PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Blocking overactive receptor in Alzheimer's recovers memory loss and more

2013-06-17
(Press-News.org) This news release is available in French.

A new study shows that memory pathology in older mice with Alzheimer's disease can be reversed with treatment. The study by researchers from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital - The Neuro, at McGill University and at Université de Montréal found that blocking the activity of a specific receptor in the brain of mice with advanced Alzheimer's disease (AD) recovers memory and cerebrovascular function. The results, published in the Journal of Neuroinflammation in May, also suggest an underlying mechanism of AD as a potential target for new therapies.

"The exciting and important aspect of this study is that even animals with advanced pathology can be rescued with this molecule" says Dr. Edith Hamel, neuroscientist at The Neuro and lead investigator on the paper in collaboration with Dr Réjean Couture at the Department of Physiology at Université de Montréal. "We have rarely seen this type of reversal of AD symptoms before in our mouse model at this advanced age – when mice have been developing AD for one year."

The researchers found an increased level of a receptor known as bradykinin B1 receptor (B1R) in the brain of mice with AD, a receptor involved in inflammation. "By administering a molecule that selectively blocks the action of this receptor, we observed important improvements in both cognitive and cerebrovascular function," says Dr. Baptiste Lacoste, research fellow who conducted the study at The Neuro and now pursuing his training at Harvard Medical School in Boston. "Alzheimer's disease destroys nerve cells and also compromises the function of blood vessels in the brain. Not only were there improvements in learning and memory, but also marked recovery in blood flow and vascular reactivity, i.e. the ability of cerebral vessels to dilate or constrict when necessary." Proper functioning of blood vessels in the brain is vital to providing nutrients and oxygen to nerve cells, and vascular diseases represent important risk factors for developing AD at an advanced age.

"Another interesting result that has not been seen before in our mouse model is a reduction by over 50% of toxic amyloid-beta peptide," adds Dr. Hamel. "In Alzheimer's disease, protein fragments called amyloid-beta have a deleterious effect on the blood and nervous systems. Normally, these protein fragments are broken down and removed. In Alzheimer's disease, the protein fragments clump together — a factor believed to contribute to neuronal and vascular dysfunction. We are not sure if these decreases contribute to the functional recovery, but we hope that our findings will aid in clarifying this issue and identifying new targets for therapeutic approaches."

The results show that an increase in B1R is associated with amyloid-beta plaques in Alzheimer's disease mice with impaired memory, and that chronic blockade of B1R significantly improves learning, memory, cerebrovascular function, and several other pathological AD hallmarks in mice with a fully developed pathology. Together, these findings confirm a role of B1R in AD pathogenesis and the role of neuroinflammation as an underlying mechanism in AD. The next step would be to further investigate potential blockers of the bradykinin B1R as a potential treatment for AD in humans.

### This study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and a postdoctoral fellowship award from the Alzheimer Society of Canada.

Link to the study: http://www.jneuroinflammation.com/content/10/1/57/abstract

The Neuro The Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital — The Neuro, is a unique academic medical centre dedicated to neuroscience. Founded in 1934 by the renowned Dr. Wilder Penfield, the Neuro is recognized internationally for integrating research, compassionate patient care and advanced training, all key to advances in science and medicine. The Neuro is a research and teaching institute of McGill University and forms the basis for the Neuroscience Mission of the McGill University Health Centre. Neuro researchers are world leaders in cellular and molecular neuroscience, brain imaging, cognitive neuroscience and the study and treatment of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and neuromuscular disorders. For more information, visit theneuro.com


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Whooping cough can be deadly for infants, but 61 percent of adults don't know their vaccine status

2013-06-17
ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Cases of pertussis, also known as whooping cough, are on the rise in the U.S., recently reaching their highest level in 50 years. The disease can be serious or even fatal to newborns who have not yet received vaccinations. Effective vaccines against pertussis have been available for many decades, but that vaccine protection can wear off over time. A new University of Michigan poll shows that 61 percent of adults say they don't know when they were last vaccinated against pertussis, which could mean they might be unwittingly exposing vulnerable babies ...

Artificial sweetener a potential treatment for Parkinson's disease

2013-06-17
Mannitol, a sugar alcohol produced by fungi, bacteria, and algae, is a common component of sugar-free gum and candy. The sweetener is also used in the medical field — it's approved by the FDA as a diuretic to flush out excess fluids and used during surgery as a substance that opens the blood/brain barrier to ease the passage of other drugs. Now Profs. Ehud Gazit and Daniel Segal of Tel Aviv University's Department of Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology and the Sagol School of Neuroscience, along with their colleague Dr. Ronit Shaltiel-Karyo and PhD candidate Moran ...

Research examines how technology can break down barriers

2013-06-17
A small, pilot study is examining how mobile technology might support deaf and hard-of-hearing college students when an interpreter can't physically be present at the time the services are requested. The University of Cincinnati research will be presented on June 19, at the Critical Link 7 International Conference in Toronto. The conference is themed, "Global Awakening: Leading Practices in Interpreting." The first phase of the UC research project involved a college student taking a course in a large, auditorium-style classroom. The student used an iPad to gain the services ...

People attribute minds to robots, corpses that are targets of harm

2013-06-17
As Descartes famously noted, there's no way to really know that another person has a mind — every mind we observe is, in a sense, a mind we create. Now, new research suggests that victimization may be one condition that leads us to perceive minds in others, even in entities we don't normally think of as having minds. This research, published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, shows that people attribute minds to entities they perceive as being targets of harm, even when the entity in question is a robot or a corpse. "People ...

