Wisconsin scientists develop quick botox test
...ent than rattlesnake venom. It works by binding to nerve endings. The toxin is taken up by the nerves where...signals from reaching muscles. With enough blocked nerve endings, the toxin can cause paralysis and death. In recent years, the nerve toxin has been used the...Veterans with Gulf War syndrome have damage in specific, primitive portion of nervous system
...lness to low-level exposure to sarin gas a potent nerve toxin which drifted over thousands of soldiers when U.S. forces detonated Iraqi chemical stores during and after the Gulf War. A recent report from the Government Accountability Office confirmed that exposure to low-level sarin in the 1991 Gulf War ...Brown research reveals key insight into memory-making
...ion and diseases such as Alzheimer's are linked to nerve cell dysfunction in the hippocampus. The new research provides new targets for drugs or other treatments for these conditions. Esther Penick and Jeffrey Edwards, postdoctoral research fellows in Kauer's lab, worked on the study as did Mikyoung Park, ...Study explores gene transfer to modify underlying course of Alzheimer's disease
... a new technique that uses gene therapy to deliver nerve growth factor into regions of the brain where neurons are degenerating, in order to prevent cell death and reverse cell atrophy, two hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. If successful, this could be a major step toward modifying the course of the diseas......the feet, lower legs and hands. Both diseases kill nerve cells. Until recently, scientists knew these diseases were triggered by a problem with mitochondrial fusion, but didn't understand fusion itself, says Jodi Nunnari, a UC Davis professor of molecular and cellular biology. Mitochondrial fusion was tri...Binocular rivalry: Fulfilling visual expectations
... of the eye, which in turn stimulates a cascade of nerve impulses that "feed forward" to send signals deep into the brain. It is in the brain's visual cortex that these signals are interpreted. Signals in the visual cortex also travel in the opposite, "feedback," direction, but much less is known about the...New way to protect brain from stroke damage
... ion channels (ASICs), to the influx of calcium in nerve cells starved of oxygen and subjected to acidic co... get the oxygen it needs, a condition that damages nerve cells. The effects of a stroke, which can include paralysis and problems with language and vision, d...Joslin researchers clarify mechanisms for beta-cell formation
...blindness, kidney failure, blood vessel damage and nerve damage. ...Molecule awakens and maintains neural connections
...n. Dendrites receive chemical signals that trigger nerve impulses in the form of neurotransmitters launched from neighboring neurons. Growth of new dendrites can therefore increase the connection between neurons. Changes in the strength of connections, known as long-term potentiation, allow the brain to cr...Joslin Diabetes Center adds first affiliate in California at Irvine Medical Center
...ations, including heart attack, stroke, blindness, nerve damage, kidney failure and poor circulation. "There is an epidemic of diabetes in Orange County and throughout the nation," said Dr. Ralph W. Cygan, UCI Medical Center's chief executive officer. "By teaming up the expertise of Joslin Diabetes Center...Newborns have ear preferences, too
...n elegant, crossed-pathway of auditory neurons, or nerve cells, that link ears and sound-processing centers in the brain. The right ear auditory nerve pathway leads to the left hemisphere's auditory cortex. Therefore, the right ear reacts faster and m...Disruption of protein-folding causes neurodegeneration, mental retardation
...bled proteins into their proper shapes, triggering nerve degeneration and mental retardation in children. ... diseases are responsible for most severe cases of nerve degeneration and mental retardation among children. The discovery identifies for the first time the...Serotonin metabolites in mollusks suggest pathways for human therapies
...eurotransmitter present throughout the body. When nerve cells containing it are activated, serotonin is released. It travels and stimulates other nerve cells, enabling their message to spread through the nervous system. "When serotonin is released, you...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...rons when axons are within a permissive peripheral nerve graft. The fish homolog L1.1 is upregulated after spinal transection, and is thought to aid in their robust axon regeneration and functional recovery. Without L1.1, brainstem neurons did not regenerate spinal axons or form functional synapses, and no...Extreme stretch-growth of axons
...ty of Pennsylvania School of Medicine have induced nerve fibers or axons to grow at rates and lengths far...am is currently applying this knowledge to develop nerve constructs to repair nerve and spinal cord damage. "To find that tension is actually good for your ...Common cold virus can cause polio in mice when injected into muscles
...muscle, where it had direct access to the kinds of nerve cells polio normally attacks," said Gromeier. "The resulting polio symptoms were milder than those caused by the poliovirus, but it was polio nonetheless." Such a subtle change in entry mode significantly changed the virus' behavior, and therein lies...Essential smell gene may provide key to new insect repellents
...the fruit must waft through the air to specialized nerve cells that detect them. In humans these cells are ... smell receptors ended up in the wrong part of the nerve cells. Instead of being located at the ends of the cell dendrites, where they would be exposed to od...Convulsions in worms mimic epileptic seizures
...ully examined how vesicles lined up at the ends of nerve cells to release neurotransmitters. In normal worms, these sacs arranged themselves in an orderly fashion at the synapse, but in the LIS1-mutant worms, the researchers noticed gaps in the synaptic vesicle line-up. The LIS1 protein interacts with a m...Molecular motor myosin VI moves 'hand over hand,' researchers say
...ng chromosomes during cell division, and reloading nerve cells so they can repeatedly fire. How these little proteins perform their duties is becoming clearer to scientists using an extremely sensitive measurement technique. Myosin VI, they found, moves by the same "hand-over-hand" mechanism as two other ...Review article makes case for a new source of cells in the body
... to form the brain. VENT cells then travel along nerve paths, eventually getting ahead of the nerves, and dispersing throughout the body. "They travel in association with the cranial nerves to target tissues, disperse into those tissues, then, at what is perhaps an endpoint for their stay during developm...