LA JOLLA, CA--November 18, 2014--"Protein misfolding" diseases such as cystic fibrosis and Alzheimer's may be seriously exacerbated by the body's own response against that misfolding, according to a new study led by scientists at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). The researchers examined patient cells and animal models of several diseases that feature chronic protein misfolding and found that in each case, a cellular defense system against protein misfolding, called the "heat shock response," was overactive. Reducing its activity lessened the signs of disease and ...

Sleep is a critical period for memory consolidation, and most people don't get enough. Research has shown that even brief periods of sleep deprivation can lead to deficits in memory formation. In a new study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, a team led by scientists from the University of Pennsylvania found that a particular set of cells in a small region of the brain are responsible for memory problems after sleep loss. By selectively increasing levels of a signaling molecule in these cells, the researchers prevented mice from having memory deficits. Robbert ...

LOS ANGELES (STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL 5 P.M. EST on NOV. 11, 2014) - Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, might damage muscle-controlling nerve cells in the brain earlier in the disease process than previously known, according to research from the Cedars-Sinai Board of Governors Regenerative Medicine Institute. The findings, published in the Nov. 12 Journal of Neuroscience, could shift researchers' attention from the spinal cord to the brain's motor cortex as the disease's initial point of dysfunction. "In this study, we show the ...

Home exercise can ease feelings of hopelessness in people with coronary heart disease, according to a small study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. Feeling hopeless can be dangerous because it can discourage people from taking healthful steps such as exercising or quitting smoking, said Susan L. Dunn, Ph.D., R.N., lead author of the study and a professor of nursing at Hope College in Holland, Michigan. People with hopelessness may also suffer from depression, which is marked by a loss of interest in activities they normally enjoy. "For ...

A new trans-satellite wireless 12-lead ECG can identify the most severe type of heart attack swiftly and save significant time from ambulance to angioplasty, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. An ECG measures the electrical activity of the heart and helps medical personnel determine if a person had an ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Angioplasty, also known as percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), is a procedure in which an inflatable balloon opens a blocked artery to restore blood flow to the heart. During ...

In a small study in Japan, people who stopped smoking didn't face increased death risk if they gained weight, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. "Quitters had a significantly lower risk of death compared to smokers regardless of their weight change after they stopped smoking," said Hisako Tsuji, M.D., lead author of the study. Researchers compared deaths from all causes in 1,305 Japanese adults who quit smoking to deaths among 2,803 Japanese smokers. Participants in both groups were 65 percent men, average age ...

Using a smart phone app for education and feedback about heart-healthy behavior may decrease the risk for heart and blood vessel disease among young black women, researchers said in a pilot feasibility study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. "We need to raise awareness among women and their healthcare providers of gender and racial differences in cardiovascular disease," said Jo-Ann Eastwood, Ph.D., study lead author and associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Nursing. "Women are social by nature, ...

Adults counseled on their genetic risk of coronary heart disease believe they have more control over their fate, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. Researchers examined the impact of disclosing risk of 10-year heart disease with or without genetic risk information to 207 patients (48 percent male, average age 58) participating in Myocardial Infarction GENES (MI-GENES), a randomized controlled study. The study's key elements included a risk score based on established risk factors and a genetic risk score based ...

A heart-healthy diet is related to decreased blood pressure measurements, researchers said in a study presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014. Elevated blood pressure is a major risk factor for the development of heart and blood vessel disease. It is known that following U.S. dietary guidelines can decrease the risk for heart and blood vessel disease, their effects on specific blood pressure measurements were unclear. In this study, researchers found that blood pressure measurements were higher among study participants who did not follow ...

Using social media to deliver both emotional and concise medical content as well as the need for heart transplants and organs resulted in a higher engagement with members, according to research presented at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2014." "Social media has not been used extensively in the healthcare industry, and if we can effectively bridge the gap between health education and medicine using social networks and peer influence, we can potentially have many beneficial applications to the healthcare system," said Mohammad Soroya, lead author ...

Youths with a family history of alcohol and other drug use disorders have a greater risk of developing substance-use disorders (SUDs) themselves than their peers with no such family histories. A new study examines forebrain activity in youths with and without a family history of SUDs. Findings indicate that youths with a family history have forebrain regions that function less efficiently. Researchers and clinicians know that youths with a family history of alcohol and other drug use disorders (FH+) have a greater risk of developing substance-use disorders (SUDs) ...

Chronic misuse of alcohol results in measurable damage to the brain. A new study uses high-resolution structural magnetic resonance (MR) scans to compare the brains of individuals with a history of alcoholism versus those of healthy light drinkers. The abstinent alcoholics showed pronounced reductions in frontal and superior white matter tracts. Chronic misuse of alcohol results in measurable damage to the brain. Chronic drinking may be particularly damaging to the integrity of frontal white matter tracts, which can interfere with cognitive and inhibitory control ...

An alcohol metabolizing gene called ADH1B is strongly linked to risk for alcohol use disorders (AUDs). The His allele (genetic variant) at ADHD1B-rs1229984 is considered protective against AUDs. Experiencing adverse events during childhood, such as physical or sexual abuse or witnessing violence, is a well-documented risk factor for alcohol problems. A study of the effects of both the ADH1B gene and childhood adversity has found that under conditions of childhood adversity, the ADH1B His allele does not exert its protective effects against problem drinking in European-American ...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- For such humble creatures, single-celled paramecia have remarkable sensory systems. Give them a sharp jab on the nose, they back up and swim away. Jab them in the behind, they speed up their swimming to escape. But according to new research, when paramecia encounter flat surfaces, they're at the mercy of the laws of physics. The findings, published in the journal Physical Review Letters, come from some surprising results in research performed in recent years by James Valles, professor and chair of physics at Brown University, and ...

