#New Technology Enables Completely Paralyzed Man to Voluntarily Move His Legs Robotic step training and noninvasive spinal stimulation enable patient to take thousands of steps.
A 39-year-old man who had had been paralyzed completely for four years was able to voluntarily control his leg muscles
complete paralysis has regained enough voluntary control to actively work with a robotic device designed to enhance mobility.
the man was aided by a novel noninvasive spinal stimulation technique that does not require surgery.
That earlier achievement is believed to be the first time people who are paralyzed completely have been able to relearn voluntary leg movements without surgery.
and suffered a spinal cord injury that left him paralyzed from the waist down. At UCLA, Pollock made substantial progress after receiving a few weeks of physical training without spinal stimulation
The research will be published by the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, the world largest society of biomedical engineers. t will be difficult to get people with complete paralysis to walk completely independently,
but even if they don accomplish that, the fact they can assist themselves in walking will greatly improve their overall health
and quality of life, said V. Reggie Edgerton, senior author of the research and a UCLA distinguished professor of integrative biology and physiology, neurobiology and neurosurgery.
Edgerton said. e need to expand the clinical toolbox available for people with spinal cord injury and other diseases.
and we are encouraged by these findings to broaden our understanding of possible treatment options for paralysis,
which helped fund the research. iven the complexities of a spinal cord injury, there will be no one-size-fits-all cure
and approaches to remind the spine of its potential even years after an injury, he said.
his is a great example of a therapeutic approach that combines two very different modalities neuromodulation
much like multi-drug therapy, may ultimately benefit patients with impaired mobility in a wide variety of rehabilitation settings.
Neurorecovery Technologies, a medical technology company Edgerton founded, designs and develops devices that help restore movement in patients with paralysis. The company provided the device used to stimulate the spinal cord in combination with the Ekso in this research.
he now believes it is possible to significantly improve quality of life for patients with severe spinal cord injuries,
as a result of a spinal cord injury has become the first person to be able to eelphysical sensations through a prosthetic hand directly connected to his brain,
a feat previously accomplished under the DARPA program by another person with similar injuries. Then, breaking new neurotechnological ground, the researchers went on to provide the volunteer a sense of touch.
and experience for individuals living with paralysis and have the potential to benefit people with similarly debilitating brain injuries or diseases,
he said. In addition to the Revolutionizing Prosthetics program that focuses on restoring movement and sensation DARPA portfolio of neurotechnology programs includes the Restoring Active Memory (RAM) and Systems-Based Neurotechnology for Emerging Therapies (SUBNETS) programs,
which seek to develop closed-loop direct interfaces to the brain to restore function to individuals living with memory loss from traumatic brain injury or complex neuropsychiatric illness y
#X-ray Vision: Transparent Brains Ready for Study Researchers at the RIKEN Brain science Institute in Japan have developed a new technique for creating transparent tissue that can be used to illuminate 3d brain anatomy at very high resolutions.
the work showcases the new technology and its practical importance in clinical science by showing how it has given new insights into Alzheimer disease plaques. he usefulness of optical clearing techniques can be measured by their ability to gather
and collected data that may resolve several current issues regarding the pathology of Alzheimer disease.
mouse model of Alzheimer disease developed at the RIKEN BSI by Takaomi Saido team. After showing how Scales treatment can preserve tissue,
the researchers put the technique to practical use by visualizing in 3d the mysterious iffuseplaques seen in the postmortem brains of Alzheimer disease patients that are typically undetectable using 2d imaging.
but not in later stages of the disease after the plaques have accumulated. learing tissue with Scales followed by 3d microscopy has clear advantages over 2d stereology or immunohistochemistry,
not only for visualizing plaques in Alzheimer disease, but also for examining normal neural circuits and pinpointing structural changes that characterize other brain diseases. t
#Researchers Identify Three Distinct Subtypes of Alzheimer Disease Alzheimer disease, long thought to be a single disease,
really consists of three distinct subtypes, according to a UCLA study. The finding could lead to more highly targeted research and, eventually, new treatments for the debilitating neurological disorder,
which robs people of their memories. The study further found that one of the three variations,
a UCLA professor of neurology and member of the Easton Laboratory for Neurodegenerative Disease Research. ecause the presentation varies from person to person,
there has been suspicion for years that Alzheimer represents more than one illness, said Bredesen, who also is the founding president of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. hen laboratory tests go beyond the usual tests,
but other metabolic abnormalities are present. Cortical, which affects relatively young individuals and appears more widely distributed across the brain than the other subtypes of Alzheimer.
but people with this subtype of the disease tend to lose language skills. It is misdiagnosed often,
No effective therapy for Alzheimer exists. And scientists have yet to completely identify the cause,
although multiple studies have pointed to metabolic abnormalities such as insulin resistance, hormonal deficiencies and hyperhomocysteinemia, a condition characterized by an abnormally high level of an amino acid in the blood.
exercise and diet changes designed to improve the body metabolism reversed cognitive decline in nine out of 10 patients with early Alzheimer disease or its precursors.
and it could eventually help scientists pinpoint more precise targets for treatments the same approach that has led to major advances in treating other diseases.
researchers have recently been able to develop precise treatments for cancer by sequencing tumor genomes
and comparing them to the patientsgenomes to better understand what drives the formation and growth of tumors. owever,
in Alzheimer disease, there is no tumor to biopsy, Bredesen said. o how do we get an idea about
The approach we took was to use the underlying metabolic mechanisms of the disease process to guide the establishment of an extensive set of laboratory tests, such as fasting insulin, copper-to-zinc ratio and dozens of others.
