Age-Related Dementia May Begin with Neurons' Inability to Rid Themselves of Unwanted Proteins. Newswise — BETHESDA, MD – March 5, 2013 -- A team of European scientists from the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE) and the Cologne Excellence Cluster on Cellular Stress Responses in Aging-Associated Diseases (CECAD) at the University of Cologne in Germany has taken an important step closer to understanding the root cause of age-related dementia.
In research involving both worms and mice, they have found that age-related dementia is likely the result of a declining ability of neurons to dispose of unwanted aggregated proteins. As protein disposal becomes significantly less efficient with increasing age, the buildup of these unwanted proteins ultimately leads to the development and progression of dementia. This research appears in the March 2013 issue of the journal GENETICS. “This is an exciting study that helps us understand what’s going wrong at a cellular level in age-related dementias,” said Mark Johnston, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief of the journal GENETICS. Comment/Share. Cell death in retina helps tune our internal clocks. Samer Hattar Related Articles Bright light activates cells in eye that affect brain's center for mood, memory, study shows With every sunrise and sunset, our eyes make note of the light as it waxes and wanes, a process that is critical to aligning our circadian rhythms to match the solar day so we are alert during the day and restful at night.
Watching the sun come and go sounds like a peaceful process, but Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered that behind the scenes, millions of specialized cells in our eyes are fighting for their lives to help the retina set the stage to keep our internal clocks ticking. Understanding this fight could one day lead to victories against several conditions, including autism and some psychiatric disorders, where neural circuits influence our behavior. "In a nutshell, death in our retina plays a vital role in assembling the retinal circuits that influence crucial physiological functions such as circadian rhythms and sleep-wake cycles," Hattar said.
Dr. Kary Banks Mullis. Chemically Programmable Immunity The History of Disease Early stages in major advancements are never heralded or even noticed. It is years or decades before things that will dominate a field are obvious to careful observers. Successful investors are lucky or prescient. Altermune is a distinct change in direction for the medical treatment of microbial infections, metabolic disorders, cancer, any number of problems where surgical procedures are too crude, present chemical interventions are losing out to resistant strains, and yet some kind of molecular intervention is necessary and still makes sense.
The vertebrate immune system was evolved to deal with molecular and organismal problems. Our immune system has been performing remarkably while our population has grown immensely and the mathematics of infectious disease alone ignoring for the time being cancer and metabolic disorders associated with an abundance of unhealthy food does not favor numerically successful species. About Altermune. First Test to Objectively Diagnose Fibromyalgia Now Available. SANTA MONICA, Calif. --(BUSINESS WIRE)--A recent peer-reviewed study, published in BMC Clinical Pathology,[1] reveals a medical breakthrough discovering multiple biomarkers based upon highly sensitive and reproducible medical investigations.
Conducted by the University of Illinois College of Medicine at Chicago (UIC) and EpicGenetics, a privately-held biomedical company, the research has led to the development of The FM/a® Test (www.thefmtest.com), the first test to objectively diagnose fibromyalgia. “Outstanding Research in Clinical and Diagnostic Immunology” Researchers at the UIC Department of Pathology conducted a statistically significant study involving more than 200 patients, comparing those clinically diagnosed with fibromyalgia to healthy patients. The study revealed that patients with fibromyalgia have a dysregulation disorder affecting protein molecules called chemokines and cytokines, produced by white blood cells. “The elegantly designed study by Dr.
About EpicGenetics. What the American Medical Association hopes you never learn about its true history. To most Americans, the concept of "nonprofit" goes hand-in-hand with trust. If a person or an agency isn't driven by money, they seem more likely to be trustworthy and unbiased. They should have the public's best interests at heart, right?
The American Medical Association (AMA) is a nonprofit agency whose mission is "to be an essential part of the professional life of every physician and an essential force for progress in improving the nation's health," according to the AMA's website. It makes you wonder, then, why the AMA gladly accepted huge sums of advertising fees from tobacco companies who advertised heavily in its flagship journal, JAMA, throughout the 20th century. The AMA claims to support "progress," but history shows that the AMA has worked diligently to block much in the way of real progress in order to control medicine and shut out competition. Consider chiropractic medicine, which is categorized as an "alternative" treatment by most Americans. This was not speculation. . …. The Creative Destruction of Medicine by Eric Topol.