University of Otago palaeontologists are rewriting the history of New Zealand's ancient whales by describing a previously unknown genus of fossil baleen whales and two species within it. Otago Department of Geology PhD student Robert Boessenecker and his supervisor Professor Ewan Fordyce have named the new genus Tohoraata, which translates as 'Dawn Whale' in Māori. The two whales, which lived between 27-25 million years ago, were preserved in a rock formation near Duntroon in North Otago. At that time the continent of Zealandia was largely or completely under ...

MADISON, Wis. - As the installation of photovoltaic solar cells continues to accelerate, scientists are looking for inexpensive materials beyond the traditional silicon that can efficiently convert sunlight into electricity. Theoretically, iron pyrite -- a cheap compound that makes a common mineral known as fool's gold -- could do the job, but when it works at all, the conversion efficiency remains frustratingly low. Now, a University of Wisconsin-Madison research team explains why that is, in a discovery that suggests how improvements in this promising material could ...

The most emergent form of heart attacks is decreasing nationwide, but this declining incidence could affect emergency departments' quality and timeliness of care. This is the key finding of a Vanderbilt University study released today in the American Journal of Cardiology and presented at the national American Heart Association meeting in Chicago this week. Using data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, the nation's largest database of information about emergency department visits, the researchers found that approximately 250,000 patients present in emergency ...

Philadelphia, PA, November 18, 2014 - Care gaps are emerging due to disharmony between healthcare reimbursement policies and evidence-based clinical guideline recommendations, cautions a group of Canadian physicians. Writing in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, they use the example of stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF) to make a case for engaging with policy-makers to address the growing barriers to patients' access to optimal care. Stroke is a costly disease, imposing a significant human, societal, and economic burden. AF affects about one in eight people ...

Computerized cognitive training (CCT) has been widely promoted for older adults, but its effectiveness for cognitively health older adults has been unclear in systematic reviews to date. In a new systematic review and meta-analysis published in this week's issue of PLOS Medicine, Michael Valenzuela (Brain and Mind Research Institute, University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia) and colleagues evaluated 52 datasets in 51 studies and found a small overall effect of CCT (g = 0.22; 95% CI 0.15 to 0.29, where g END ...

Computer based 'brain training' can boost memory and thinking skills in older adults, but many programs promoted by the $1 billion brain training industry are ineffective, reveals new research by the University of Sydney. Published today in PLOS Medicine, the study shows that engaging older adults computer-based cognitive training (also known as brain training) can lead to improvements in memory, speed, and visuospatial skills. However, it has no impact on attention or executive functions such as impulse control, planning and problem solving. Brain degeneration ...

HOUSTON, Nov. 18, 2014 - The quest of University of Houston professor Richard Meisel to understand how and why males and females differ may one day lead to a more effective means of pest control - namely, the pesky house fly. Meisel, an assistant professor in the UH Department of Biology and Biochemistry, collaborated with several scientists on sequencing the house fly genome. The results were recently published in the open-access journal Genome Biology. "The house fly genome will be a useful resource for understanding how pest species are able to exist in their environment ...

WASHINGTON, DC-- Small volcanic eruptions might eject more of an atmosphere-cooling gas into Earth's upper atmosphere than previously thought, potentially contributing to the recent slowdown in global warming, according to a new study. Scientists have long known that volcanoes can cool the atmosphere, mainly by means of sulfur dioxide gas that eruptions expel. Droplets of sulfuric acid that form when the gas combines with oxygen in the upper atmosphere can remain for many months, reflecting sunlight away from Earth and lowering temperatures. However, previous research ...

EUGENE, Ore. -- Nov. 18, 2014 -- Leave it to long-dead short-tailed shrew and flying squirrels to outfox climate-modelers trying to predict future habitats. Evidence from the fossil record shows that gluttonous insect-eating shrew didn't live where a species distribution technique drawn by biologists put it 20,000 years ago to survive the reach of glaciers, says University of Oregon geologist Edward B. Davis. The shrew is not alone. According to a new study by Davis and colleagues, fossil records of five ancient mammalian species that survived North America's last glacial ...

Hamilton, ON (Nov. 18, 2014) - McMaster University researchers have found new evidence that suggests patients with a history of adverse reaction to the blood thinner heparin may be ready for urgent heart surgery sooner with a combination of appropriate blood screenings and therapeutic plasma exchange. The study was published online today in Blood, the journal of the American Society of Hematology. The lead author is Dr. Theodore Warkentin, a professor in the Department of Medicine's Division of Hematology and Thromboembolism and the Department of Pathology and Molecular ...

The consumption of a diet high in fructose throughout adolescence can worsen depressive- and anxiety-like behavior and alter how the brain responds to stress, according to new animal research scheduled for presentation at Neuroscience 2014, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world's largest source of emerging news about brain science and health. "Our results offer new insights into the ways in which diet can alter brain health and may lead to important implications for adolescent nutrition and development," said lead author Constance Harrell of ...