http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. (Medical Xpress)—Working with lab mice models of multiple sclerosis (MS), UC Davis scientists have detected a novel molecular target for the design of drugs that could be safer and more effective than current FDA-approved medications against MS. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-05-approach-treatment-ms-conditions.html Alzheimer's disease & dementia Fri, 17 May 2013 16:54:30 EST news288028433 New genetic factors predisposing to schizophrenia have been uncovered in five families with several affected relatives. The psychiatric disorder can disrupt thinking, feeling, and acting, and blur the border between reality and imagination. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-brain-cell-network-genes-linked.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 03 Apr 2013 16:00:01 EST news284215834 (Medical Xpress)—Anyone whose hand or foot has "fallen asleep" has an idea of the numbness and tingling often experienced by people with peripheral nerve damage. The condition also can cause a range of other symptoms, including unrelenting pain, stinging, burning, itching and sensitivity to touch. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-clues-peripheral-nerve.html Neuroscience Thu, 07 Mar 2013 07:07:50 EST news281862461 Electrodes operated into the brain are today used in research and to treat diseases such as Parkinson's. However, their use has been limited by their size. At Lund University in Sweden, researchers have, for the first time, succeeded in implanting an ultrathin nanowire-based electrode and capturing signals from the nerve cells in the brain of a laboratory animal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-brain-nerve-cells-ultrathin-nanowires.html Neuroscience Wed, 20 Feb 2013 10:05:25 EST news280577118 Nitric oxide, the versatile gas that helps increase blood flow, transmit nerve signals, and regulate immune function, appears to perform one more biological feat— prolonging the life of an organism and fortifying it against environmental stress, according to a new study. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-bacteria-nitric-oxide-life-roundworms.html Medical research Thu, 14 Feb 2013 13:20:01 EST news280070122 Two patients freed from severe to disabling effects of dystonia through deep brain stimulation therapy continued to have symptom relief for months after their devices accidentally were fully or partly turned off, according to a report published online Feb. 11 in the journal Movement Disorders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-dystonia-cases-deep-brain-therapy.html Neuroscience Tue, 12 Feb 2013 17:03:19 EST news279910984 As research efforts go, this one is high risk. Which is to say, it could easily fail. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-02-chili-peppers-discovery-wsu-effort.html Medical research Mon, 04 Feb 2013 04:09:55 EST news279173382 Why would our immune system turn against our own cells? This is the question that the combined Inserm/CNRS/ Pierre and Marie Curie University/Association Institut de Myologie have strived to answer in their "Therapies for diseases of striated muscle", concentrating in particular on the auto-immune disease known as myasthenia gravis. Through the project known as FIGHT-MG (Fight Myasthenia Gravis), financed by the European Commission and coordinated by Inserm, Sonia Berrih-Aknin and Rozen Le Panse have contributed proof of the concept that a molecule imitating a virus may trigger an inappropriate immune response, causing muscular function to deteriorate. These results have been published in Annals of Neurology, accessible on line. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-auto-immune-disease-viral-route.html Neuroscience Wed, 19 Dec 2012 14:32:44 EST news275149949 Muscle relaxants given to millions of patients during general anaesthesia are associated with an increased risk of serious breathing problems after surgery, finds a study published in BMJ today. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-muscle-linked-problems-surgery.html Medications Tue, 16 Oct 2012 18:30:01 EST news269624317 Scientists have proved a 60-year-old theory about how nerve signals are sent around the body at varying speeds as electrical impulses. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-nerve-discovery-nobel-winner-theory.html Medical research Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:20:41 EST news269176827 Intellectual disability due to Fragile X and Down syndromes involves similar molecular pathways report researchers in The EMBO Journal. The two disorders share disturbances in the molecular events that regulate the way nerve cells develop dendritic spines, the small extensions found on the surface of nerve cells that are crucial for communication in the brain. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-fragile-syndromes-pathway-intellectual-disability.html Genetics Fri, 03 Aug 2012 12:38:22 EST news263216268 Researchers in France and Sweden have discovered how one of the body's own proteins is involved in generating chronic pain in rats. The results, which also suggest therapeutic interventions to alleviate long-lasting pain, are reported in The EMBO Journal. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-naturally-protein-role-chronic-pain.html Medical research Tue, 12 Jun 2012 10:26:56 EST news258715600 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 Scientists have pinpointed a protein that helps explain why the elderly frequently have to get up in the night to urinate, a problem that can badly interfere with sleep. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-wee-small-hours-morning.html Health Tue, 01 May 2012 11:40:01 EST news255089235 Certain genes and proteins that promote growth and development of embryos also play a surprising role in sending chemical signals that help adults learn, remember, forget and perhaps become addicted, University of Utah biologists have discovered. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-03-genes-proteins-important-embryos-adult.html Medical research Thu, 29 Mar 2012 12:00:10 EST news252239655 Researchers at the University of Essex have shown that a genetic variant could make some people more sensitive to their emotional environment - and more susceptible to anxiety disorders - than others. The study, funded by the Wellcome Trust, could have implications for predicting how well individual patients will respond to treatments for anxiety disorders. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-scientists-link-gene-sensitivity-emotional.html Psychology & Psychiatry Fri, 13 Jan 2012 03:30:01 EST news245644435 Thanks to a new study of the retina, scientists at UC Santa Barbara have developed a greater understanding of how the nervous system becomes wired during early development. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-scientists-advances-neuroscience-vision.html Neuroscience Tue, 06 Dec 2011 09:29:02 EST news242386131 For the first time, scientists report a link between eating nuts and higher levels of serotonin in the bodies of patients with metabolic syndrome (MetS), who are at high risk for heart disease. Serotonin is a substance that helps transmit nerve signals and decreases feelings of hunger, makes people feel happier and improves heart health. It took only one ounce of mixed nuts (raw unpeeled walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts) a day to produce the good effects. The report appears in ACS' Journal of Proteome Research. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-benefits-nut-consumption-people-abdominal.html Health Wed, 02 Nov 2011 11:53:44 EST news239453613 A team of neuroscientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) has succeeded in creating what amounts to a GPS system for locating and tracking a vital class of brain cells that until now has eluded comprehensive identification, particularly in living animals. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-team-genetic-gps-comprehensively-track.html Neuroscience Wed, 21 Sep 2011 13:30:30 EST news235830596 While deep brain stimulation has gained recognition by referring physicians as a treatment for Parkinson's disease and other movement disorders, just half of the patients they recommend are appropriate candidates to begin this relatively new therapy immediately, researchers at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and The Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York say. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-08-doctors-increasingly-aware-deep-brain.html Neuroscience Tue, 16 Aug 2011 09:20:18 EST news232705145 Deep brain stimulation, a surgical procedure to suppress faulty nerve signals, allowed 77 percent of patients to stop the medications used to treat their essential tremors within one year following the surgery, University of South Florida researchers report. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-04-patients-drugs-essential-tremor-deep.html Neuroscience Thu, 07 Apr 2011 09:56:51 EST news221388993