Cancer treatment vaccine research leads to remission in a child with a relapsed neuroblastoma.
Doctors performed the first-ever FDA approved Schwann cell transplantation in a patient with a new spinal cord injury. The procedure is a Phase 1 clinical trial designed to evaluate the safety and feasibility of transplanting the patient’s own Schwann cells.
Scientists identified a sequence in the dystrophin gene that is essential for helping muscle tissues function, a breakthrough discovery that could lead to treatments for the deadly hereditary disease.
The work will be conducted on laboratory rats modelling Parkinson’s disease. The transplanted cells will be derived from skin from an adult human and will have been “reprogrammed” as nerve cells. The light-sensitive protein is obtained from a bacterium, which uses light to gain energy.
Scientists report researchers are now on the threshold of human application of stem cell therapies for a class of neurological diseases known as myelin disorders – a long list of diseases that include conditions such as multiple sclerosis, white matter stroke, cerebral palsy, certain dementias, and rare but fatal childhood disorders called pediatric leukodystrophies.
Scientists have long believed that glioblastoma multiforme, the most aggressive type of primary brain tumor, begins in glial cells that make up supportive tissue in the brain or in neural stem cells. Researchers found that the tumors can originate from other types of differentiated cells in the nervous system, including cortical neurons.
The brain’s key “breeder” cells secrete substances that boost the numbers and strength of critical brain-based immune cells believed to play a vital role in brain health. This finding adds a new dimension to our understanding of how resident stem cells and stem cell transplants may improve brain function.
Electrical stimulation using extradural electrodes—placed underneath the skull but not implanted in the brain, is a safe approach with meaningful benefits for patients with Parkinson's disease according to new research.
A study suggests that spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a genetic neuromuscular disease in infants and children, results primarily from motor circuit dysfunction, not motor neuron or muscle cell dysfunction, as is commonly thought. In a second study, the researchers identified the molecular pathway in SMA that leads to problems with motor function.
An international research team revealed the atomic‐level structure of the human peptidase enzyme meprin β (beta).
in a mouse model of Rett syndrome, researchers were able to reverse abnormalities in brain activity and improve neurological function by treating animals with an FDA-approved anesthesia drug, ketamine.
Efforts to treat disorders like Lou Gehrig’s disease, Paget’s disease, inclusion body myopathy and dementia will receive a considerable boost from a new research model created by UC Irvine scientists.
