Marijuana ingredient may stall decline from Alzheimer's
...which activate the brain's immune response. Micro- glia collect near plaques and, when active, cause inflammation. The researchers found a dramatically reduced functioning of cannabinoid receptors in diseased brain tissue, meaning that patients had lost the capacity to experience cannabinoids' protective ...Brain synapse formation linked to proteins, Stanford study finds
...ddiction in which too many synapses form. "We knew glia had a close relationship with neurons," Barres sai...mpared to cells grown with glia. He added that the glia probably have many additional roles, also unknown. "Ninety percent of human brain cells are glia and...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
... During development, differentiating neurons and glia express a variety of transcription factors that orchestrate this process. This week, Englund et al. examine transcription factors expressed by cells destined to become cortical pyramidal neurons. These neurons can arise directly from radial glial but...New compounds effective against Alzheimer's disease onset and progression
...e function. Long-term or excessive activation of glia increases production of chemokines and cytokines, such as interleukin-1 beta (IL-1b), and oxidative stress-related enzymes, such as a highly active form of nitric oxide synthase (iNOS). The excessive production of the inflammation-related substances...New hope for ALS seen with genetic techniques, growth factors
...p the surrounding environment clean and safe. When glia cells don't perform up to snuff, the neurons suffe... neurons with the SOD1 mutation were surrounded by glia with normal genes, the glia were able to stave off the disease. But when mutant glia cells encircled...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...nsmitter could be released from some dendrites and glia as well and could spill over to extrasynaptic membranes, to other synapses, or onto glial cells. Recently Matsui and Jahr reported a new form of neuronal glial glutamate signaling. 2. Forming Intracortical Projections Kelly J. Huffman, Sonia Garel...First biomarkers to diagnose Lou Gehrig's disease found in CNS
... is in intimate contact with the motor neurons and glia affected during ALS and he believed it was most likely to contain the highest level of protein biomarkers. He was right. Using mass spectrometry, the researchers identified 10 protein biomarkers that differentiated between the ALS patients and the...Schizophrenia may be caused by an interaction of genes and viruses in glia cells
...n the glia. They conclude that this "weakening" of glia may result in the breakdown of connections between...ia code for factors involved in the development of glia cells. In addition they hypothesize that some viral infections may cause additional weakening of gli...Northwestern researchers present findings at Neuroscience Meeting
...e celldeath. GDNF is a growth-promoting factor for glia cells, which make dopamine andalso are the cells that die in Parkinson's disease. Bohn is a professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Medical School anddirector of the neurobiology program at Children's Memorial Institute forEducation and Re...