It is the most common age-related dementia, and the number of people with the disease in the U s. is expected to increase to 15 million in 2050,
from nearly 6 million today. The cost to treat people in the U s. with Alzheimer
and other dementias is expected to be $226 billion in 2015 alone, and could reach $1. 1 trillion in 2050 h
#Researchers Identify Protein That Opens the Door to Cell Death Findings could aid development of novel therapeutics for conditions ranging from heart failure and stroke to cancer and neurodegeneration.
The new study, appearing online September 17 in the journal Molecular Cell, suggests that blocking the door with a small molecule inhibitor could be key to the treatment of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attack and stroke
and the Center for Translational Medicine at Temple University School of medicine (TUSM), shows that the protein, spastic paraplegia 7 (SPG7), is the central component of the so-called permeability transition pore (PTP),
a protein complex in the mitochondrial membrane that mediates necrotic cell death (death caused by cell injury).
Much of what is known about the PTP comes from studies of mitochondria in disease. In pathological states, particularly those involving hypoxia (oxygen deficiency),
calcium and ROS accumulate within mitochondria, causing them to swell and prompting the PTP to open.
In the absence of disease, precisely how the PTP helps to mediate normal cellular physiology remains unclear.
According to Dr. Madesh, nder physiological conditions, SPG7 may function through transient pore openings to release toxic metabolites that have accumulated in mitochondria.
Dr. Madesh also explained that the new findings could aid the development of novel therapeutics for conditions ranging from heart failure and stroke to cancer and neurodegeneration all of
which involve hypoxia and mitochondrial dysfunction to varying degrees. In these diseases if the PTP could be prevented from opening,
mitochondria could potentially continue to function, and cell death could be averted. With colleagues at TUSM, Dr. Madesh plans to explore the effects of SPG7 inhibitors in animals and, potentially, human patients t
The new study shows that this crosstalk is important not only for launching immune responses against tumors,
but also for regulating the inflammatory responses that may result in autoimmune diseases. his finding could be helpful for developing strategies to target cancer
and inflammatory diseases, said TSRI Assistant professor of Immunology Young Jun Kang, who collaborated on the study with the lab of TSRI Institute Professor Richard A. Lerner,
which protects the body from harmful mutations and infections. However, scientists had understood not fully RIPK3 role in the immune system.
the immune cells that play dual roles in the development of autoimmune diseases and the destruction of cancers.
scientists may be able to develop ways to better control NKTS to attack tumors. The new study also suggests there may be a way to intervene in the pathway to block inflammation.
implying a role for RIPK3 in autoimmune diseases. Kang said future studies will focus on understanding the details of this new signaling pathway,
possibly paving the way for new therapies that can either hone the pathway cancer-killing role or reduce its role in inflammation
#Key Morphine Regulator That May Reduce Risk of Pain killer Addiction Identified Once used in the 18th century as currency to reverse the trade imbalance between China and Britain,
The study was published recently online ahead of print by the journal Biological Psychiatry. The molecule in question is known as a regulator of G protein signaling (RGS PROTEIN,
#Possible Biomarker for Autism Discovered Study also points to potential new drug discovery advances. By identifying a key signaling defect within a specific membrane structure in all cells, University of California,
they have found both a possible reliable biomarker for diagnosing certain forms of autism and a potential therapeutic target.
Dr. J. Jay Gargus, Ian Parker and colleagues at the UCI Center for Autism Research & Translation examined skin biopsies of patients with three very different genetic types
of the disorder (fragile X syndrome and tuberous sclerosis 1 and 2). They discovered that a cellular calcium signaling process involving the inositol trisphosphate receptor was altered very much.
This IP3R functional defect was located in the endoplasmic reticulum which is specialized among the membrane compartments in cells called organelles,
and possibly digestive and immune problems associated with autism. e believe this finding will be another arrow in the quiver for early and accurate diagnoses of autism spectrum disorders,
said Gargus, director of the Center for Autism Research & Translation and professor of pediatrics and physiology & biophysics. qually exciting,
Study results appear online in Translational Psychiatry, a Nature publication. Autism spectrum disorder is a range of complex neurodevelopmental disorders affecting 2 percent of U s. children.
