http://www.physorg.com/ en-us Physorg.com internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. (PhysOrg.com) -- Scottish researchers have discovered a new class of neuron that may lead to new therapies for spinal injury. http://www.physorg.com/news179758572.html Medicine & Health Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:56:37 EST news179758572 Researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found that a molecule produced naturally by muscles in response to nerve damage can reduce symptoms and prolong life in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). http://www.physorg.com/news179676993.html Medicine & Health Thu, 10 Dec 2009 14:19:34 EST news179676993 New discoveries have been made about how an elevated level of lead, which is a neurotoxic heavy metal, can slow the progression of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease - findings that could point the way to a new type of therapy. http://www.physorg.com/news178820014.html Medicine & Health Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:16:05 EST news178820014 A chemical cousin of the common antibiotic tetracycline might be useful in treating spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a currently incurable disease that is the leading genetic cause of death in infants. This is the finding of a research collaboration involving Adrian Krainer, Ph.D., of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) and scientists from Paratek Pharmaceuticals and Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. http://www.physorg.com/news176569921.html Medicine & Health Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:30:02 EST news176569921 For decades, scientists have thought the faulty neural wiring that predisposes individuals to behavioral disorders like autism and psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia must occur during development. Even so, no one has ever shown that a risk gene for the disease actually disrupts brain development. http://www.physorg.com/news174908711.html Medicine & Health Fri, 16 Oct 2009 11:20:03 EST news174908711 A new mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) closely resembles humans with the paralyzing disorder, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report. http://www.physorg.com/news174582327.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:05:52 EST news174582327 Premature aging of the immune system appears to play a role in the development of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease, according to research scientists from the Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, and Sheba Medical Center in Israel. http://www.physorg.com/news174245323.html Medicine & Health Thu, 08 Oct 2009 18:40:02 EST news174245323 Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have discovered how one antioxidant protein controls the activity of another protein, critical for the development of spinal cord neurons. The research, publishing this week in Cell, describes a never-before known mechanism of protein control. http://www.physorg.com/news172486436.html Medicine & Health Fri, 18 Sep 2009 09:54:28 EST news172486436 A new study shows that nervous system integrity and axonal properties may play a key role in prion diseases. The findings, from researchers at the Rudolf Virchow Center and the Institute of Virology of the University of Würzburg, expand our understanding of the development of prion disease and suggest novel targets for therapeutic and diagnostic approaches in its early stages. Details are published August 21 in the open-access journal PLoS Pathogens. http://www.physorg.com/news170079903.html Medicine & Health Fri, 21 Aug 2009 13:28:20 EST news170079903 New research with transgenic mice reveals that a therapy directed at the muscle significantly improves disease symptoms of a genetic disorder characterized by destruction of the neurons that control movement. The study, published by Cell Press in the August 13th issue of the journal Neuron, highlights a promising new treatment for this currently incurable and nontreatable neurodegenerative disorder. http://www.physorg.com/news169299168.html Medicine & Health Wed, 12 Aug 2009 13:00:01 EST news169299168 Tiny zebrafish could hold the key to stem cell treatments for motor neurone disease. http://www.physorg.com/news160217899.html Medicine & Health Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:58:56 EST news160217899 Caused by a mutation of the SMN gene, spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is an infantile and juvenile neurodegenerative disorder where motor neuron loss causes progressive paralysis. A new study published in the open access journal BMC Medicine details the first research focused on human muscle tissue atrophied due to a genetic condition, and sheds light on two distinct mechanisms at work in different forms of SMA. http://www.physorg.com/news158303237.html Medicine & Health Tue, 07 Apr 2009 06:07:49 EST news158303237 For the first time, researchers have clearly shown regeneration of a critical type of nerve fiber that travels between the brain and the spinal cord and which is required for voluntary movement. The regeneration was accomplished in a brain injury site in rats by scientists at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and is described in a study to be published in the April 6th early on-line edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). http://www.physorg.com/news158258501.html Medicine & Health Mon, 06 Apr 2009 17:42:36 EST news158258501 February's brutal chimpanzee attack, during which a pet chimp inflicted devastating injuries on a Connecticut woman, was a stark reminder that chimps are much stronger than humans -as much