Memories are formed at structures in the brain known as dendritic spines, which communicate with other brain cells through “synapses.” The number of these brain connections decreases by half after puberty in a process termed adolescent “synaptic pruning” that is necessary for normal learning in adulthood. However, the pruning away of unnecessary synapses does not...
Tag: <span>Drugs</span>
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Novel combination of drugs 'could eliminate HIV', scientists claim as they start groundbreaking human trial
Case Western Reserve University scientists are combining two AIDS treatments The two properties have already been shown to reduce the viral load of HIV But researchers believe they could go as far as to reduce ‘latent HIV reservoirs’ – HIV-infected cells which do not actively produce HIV so are harder to target HIV could be...
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Drug shows promise for treating alcoholism
Sebastian Hernandez/UCLAUCLA research shows that the drug, ibudilast, reduces people’s craving for alcohol and appears to improve their ability to recover from a stressful situation. UCLA researchers have found that an anti-inflammatory drug primarily used in Japan to treat asthma could help people overcome alcoholism. Their study is the first to evaluate the drug, ibudilast,...
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Cancer researchers stumble onto drugs’ fat-blasting powers
The real test will be if the mouse study can be reproduced in humans While the scientific inquiry process is generally linear and highly regimented, every once in awhile, happenstance works its way in. That’s just what happened when researchers at the Mayo Clinic were studying the influence obesity has over cancer treatments and found,...
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Massive marijuana report reveals drug’s many health effects
Cannabis and its many effects on users are described by a massive report that looks at 10,000 scientific studies There’s been no shortage of studies conducted over the years on the effects of marijuana use. But the focus of those studies can be as varied as their conclusions, making it a challenge to wade through the...
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A comprehensive map of molecular drug targets
Abstract The success of mechanism-based drug discovery depends on the definition of the drug target. This definition becomes even more important as we try to link drug response to genetic variation, understand stratified clinical efficacy and safety, rationalize the differences between drugs in the same therapeutic class and predict drug utility in patient subgroups. However,...