinska Institutet affects feelings of stress, stress hormone levels, the immune system and lung function amongst students with and without allergies. The extensive tests were made on two occasions, first with the students during a calm period of study with no exam in sight, and then shortly before a major exam. Twenty two students with hayfever and/or asthma and 19 healthy students took part.
For the first time on record, researchers were able to show that a group of cells that are central to the human immune system known as regulatory T cells appear to increase sharply in number in response to mental stress. A regulatory T cell is a kind of white blood cell that controls the activity of many other types of immune cell. This increase was observed in both groups of students.........
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