Teaching and safety-net hospitals show variations in quality and outcomes of care

2013-06-17
Philadelphia, Pa. (June 17, 2013) – Teaching hospitals with a higher intensity of physician-training activity achieve lower mortality rates, but higher hospitalization readmission rates for key medical diagnoses, reports a study in the July issue of Medical Care, published by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, a part of Wolters Kluwer Health. The disparity in readmissions is greatest for "safety-net" hospitals serving low-income populations, according to the new research led by Dr Stephanie K. Mueller of Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. They write, "These findings ...

Is there an invisible tug-of-war behind bad hearts and power outages?

2013-06-17
VIDEO: Researchers from Princeton University and Germany's Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization report the first purely physical experimental evidence that chimera states can occur naturally within any process that... Click here for more information. Systems such as a beating heart or a power grid that depend on the synchronized movement of their parts could fall prey to an invisible and chaotic tug-of-war known as a "chimera." Sharing its name with the fire-breathing, ...

Medical assessment in the blink of an eye

2013-06-17
Have you ever thought that you knew something about the world in the blink of an eye? This restaurant is not the right place for dinner. That person could be The One. It turns out that radiologists can do this with mammograms, the x-ray images used for breast cancer screening. Cytologists, who screen micrographic images of cervical cells to detect cervical cancer, have a similar ability. A new study, published in Springer's journal Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, takes a closer look at the skill these specialists have. There are many routes to making snap judgments (not ...

New alternative to surgery lets doctors remove suspicious polyps, keep colon intact

2013-06-17
Millions of people each year have polyps successfully removed during colonoscopies. But when a suspicious polyp is bigger than a marble or in a hard-to-reach location, patients are referred for surgery to remove a portion of their colon — even if doctors aren't sure whether the polyp is cancerous or not. Since only 15 percent of all polyps turn out to be malignant, many patients are unnecessarily subjected to the risks of this major surgery. Now there is an alternative. A UCLA team of surgeons and gastroenterologists has been performing a new, minimally invasive ...

Bullfrogs may help spread deadly amphibian fungus, but also die from it

2013-06-17
CORVALLIS, Ore. – Amphibian populations are declining worldwide and a major cause is a deadly fungus thought to be spread by bullfrogs, but a two-year study shows they can also die from this pathogen, contrary to suggestions that bullfrogs are a tolerant carrier host that just spreads the disease. When researchers raised the frogs from eggs in controlled experimental conditions, they found at least one strain of this pathogen, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, also called Bd or a chytrid fungus, can be fatal to year-old juveniles. However, bullfrogs were resistant to one ...

Study identifies protein essential for normal heart function

2013-06-17
A study by researchers at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Pharmacology at the University of California, San Diego, shows that a protein called MCL-1, which promotes cell survival, is essential for normal heart function. Their study, published in the June 15 online issue of the journal Genes & Development, found that deletion of the gene encoding MCL-1 in adult mouse hearts led to rapid heart failure within two weeks, and death within a month. MCL-1 (myeloid cell leukemia-1) is an anti-apoptotic protein, meaning that it prevents ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Signs identified that precede sudden arrhythmic death syndrome in young people

Discovery of bacteria's defence against viruses becomes a piece of the puzzle against resistance

Pre-eclampsia is associated with earlier onset and higher incidence of cardiovascular risk factors

Warwick astronomers discover doomed pair of spiralling stars on our cosmic doorstep

Soil conditions significantly increase rainfall in world’s megastorm hotspots

NK cells complexed with bispecific antibody yield high response rates in patients with lymphoma

Planetary health diet and mediterranean diet associated with similar survival and sustainability benefits

Singapore launches national standard to validate antimicrobial disinfectant products

Molecular stool test could improve detection of tuberculosis in adults with HIV

Suspected fibrocartilaginous embolus in Asian small-clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus)

Enhancing heat transfer using the turbulent flow of viscoelastic fluids

Exercise as an anti-ageing intervention to avoid detrimental impact of mental fatigue

UMass Amherst Nursing Professor Emerita honored as ‘Living Legend’

New guidelines aim to improve cystic fibrosis screening

Picky eaters by day, buffet by night: Butterfly, moth diets sync to plant aromas

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Leanne Redman honored with the E. V. McCollum Award from the American Society for Nutrition

CCNY physicists uncover electronic interactions mediated via spin waves

Researchers’ 3D-printing formula may transform future of foam

Nurture more important than nature for robotic hand

Drug-delivering aptamers target leukemia stem cells for one-two knockout punch

New study finds that over 95% of sponsored influencer posts on Twitter were not disclosed

New sea grant report helps great lakes fish farmers navigate aquaculture regulations

Strain “trick” improves perovskite solar cells’ efficiency

How GPS helps older drivers stay on the roads

Estrogen and progesterone stimulate the body to make opioids

Dancing with the cells – how acoustically levitating a diamond led to a breakthrough in biotech automation

Machine learning helps construct an evolutionary timeline of bacteria

Cellular regulator of mRNA vaccine revealed... offering new therapeutic options

Animal behavioral diversity at risk in the face of declining biodiversity

Finding their way: GPS ignites independence in older adult drivers

[Press-News.org] Blocking overactive receptor in Alzheimer's recovers memory loss and more