New Compound Holds Promise for Treating Duchenne MD and Other Inherited Diseases
RTC 13 effectively counteracts ‘nonsense’ mutation that causes disorder. Scientists at UCLA have identified a new compound that could treat certain types of genetic disorders in muscles. It is a big first step in what they hope will lead to human clinical trials for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Duchenne muscular dystrophy, or DMD, is a degenerative [...]
Nerve Pathway for Combating Axon Injury and Stress May Hold Benefits for Individuals With Neurodegenerative Disorders
Researchers from the Huck Institutes’ Center for Cellular Dynamics, led by Center director Melissa Rolls, have found that a neuroprotective pathway initiated in response to injured or stressed neural axons serves to stabilize and protect the nerve cell against further degeneration. Neurons, or nerve cells, typically have a single axon that transmits signals to other [...]
New Candidate Drug Stops Cancer Cells and Regenerates Nerve Cells
Scientists have developed a small-molecule-inhibiting drug that in early laboratory cell tests stopped breast cancer cells from spreading and also promoted the growth of early nerve cells called neurites. Researchers from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center report their findings online June 21 in Chemistry & Biology. The scientists named their lead drug candidate “Rhosin” and [...]
Proposed Drug May Reverse Huntington’s Disease Symptoms
Single treatment produces long-term improvement in animal models. With a single drug treatment, researchers at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine can silence the mutated gene responsible for Huntington’s disease, slowing and partially reversing progression of the fatal neurodegenerative disorder in animal models. The findings [...]
Scientists Identify Protein Required to Regrow Injured Nerves in Limbs
A protein required to regrow injured peripheral nerves has been identified by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The finding, in mice, has implications for improving recovery after nerve injury in the extremities. It also opens new avenues of investigation toward triggering nerve regeneration in the central nervous system, notorious for [...]
Gene May Link Diabetes and Alzheimer’s
Gene involved in dementia affects the insulin pathway, reports biology professor Chris Li and colleagues. In recent years it became clear that people with diabetes face an ominous prospect – a far greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Now researchers at The City College of New York (CCNY) have shed light on one reason why. [...]
New Stroke Treatment Could Prevent and Reduce Brain Damage
Findings show new therapy has potential to help the brain as it reacts to stroke’s harmful effects. Researchers at the University of Missouri have demonstrated the effectiveness of a potential new therapy for stroke patients in an article published in the journal Molecular Neurodegeneration. Created to target a specific enzyme known to affect important brain functions, [...]
Scientists Reprogram Skin Cells into Brain Cells
Innovative technique lays groundwork for novel stem cell therapies Scientists at the Gladstone Institutes have for the first time transformed skin cells—with a single genetic factor—into cells that develop on their own into an interconnected, functional network of brain cells. The research offers new hope in the fight against many neurological conditions because scientists expect [...]
Alzheimer’s Vaccine Trial a Success
A study led by Karolinska Institutet reports for the first time the positive effects of an active vaccine against Alzheimer’s disease. The new vaccine, CAD106, can prove a breakthrough in the search for a cure for this seriously debilitating dementia disease. The study is published in the distinguished scientific journal Lancet Neurology. Alzheimer’s disease is [...]
Neuroscientists Explore Innovative Way to Help People Who are Blind
When people close their eyes, they can form mental images of things that exist only in their minds. Neuroscientists studying this phenomenon at medical schools in the Texas Medical Center believe that there may be a way to use these mental images to help some of the estimated 39 million people worldwide who are blind. [...]
