IN BRIEF Researchers have reprogrammed existing brain cells in mice into dopamine neurons to reduce their symptoms of Parkinson’s disease. This novel approach could be used to treat Parkinson’s disease with stem cells which are not transplanted, but induced from patients’ own brain cells. SUPPORT CELLS TURNED SUPER CELLS Parkinson’s disease is one of the...
Category: <span>Mental health</span>
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Huntington’s Disease: Researcher Discover A Way To Stop Progression Of The Fatal Disease
Huntington’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder, which mostly affects middle-aged people. It is a genetic disorder and affects muscle co-ordination, which eventually progresses into dementia. Scientists have been unable to find a cure for the fatal brain disease. However, a new study may be the light at the end of the tunnel and may have...
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Researchers identify link between birth defect and neurodegenerative diseases
A new study has found a link between neurological birth defects in infants commonly found in pregnant women with diabetes and several neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and Huntington’s diseases. This is the first time this link has been identified; it may indicate a new way to understand, and perhaps treat, both neural tube...
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Detecting Alzheimer’s disease earlier using … Greebles?
Which Greeble is different? Unique graphic characters called Greebles may prove to be valuable tools in detecting signs of Alzheimer’s disease decades before symptoms become apparent. In an article published online last week in Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, Emily Mason, Ph.D., a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Louisville,...
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Conversion of brain cells offers hope for Parkinson’s patients
Dopamine neurons degenerate and die in the brains of people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet have made significant progress in the search for new treatments for Parkinson’s disease. By manipulating the gene expression of non-neuronal cells in the brain, they were able to produce new dopamine neurons. The study, performed on...
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The Future of the Human Brain: Smart Drugs and Nootropics
A Scientific Way of Enhancing Performance? Doing research to define what nootropics are is kind of like asking Tekkies which VPN is the best one to use. You get an avalanche of responses from a group of people who are absolute evangelists for the technology, and each is totally sold on their particular solution. This...
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Ultrasound and drug research holds promise for Alzheimer’s disease
Three dimensional imaging of the blood-brain barrier. Non-invasive ultrasound improves the delivery to the brain of a therapeutic antibody targeting Alzheimer’s disease, University of Queensland researchers have found. Scientists from UQ’s Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), previously showed non-pharmacological scanning ultrasound reversed Alzheimer’s symptoms and restored memory in mice. The new research found that ultrasound alone cleared...
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Five of the best apps to train your brain
It is no secret that as we age, our brain function declines. However, studies have suggested that keeping mentally active – particularly when older – can help to maintain cognitive functioning. Brain training apps are considered a useful aid for mental stimulation, but which one is right for you? We present our pick of five...
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Multiple sclerosis: Novel immunotherapy reverses paralysis in mice
Researchers may be one step closer to developing new treatments for multiple sclerosis, after discovering a way to tame the erratic immune response that triggers the disease and reverse paralysis in mouse models of the disease. The picture on the left shows a paralyzed mouse model of MS prior to treatment. The picture on the...
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Girls are better at masking autism than boys
Girls with autism have relatively good social skills, which means that their autism is often not recognised. Autism manifests itself in girls differently from in boys. Psychologist Carolien Rieffe and colleagues from the Autism Centre and INTER-PSY (Groningen) report their findings in scientific journal Autism. Information about autism in girls is scarce. What we know about autism is mainly based...