http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. Substantial progress has been made in the development of treatments for a particular brain disease, thanks in part to an EU-funded project. The X-ALD project focused on achieving a better understanding of the pathogenic mechanisms leading to 'X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy', a disorder which results in the accumulation of long chain fatty acids in tissues throughout the body but especially in the central nervous system. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-gene-therapy-tackle-complex-brain.html Medical research Thu, 13 Jun 2013 07:50:01 EST news290327472 A drug used to control Type II diabetes can help repair the spinal cords of mice suffering from the inherited disease adrenoleukodystrophy which, untreated, leads eventually to a paralysis, a vegetative state and death. This is an important step along the road to the development of a therapy for the human disease for which current treatment options are scarce and only partially effective, the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics will hear tomorrow (Sunday). The research is published simultaneously on line in the journal Brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-06-diabetes-drug-treatment-neurodegenerative-disease.html Neuroscience Fri, 07 Jun 2013 18:00:02 EST news289821313 Patients suffering from hereditary neuropathy may have hope for new treatment thanks to a Geisinger study that uncovered a key to the development of the peripheral nervous system. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-uncovers-key-peripheral-nervous.html Medical research Wed, 29 May 2013 08:23:34 EST news289034524 (Medical Xpress)—Multiple sclerosis, a brain disease that affects over 400,000 Americans, causes movement difficulties and many neurologic symptoms. MS has two key elements: The nerves that direct muscular movement lose their electrical insulation (the myelin sheath) and cannot transmit signals as effectively. And many of the long nerve fibers, called axons, degenerate. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-view-ms-unexpectedly-nerve-fibers.html Neuroscience Wed, 06 Feb 2013 10:14:01 EST news279368035 (Medical Xpress)—Misguided killer T cells may be the missing link in sustained tissue damage in the brains and spines of people with multiple sclerosis, findings from the University of Washington reveal.  Cytoxic T cells, also known as CD8+ T cells, are white blood cells that normally are in the body's arsenal to fight disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-multiple-sclerosis-reveals-killer-cells.html Immunology Fri, 11 Jan 2013 06:49:15 EST news277109347 Results of a clinical trial that began in 2001 show that a gene therapy cocktail conveyed into the brain by a molecular special delivery vehicle may help extend the lives of children with Canavan disease, a rare and fatal neurodegenerative disorder. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-gene-therapy-cocktail-long-term-clinical.html Medical research Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:00:01 EST news275137462 Scientists at the Mainz University Medical Center have discovered another molecule that plays an important role in regulating myelin formation in the central nervous system. Myelin promotes the conduction of nerve cell impulses by forming a sheath around their projections, the so-called axons, at specific locations – acting like the plastic insulation around a power cord. The research team, led by Dr. Robin White of the Institute of Physiology and Pathophysiology at the University Medical Center of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, recently published their findings in the prestigious journal EMBO Reports. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-scientists-inhibitor-myelin-formation-central.html Medical research Tue, 20 Nov 2012 10:33:09 EST news272629983 World-leading experts in Magnetic Resonance Imaging from The University of Nottingham's Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre have made a key discovery which could give the medical world a new tool for the improved diagnosis and monitoring of brain diseases like multiple sclerosis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-mri-nerve-fibers-brain.html Medical research Fri, 02 Nov 2012 10:47:34 EST news271072007 World-leading experts in Magnetic Resonance Imaging from The University of Nottingham's Sir Peter Mansfield Magnetic Resonance Centre  have made a key discovery which could give the medical world a new tool for the improved diagnosis and monitoring of neuro-degenerative diseases like multiple sclerosis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-mri-nerve-fibres-brain.html Neuroscience Wed, 24 Oct 2012 08:40:01 EST news270285658 Turning the volume up too high on your headphones can damage the coating of nerve cells, leading to temporary deafness; scientists from the University of Leicester have shown for the first time. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-earphones-potentially-dangerous-noise-jet.html Medical research Wed, 29 Aug 2012 11:06:40 EST news265457188 Mayo Clinic researchers have successfully used smaller, folded DNA molecules to stimulate regeneration and repair of nerve coatings in mice that mimic multiple sclerosis (MS). They say the finding, published today in the journal PLoS ONE, suggests new possible therapies for MS patients. