Recent Comments

    Category Health/Medical

    Being Anxious Could be Good for You—in a Crisis

    December 29, 2015, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Modulation of threat encoding by individual anxiety. (a) Left panel: correlation (Pearson) between state anxiety and the difference of the encoding parameter estimates between THREAT+ and THREAT− conditions in temporal electrodes at 280 ms. Right panel: encoding parameter estimates in temporal electrodes split into high and low anxious individuals for both THREAT+ and THREAT− conditions at 280 ms. T+: THREAT+, T-: THREAT-. (b) Left, correlation (Pearson) between state anxiety and the encoding parameter estimates in motor lateralization signals for THREAT+ condition at 200 ms. Right, encoding parameter estimates in motor lateralization signals split into high and low anxious individuals for both THREAT+ and THREAT− conditions at 200 ms. ***: p<0.001, *p<0.05. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.10274.010 - See more at: http://elifesciences.org/content/4/e10274#sthash.lORur2Lf.dpuf

    Modulation of threat encoding by individual anxiety. (a) Left panel: correlation (Pearson) between state anxiety and the difference of the encoding parameter estimates between THREAT+ and THREAT− conditions in temporal electrodes at 280 ms. Right panel: encoding parameter estimates in temporal electrodes split into high and low anxious individuals for both THREAT+ and THREAT− conditions at 280 ms. T+: THREAT+, T-: THREAT-. (b) Left, correlation (Pearson) between state anxiety and the encoding parameter estimates in motor lateralization signals for THREAT+ condition at 200 ms. Right, encoding parameter estimates in motor lateralization signals split into high and low anxious individuals for both THREAT+ and THREAT− conditions at 200 ms. ***: p<0.001, *p<0.05. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10...

    Read More

    New Study Opens New Door for ALS Drug Discovery

    December 29, 2015, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Credit: National Cancer Institute

    Credit: National Cancer Institute

    1st-ever evidence-based description of neuronal protein clumps thought to be important in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) announced today. These clumps are toxic to the type of neurons that die in patients with ALS. This research could be a crucial step toward developing drugs to stop the creation of the clumps and stem the progression of the disease.

    “This study is a big breakthrough because it sheds light on the origin of motor neuron death and could be very important for drug discovery,” Nikolay Dokholyan, PhD. Patients with ALS suffer gradual paralysis and early death as a result of the loss of motor neurons, which are crucial to moving, speaking, swallowing, and breathing.

    The study focuses on a subset of ALS cases – 1 to 2% associated with variat...

    Read More

    Scientists Prevent, Reverse Diabetes-related Kidney Destruction in Animal

    December 28, 2015, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Scientists prevent, reverse diabetes-related kidney destruction in animal model

    Dr. Ganesan Ramesh, Medical College of Georgia at Georgia Regents University. Credit: Augusta University Senior Photographer Phil Jones

    Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney failure, and scientists have found that infusing just a small dose of a cytokine, thought to help cause that failure, can instead prevent or reverse it. The cytokine IL-17A has long been considered a classic promoter of inflammation, which plays a major role in progression of diabetes-related kidney disease, or diabetic nephropathy, said Dr. Ganesan Ramesh. His lab was pursuing its role in kidney damage but found that when they deleted the IL-17 gene in mice, then induced diabetes, it resulted in increased kidney injury...

    Read More

    Study identifies Liver-generated hormone that Regulates ‘Sweet tooth’

    December 27, 2015, Categories  Health/Medical, Biology/Biotechnology

    Study identifies liver-generated hormone that regulates 'sweet tooth'

    A University of Iowa-led study has identified a hormone that appears to be involved in sugar cravings and consumption. The research could improve diet and help patients who are diabetic or obese. Credit: University of Iowa

    While sugar cravings are common, the physiological mechanisms that trigger our “sweet tooth” are not well defined. A University of Iowa-led study in mice shows that a hormone produced by the liver, fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21), suppresses the consumption of simple sugars. The researchers report that FGF21 is produced in the liver in response to high carbohydrate levels. FGF21 then enters the bloodstream, where it sends a signal to the brain to suppress the preference for sweets...

    Read More