The Truth About the Drug Companies by Marcia Angell. Every day Americans are subjected to a barrage of advertising by the pharmaceutical industry. Mixed in with the pitches for a particular drug—usually featuring beautiful people enjoying themselves in the great outdoors—is a more general message. Boiled down to its essentials, it is this: “Yes, prescription drugs are expensive, but that shows how valuable they are. Besides, our research and development costs are enormous, and we need to cover them somehow. As ‘research-based’ companies, we turn out a steady stream of innovative medicines that lengthen life, enhance its quality, and avert more expensive medical care.
You are the beneficiaries of this ongoing achievement of the American free enterprise system, so be grateful, quit whining, and pay up.” More prosaically, what the industry is saying is that you get what you pay for. Is any of this true? Paying for prescription drugs is no longer a problem just for poor people. Many of them simply can’t do it. Postmarket Drug Safety Information for Patients and Providers > Information for Healthcare Professionals: Fluoroquinolone Antimicrobial Drugs [ciprofloxacin (marketed as Cipro and generic ciprofloxacin), ciprofloxacin extended-release (marketed as Cipro X.
[For additional information about these drugs, see Fluoroquinolone Antimicrobial Drugs Information] FDA ALERT [7/8/2008]: FDA is notifying the makers of fluoroquinolone antimicrobial drugs for systemic use of the need to add a boxed warning to the prescribing information about the increased risk of developing tendinitis and tendon rupture in patients taking fluoroquinolones and to develop a Medication Guide for patients. The addition of a boxed warning and a Medication Guide would strengthen the existing warning information already included in the prescribing information for fluoroquinolone drugs.
Fluoroquinolones are associated with an increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture. This risk is further increased in those over age 60, in kidney, heart, and lung transplant recipients, and with use of concomitant steroid therapy. This information reflects FDA's current analysis of data available to FDA concerning fluoroquinolone antimicrobials. Background Information. Health - Drugs - Fluoroquinolone | Agriculture Defense Coalition. WARNING - U.S. Food & Drug Administration Report on Bioterrorism Fluoroquinolone Drugs which are now commonly prescribed by doctors or used in hospitals by doctors throughout the United States. NOTE: Multiple Side-Effects may show up days, weeks or months after taking this drug.
If not treated or treated improperly side-effects may become permanent. U.S. FDA LISTING OF FLUOROQUINOLONE DRUGS, BRAND NAMES & MANUFACTURERS: “…WARNING: Fluoroquinolones, including LEVAQUIN®, are associated with an increased risk of tendinitis and tendon rupture in all ages. “…LEVAQUIN® is a fluoroquinolone antibacterial indicated in adults (18 years of age) with infections caused by designated, susceptible bacteria. Additional Information: U.S. Qjmed.oxfordjournals.org/content/97/11/705.2.full.pdf. Report of 12 cases of ankylosing spondylitis patients treated with Tripterygium wilfordii. Chinese herb Lei Gong Teng stops formation of cysts in polycystic kidney disease in lab. This ability holds out hope for what would be the first treatment, other than kidney transplant or frequent dialysis, for one of the most lethal of all kidney diseases worldwide. Dr. Crews described the functioning of the compound at Experimental Biology 2007 in Washington, DC.
His presentation was part of the scientific program of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Triptolide is derived from a Chinese medicinal herb, named Lei Gong Teng, which has been used in traditional medicine to treat cancer, inflammation, and auto-immune diseases and, more recently, also has been tested in Phase I clinical trials as an anti-tumor agent. This study, with mice bred to have a disease like human polycystic kidney disease, used triptolide with a less toxic concentration than that used in cancer chemotherapy trials. During normal kidney development, cells lining the kidney tubules continue growing and dividing until they receive a signal that the tubule is fully formed.