(Press-News.org) Death of neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus and locus coeruleus is a pathological characteristic of the disease. Previous studies concerning the pathological characteristic of Alzheimer's disease mainly focus on learning and memory-related hippocampus, and less attention has been paid to the locus coeruleus. Noradrenergic neurons in the locus coeruleus can produce norepinephrine that has excitatory effects on the hippocampus and cortex, suggesting that the locus coeruleus has an important role for learning, memory and other cognitive functions. A recent study published in the Neural Regeneration Research (Vol. 8, No. 24, 2013) showed that noradrenergic neurons and fibers in the locus coeruleus are predisposed to degenerative alterations in mice carrying mutant amyloid-β precursor protein and presenilin-1 genes. Authors believe that these changes were consistent with pathological alterations in locus coeruleus neurons in the brains of patients with Alzheimer's disease, demonstrating that this animal model can simulate closely this pathological process observed clinically.
INFORMATION:
Article: " Degenerative alterations in noradrenergic neurons of the locus coeruleus in Alzheimer's disease," by Lihua Liu1, 2, Saiping Luo3, Leping Zeng4, Weihong Wang2, Liming Yuan5, Xiaohong Jian5 (1 Department of Histology & Embryology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha 410013, Hunan Province, China; 2 Department of Nursing, Medical College of Hunan Normal University, Changsha 10013, Hunan Province, China; 3 Third Department of Surgery, Agricultural Division Four Hospital, Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Yili 835000, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China; 4 Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences, Central South University, Changsha 410013, Hunan Province, China; 5 Department of Anatomy, Medical College of Hunan Normal University, Changsha 410013, Hunan Province, China)
Liu LH, Luo SP, Zeng LP, Wang WH, Yuan LM, Jian XH. Degenerative alterations in noradrenergic neurons of the locus coeruleus in Alzheimer's disease. Neural Regen Res. 2013;8(24):2249-2255.
Contact: Meng Zhao
eic@nrren.org
86-138-049-98773
Neural Regeneration Research
http://www.nrronline.org/
Full text: http://www.sjzsyj.org/CN/article/downloadArticleFile.do?attachType=PDF&id=697
Simulating Alzheimer's disease in transgenic mice
2013-09-05
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Study reveals new insight into how cheetahs catch their prey
2013-09-05
A new research study has revealed that the cheetah, the world's fastest land animal, matches and may even anticipate the escape tactics of different prey when hunting, rather than just relying on its speed and agility, as previously thought.
The study, which has just been published in the Royal Society Journal Biology Letters was carried out by a team of researchers from Queen's University Belfast, in collaboration with other Institutions in the UK (University of Aberdeen, University of Swansea, Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, University of Oxford), ...
Young adults with autism found to have difficulty transitioning into employment
2013-09-05
Washington D.C. -- A study published in the September 2013 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry found that young adults with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have more difficulty transitioning into employment than their peers with different disabilities.
Using data from the National Longitudinal Transition Study 2 (NLTS2; a longitudinal nationally-representative survey of youth ages 13-16 years as of December 2000 and receiving special education services), a group of researchers led by Dr. Paul Shattuck of Washington University ...
Wide range of differences, mostly unseen, among humans
2013-09-05
No two human beings are the same. Although we all possess the same genes, our genetic code varies in many places. And since genes provide the blueprint for all proteins, these variants usually result in numerous differences in protein function. But what impact does this diversity have? Bioinformatics researchers at Rutgers University and the Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have investigated how protein function is affected by changes at the DNA level. Their findings bring new clarity to the wide range of variants, many of which disturb protein function but have no ...
Religious leaders can be key to biological diversity
2013-09-05
Leaders of the major world religions can play a key role in preserving biological diversity. A new study carried out by ecologists at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), among others, indicates that if the world's religious leaders wished to bring about a change, they would be ideally positioned to do so.
– Our study investigates how the various religions are distributed around the world and how they overlap areas that are important for global biological diversity, says Grzegorz Mikusinski, a researcher at SLU who directs the project. Our analysis indicates ...
What is the brain telling us about the diagnoses of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder?
2013-09-05
Philadelphia, PA, September 5, 2013 – We live in the most exciting and unsettling period in the history of psychiatry since Freud started talking about sex in public.
On the one hand, the American Psychiatric Association has introduced the fifth iteration of the psychiatric diagnostic manual, DSM-V, representing the current best effort of the brightest clinical minds in psychiatry to categorize the enormously complex pattern of human emotional, cognitive, and behavioral problems. On the other hand, in new and profound ways, neuroscience and genetics research in psychiatry ...
U-M technical reports examine hydraulic fracturing in Michigan
2013-09-05
ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan researchers today released seven technical reports that together form the most comprehensive Michigan-focused resource on hydraulic fracturing, the controversial natural gas and oil extraction process commonly known as fracking.
The studies, totaling nearly 200 pages, examine seven critical topics related to the use of hydraulic fracturing in Michigan, with an emphasis on high-volume methods: technology, geology and hydrogeology, environment and ecology, public health, policy and law, economics, and public perceptions.
While considerable ...
New technique to assess the cost of major flood damage to be unveiled at international conference
2013-09-05
A new approach to calculating the cost of damage caused by flooding is to be presented at the International Conference of Flood Resilience: Experiences in Asia and Europe at the University of Exeter this week. The methodology combines information on land use with data on the vulnerability of the area to calculate the cost of both past and future flooding events.
Climate change, along with increased building on flood plains, has led to both a greater likelihood and a higher impact of flooding across the globe.
The method has already been employed to estimate the damage ...
NASA sees 'hot towers' in newborn Tropical Depression 12e hinting at intensification
2013-09-05
Tropical Depression 12E formed off the southwestern coast of Mexico at 5 a.m. EDT on Sept. 5. Just 40 minutes before, NASA's TRMM satellite passed overhead and saw some "hot towers" around the center, indicating that the low pressure area that was previously known as System 99E would strengthen.
A "hot tower" is a tall cumulonimbus cloud that reaches at least to the top of the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. It extends approximately nine miles (14.5 km) high in the tropics. The hot towers in Tropical Depression 12E were reaching heights of 15 km/9.3 miles ...
Sudoku saves photographers from copyright theft
2013-09-05
A new watermarking technology based on a system akin to the permutation rules used to solve the numeral puzzles known as Sudoku has been developed by computer scientists in Malaysia. Writing in the International Journal of Grid and Utility Computing the team reports how their system could resist attempts to "crop" the watermark in more than nine times out of ten cases.
Images, photos and graphics on the web are easy pickings for plagiarists and those who might ignore copyright rules. Photographers and others often add a watermark to their images to reduce the risk of ...
What are the risks of student cyberbullying?
2013-09-05
Details of a survey of middle and high school student attitudes to cyberbullying and online safety will be published in the International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments. The analysis of the results shows that many children are bullied and few understand internet safety.
Stacey Kite, Robert Gable and Lawrence Filippelli of the Johnson & Wales University, in Providence, Rhode Island, USA, surveyed more than 4200 students about their knowledge of potential risks, appropriate use, and their behaviors on the internet and social networking sites, ...