Prion diseases are unusual, infectious, potentially deadly, neurodegenerative diseases caused by transmission and toxic accumulation of misshapen prion protein (PrP) in the brain. A lack of animal models that accurately recapitulate prion disease pathology has impeded our understanding in this area; therefore, the characterization of new mouse models of fatal familial insomnia (FFI) and Creutzfeld-JakobContinueContinue reading “Mouse models of prion diseases”
Tag Archives: nervous system
New target for Parkinson’s treatment
Researchers at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine (Baltimore, MD) have identified a promising new target for treating Parkinson’s disease and further shown that drugs already in development may effectively reach that target. Lab Anim. (NY) 42, 345 (2013). view full text (login required)
Seeing a way to remodel connections
During development, the eyes compete to connect with the brain’s binocular zone, and one eye sometimes prevails. This can lead to amblyopia, the most common cause of childhood visual impairment, in which the brain’s preference for the strong eye increases at the expense of the weaker eye. Patching the strong eye can help to correctContinueContinue reading “Seeing a way to remodel connections”
A spoonful of sugar
Mary Poppins may not be medically trained, but she was right about at least one thing: a spoonful of sugar really does help the medicine go down. Mannitol is a sugar alcohol used commercially as an artificial sweetener and medically to facilitate the delivery of drugs into the brain by disrupting the blood–brain barrier. Now,ContinueContinue reading “A spoonful of sugar”
Berries benefit the brain
Berries are considered nutritional ‘superfoods,’ packed with antioxidants believed to scavenge potentially damaging compounds in the body, reducing inflammation and ameliorating the effects of stress. Shibu Poulouse (Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, Tufts University, Boston, MA) and colleagues specifically evaluated whether berries could protect the brain by reducing the accumulation of toxic proteins. LabContinueContinue reading “Berries benefit the brain”
Evidence for sophisticated memory in rats
Memory is a complex phenomenon involving the encoding, storage and retrieval of information. Different types of memory can be defined by the particulars of these steps and of the information in question. For example, ‘source’ memory is a representation of the origin of a piece of information or the conditions surrounding its acquisition. Source memoryContinueContinue reading “Evidence for sophisticated memory in rats”
Insight into the neurology of Angelman syndrome
Results recently published in PLoS Biology (11, e1001478; 2013) elucidate the neurological disruptions that occur in Angelman syndrome and introduce a compound that can rescue the disruptions, restoring neural function in mice. John Marshall (Brown University, Providence, RI), senior author of the article, warned that it is too soon to tell when a clinical therapyContinueContinue reading “Insight into the neurology of Angelman syndrome”
Brain–brain interface tested in rat ‘mind-meld’
In a story that might have come from science fiction, neuroscientists at Duke University (Durham, NC) directly linked the brains of two rats, enabling them to share information. Lab Anim. (NY) 42, 109 (2013). view full text (login required)
Getting to the root of itch
Neuroscientists have wondered for years whether the signals for itch and pain—two distinct sensations that are both mediated by primary sensory neurons with cell bodies in the dorsal root ganglion or trigeminal ganglia—are transmitted by the same neurons or whether specific neurons are dedicated to each. Some studies have shown that itch-sensing neurons also respondContinueContinue reading “Getting to the root of itch”
Two steps forward in treating spinal cord injury
Two studies presented at Neuroscience 2012, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (13–17 October 2012; New Orleans, LA), reflect current advances in understanding and treating spinal cord injury (SCI). More than a quarter of a million people in the US live with SCIs, which can be debilitating because they limit movement or feeling,ContinueContinue reading “Two steps forward in treating spinal cord injury”
Fluent in Science 