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-mayo-clinic-approach-reverse-multiple.html Medical research Thu, 28 Jun 2012 08:53:22 EST news260092395 (Medical Xpress) -- In people and most animals, the nerves that carry electrical signals from one part of the body to another must have a protective coating (called a myelin sheath) to allow signals to travel properly. When problems arise that prevent the sheath from forming, a variety of symptoms occur depending on the part of the body impacted. When it happens in the brain, the result is generally fatal. Such is the case with Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease, where the duplication of the proteolipid protein gene 1 (PLP1) causes the over-expression of the protein in myelin (PLP) which leads to it becoming stuck inside the cells, thus preventing the sheath from being created; sadly, very little can be done for patients with the disease. Now new hope is on the horizon as researchers at the Max Planck Institute in Germany have found that feeding mice that have been genetically altered to give them Pelizaeus-Merzbacher disease, show improvements when fed a diet high in cholesterol. The team has published the results of their study in the journal Nature Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-high-cholesterol-diet-mice-afflicted.html Medical research Mon, 18 Jun 2012 08:24:06 EST news259226597 (Medical Xpress) -- A receptor recently discovered to control the movement of immune cells across central nervous system barriers (including the blood-brain barrier) may hold the key to treating multiple sclerosis (MS), a neuroinflammatory disease of the central nervous system. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-receptor-key-multiple-sclerosis-treatment.html Immunology Mon, 11 Jun 2012 05:52:30 EST news258612716 A substance in human mesenchymal stem cells that promotes growth appears to spur restoration of nerves and their function in rodent models of multiple sclerosis (MS), researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-growth-factor-stem-cells-spur.html Neuroscience Mon, 21 May 2012 09:33:42 EST news256811615 Researchers studying multiple sclerosis(MS) have long been looking for the specific molecules in the body that cause lesions in myelin, the fatty, insulating cells that sheathe the nerves. Nearly a decade ago, a group at Mayo Clinic found a new enzyme, called Kallikrein 6, that is present in abundance in MS lesions and blood samples and is associated with inflammation and demyelination in other neurodegenerative diseases. In a study published this month in Brain Pathology, the same group found that an antibody that neutralizes Kallikrein 6 is capable of staving off MS in mice. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-halting-enzyme-multiple-sclerosis-mice.html Inflammatory disorders Mon, 30 Apr 2012 15:40:01 EST news255016499 Damaged myelin in the brain and spinal cord does not cause the autoimmune disease multiple sclerosis (MS), neuroimmunologists from the University of Zurich have now demonstrated in collaboration with researchers from Berlin, Leipzig, Mainz and Munich. In the current issue of Nature Neuroscience, they therefore rule out a popular hypothesis on the origins of MS. The scientists are now primarily looking for the cause of the development of MS in the immune system instead of the central nervous system. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-multiple-sclerosis-myelin-trigger.html Neuroscience Mon, 27 Feb 2012 09:28:38 EST news249557277 In a new study published in the March issue of Radiology, functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) shows that cognitive rehabilitation changes brain function and improves cognitive performance in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-cognitive-brain-patients-ms.html Inflammatory disorders Wed, 22 Feb 2012 04:54:59 EST news249108876 New research highlights the possibility of reversing ageing in the central nervous system for multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. The study is published today, 06 January, in the journal Cell Stem Cell. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-reversing-age-associated-effects-ms-patients.html Medical research Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:27:02 EST news245075204 Vitamin D levels are significantly lower in patients with recurrent inflammatory spinal cord disease, according to a study published Online First by Archives of Neurology. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-vitamin-d-recurrent-inflammatory-spinal.html Neuroscience Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:29:42 EST news240510574 A new oral drug has been shown in a large international clinical trial to significantly reduce the relapse rate of people with multiple sclerosis and to slow the progression of the disease. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-oral-drug-relapses-multiple-sclerosis.html Medications Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:22:22 EST news237115307 In a paper published today in the journal Scientific Reports, a pair of researchers at the University of California, San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences report that inhibiting the ability of immune cells to use fatty acids as fuel measurably slows disease progression in a mouse model of multiple sclerosis (MS). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-starving-inflammatory-immune-cells-multiple.html Medical research Thu, 01 Sep 2011 14:40:54 EST news234106689 Scientists have identified 29 new genetic variants linked to multiple sclerosis, providing key insights into the biology of a very debilitating neurological disease. Many of the genes implicated in the study are relevant to the immune system, shedding light onto the immunological pathways that underlie the development of multiple sclerosis. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-genes-multiple-sclerosis.html Genetics Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:01:04 EST news232196896 A neurological scientist at Rush University Medical Center has received a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to evaluate whether cinnamon, a common food spice and flavoring material, may stop the destructive process of multiple sclerosis (MS). http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-06-potential-impact-cinnamon-multiple-sclerosis.html Medical research Wed, 22 Jun 2011 12:39:01 EST news227965094