as four-times stronger, some researchers believe. But what is it that makes our closest primate cousins so much stronger than we are? One possible explanation is that great apes simply have more powerful muscles. Indeed, biologists have uncovered differences in muscle architecture between chimpanzees and humans. But evolutionary biologist Alan Walker, a professor at Penn State University, thinks muscles may only be part of the story. http://www.physorg.com/news157653323.html Biology Mon, 30 Mar 2009 17:38:03 EST news157653323 (PhysOrg.com) -- When the Human Genome Project was complete, DNA bowed out of the limelight and gave way to RNA as a major player in genetic regulation. Now, findings at Rockefeller University mirror this ideological shift, revealing that one of the most important physiological events in the body - the wiring of motor neurons and muscles - is regulated at the level of RNA. The findings upturn dogma in the field and further point to the increasingly indisputable role of RNA as the molecule behind biological complexity. http://www.physorg.com/news156444528.html Medicine & Health Mon, 16 Mar 2009 17:50:00 EST news156444528 A collaborative research project involving Professor Christopher Shaw of the Institute of Psychiatry, King`s College London (KCL), Dr Tom Kwiatkowski at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Professor Robert H Brown at University of Massachusetts, has revealed that mutations in a gene called FUS (fused in sarcoma) cause familial Motor Neuron Disease (also known as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis). This is the second gene to be discovered for ALS in just one year and is an important step towards understanding disease mechanisms. The research was published on line in two back-to-back papers in the journal Science today. http://www.physorg.com/news154880306.html Medicine & Health Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:19:08 EST news154880306 In a new study, researchers were able to generate functionally mature motor neurons from induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells, which are engineered from adult somatic cells and can differentiate into most other cell types. A potential new source of motor neurons that does not require human eggs or embryos could be an enormous boon to research into conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and spinal cord injury and could open the door to eventual treatments. The study is published in Stem Cells. http://www.physorg.com/news154698681.html Biology Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:51:47 EST news154698681 A new area of the cerebral cortex has evolved to enable man and higher primates to pick up small objects and deftly use tools, according to neuroscientists at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Pittsburgh's Veterans Affairs Medical Center. http://www.physorg.com/news151002730.html Medicine & Health Mon, 12 Jan 2009 17:12:10 EST news151002730 (PhysOrg.com) -- When neurons started dying in Clive Svendsen's lab dishes, he couldn't have been more pleased.The dying cells - the same type lost in patients with the devastating neurological disease spinal muscular atrophy - confirmed that the University of Wisconsin-Madison stem cell biologist had recreated the hallmarks of a genetic disorder in the lab, using stem cells derived from a patient. By allowing scientists the unparalleled opportunity to watch the course of a disease unfold in a lab dish, the work marks an enormous step forward in being able to study and develop new therapies for genetic diseases. http://www.physorg.com/news149090319.html Medicine & Health Sun, 21 Dec 2008 13:58:39 EST news149090319 Long thought of as mere bystanders, astrocytes are crucial for the survival and well-being of motor neurons, which control voluntary muscle movements. In fact, defective astrocytes can lay waste to motor neurons and are the main suspects in the muscle-wasting disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). http://www.physorg.com/news147532458.html Medicine & Health Wed, 03 Dec 2008 13:14:18 EST news147532458 In a disease like ALS - one that's always fatal and that has a long history of research-resistant biology - finding a proof of principle in animal models is significant. http://www.physorg.com/news143643411.html Medicine & Health Sun, 19 Oct 2008 13:56:51 EST news143643411 Once a toddler has mastered the art of walking, it seems to come naturally for the rest of her life. But walking and running require a high degree of coordination between the left and right sides of the body. Now researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have shown how a class of spinal cord neurons, known as V3 neurons, makes sure that one side of the body doesn't get ahead of the other. http://www.physorg.com/news142687511.html Medicine & Health Wed, 08 Oct 2008 12:25:11 EST news142687511 (PhysOrg.com) -- Using adult stem cells from bone marrow as "Trojan horses"to deliver a nurturing growth factor to atrophied muscles, Wisconsin scientists have successfully slowed the progression of ALS in rats. http://www.physorg.com/news140797261.html Biology Tue, 16 Sep 2008 15:21:01 EST news140797261 Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), more commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease caused by the death of motor neurons in the brain and spinal cord that control muscle movements from walking and swallowing to breathing. In a groundbreaking study this week in PLoS Biology, Brandeis and Harvard Medical School scientists report key findings about the cause and occurrence of the familial form of ALS. http://www.physorg.com/news136527791.html Medicine & Health Tue, 29 Jul 2008 05:23:11 EST news136527791