Study Finds First Direct Evidence That ADHD Is A Genetic Disorder
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A new study from the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet shows that infants with low concentrations of the stress-related hormone cortisol in their saliva develop fewer allergies than other infants. Hopefully this new knowledge will be useful in future allergy prevention. The study is published in the December paper issue of Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology.
Multiple sclerosis (MS) may progress from the outermost layers of the brain to its deep parts, and is not always an “inside-out” process as previously thought, reported a new collaborative study from researchers at the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. The traditional understanding is that the disease begins in the white matter that forms the bulk of the brain’s inside, and extends to involve the brain’s superficial layers, the cortex. Study findings support an opposite, outside-in process: from the cerebrospinal fluid-filled subarachnoid space, that cushions the outside of the brain and the cortex, into the white matter. Included in this report is an extended video summary of the study results with the lead researcher.
Most bacterial infections can be treated with antibiotics such as penicillin, discovered decades ago. However, such drugs are useless against viral infections, including influenza, the common cold, and deadly hemorrhagic fevers such as Ebola. Now, in a development that could transform how viral infections are treated, a team of researchers at MIT’s Lincoln Laboratory has designed a drug that can identify cells that have been infected by any type of virus, then kill those cells to terminate the infection.
A recent study gauging the impact of consuming more fish oil showed a marked reduction both in inflammation and, surprisingly, in anxiety among a cohort of healthy young people. The research, supported by the Ohio State University Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS), was conducted by a team of scientists that has spent more than three decades investigating links between psychological stress and immunity.
A study by researchers at UC Davis has found that pregnant women with a particular gene variation are more likely to produce autoantibodies to the brains of their developing fetuses and that the children of these mothers are at greater risk of later being diagnosed with autism. The finding is the first to demonstrate a genetic mechanism at play in the development of the neurodevelopmental disorder among some children – offering the possibility of a genetic test for some women at risk for having a child with autism, said Judy Van de Water, an immunologist and the study’s co-principal investigator.
A drug widely used in over-the-counter cough medicines appears to protect against symptoms of multiple sclerosis, a finding that could offer a new and inexpensive therapy for a condition with few effective treatment options, a study by UC Davis researchers has found. The study is available online in the journal Neurobiology of Disease.
Researchers from London’s Kingston University have developed a new highly-accurate blood test which can detect how much a patient’s diet could be responsible for a lack of the so-called ‘sunshine vitamin’. Vitamin D deficiencies can weaken the immune system and increase the risk of cancer and osteoporosis. For additional information about this line of research, check the end of this report for links to several open access journal articles that appear in Nutrition Journal.
For the first time, a research group at Lund University in Sweden has succeeded in creating specific types of nerve cells from human skin. By reprogramming connective tissue cells, called fibroblasts, directly into nerve cells, a new field has been opened up with the potential to take research on cell transplants to the next level. The discovery represents a fundamental change in the view of the function and capacity of mature cells. By taking mature cells as their starting point instead of stem cells, the Lund researchers also avoid the ethical issues linked to research on embryonic stem cells. The original study is published in an open access format. Check the end of this report for a download link.
Intense distress and fear of dying, which many people experience when suffering the symptoms of a heart attack, are not only fairly common emotional responses but are also linked to biological changes that occur during the event, according to new research published online today in the European Heart Journal [1]. These changes, in turn, are associated with other biological processes during the following weeks that can predict a worse outcome for patients.
This recent series of posts has used the example of Stephen Colbert’s satirical “March to Keep Fear Alive” as an illustration of a larger point: humans evolved to be fearful – a major feature of the brain’s negativity bias that helped our ancestors pass on their genes. Consequently, as much research has shown, we’re usually much more affected by negative – by which I mean painful – experiences than by positive ones.