The social and economic burden of ASD is enormous currently estimated at more than $66 billion per year in the U s. alone.
which impedes diagnosis and, ultimately, drug development. There simply may be too many targets, each with too small an effect.
According to Gargus, diseases of the organelles, such as the ER, are an emerging field in medicine,
with several well-recognized neurological ailments linked to two other ones, the mitochondria and lysosomes.
The IP3R controls the release of calcium from the ER. In the brain, calcium is used to communicate information within and between neurons
To see if IP3R function is altered across the autism spectrum, clinical researchers at The Center for Autism & Neurodevelopmental Disorders
which is affiliated with the Center for Autism Research & Translation are currently expanding the study
and have begun to examine children with and without typical ASD for the same signaling abnormalities.
In the area of drug discovery, scientists at the Center for Autism Research & Translation continue to probe the IP3R channel,
The brains of people who have autism show signs of hyperexcitability, which is seen also in epilepsy,
a disorder increasingly found to be associated with ASD. Cells from individuals who have depressed autism exhibit levels of calcium signaling
and this might explain why these patients experience this hyperexcitability. By restoring the release of calcium from the IP3R,
#Liquid crystals Show Potential for Detecting Neurodegenerative Diseases Liquid crystals are familiar to most of us as the somewhat humdrum stuff used to make computer displays and TVS.
as detectors for the protein fibers implicated in the development of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer.
when they are thought to be the most toxic. t is extremely important that one develop techniques that allow us to detect the formation of these so-called amyloid fibrils
Amyloid fibrils are protein aggregates that are associated with the development of neurodegenerative diseases including Huntington disease, Parkinson, Alzheimer,
Scientists would like to be able to study their formation both for therapeutic reasons and so that they can test the effect of new drugs on inhibiting their growth.
which the scientists injected the molecules that spontaneously form the toxic aggregates. s aggregates grow on the membrane,
#New Prosthesis Could Help Alzheimer Patients Re-Encode Memories Scientists to bypass brain damage by re-encoding memories.
Researchers at USC and Wake Forest Baptist Medical center have developed a brain prosthesis that is designed to help individuals suffering from memory loss.
That why an individual with hippocampal damage (due to Alzheimer disease, for example) can recall events from a long time ago things that were translated already into long-term memories before the brain damage occurred
#Uncovering Clues About Abnormal Embryo Development with Artificial intelligence Melanoma-like cells in tadpoles may mimic variability in human responses to cancer stimuli.
His brother, leading a similar lifestyle, succumbs to cancer at age 55. Why do some individuals develop certain diseases
or disorders while others do not? In newly reported research that could help provide answers, scientists at Tufts University,
and metastasis of melanoma-like cells in tadpoles as well as work applying artificial intelligence to help explain planarian regeneration.
and developed other melanoma-like characteristics, proliferating uncontrollably and invading the frogsinternal organs. Depending on which protein in the bioelectric pathway was tweaked, only a certain percentage of the frogs developed melanoma,
while the rest remained healthy. here randomness to this process. It doesn have the same result in all animals exposed to precisely the same agent,
which may mimic the variability in human responses to cancer-inducing stimuli, said Levin. Furthermore, the tadpoles that did develop melanoma developed it in every pigment cellach frog was either 100 percent metastatic or completely normal.
Essentially said Levin, all pigment cells in a tadpole are part of a single coin, which either flips heads (normal) or tails (cancerous).
proteins of the serotonergic signaling pathway that regulated the melanoma-like cellsbehavior. Then, the team applied artificial intelligence which mimicked evolution to generate a chemical signaling network in a irtual embryothat exhibited the same behavior that the researchers observed in their experiments with real tadpoles.
and targets for tumor prevention and better understanding many other seemingly random decisions made by cells in living organisms.
researchers could use this approach to develop a system to help doctors understand patientsindividual genetic responses to treatments as well as environmental factors that cause cancer.
and Christopher J. Martyniuk of the Center for Environmental and Human Toxicology and Department of Physiological Sciences, UF Genetics Institute, University of Florida.
in order to make a diagnosis or prescribe further tests, it is palpation. By its nature, however, the brain cannot be palpated without using a highly invasive procedure (craniotomy,
it could be used in the early diagnosis of brain tumours or Alzheimer disease. This work is published in PNAS.
Many diseases involve structural changes in tissues, which are reflected in a change in their mechanical properties, such as elasticity.
something that greatly complicates the work of neurosurgeons. On the other hand, the brain is the seat of natural vibrations created by the blood pulsating in the arteries and the circulating cerebrospinal fluid.
says Stéfan Catheline, Inserm Research director and main author of this work. lzheimer disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and hydrocephalus involve changes in the stiffness of the brain tissues.
This new technique allows their detection, and could be used to avoid brain biopsies. his method for palpating the brain could have other areas of application,
such as for analysing the development of neurodegenerative processes, the impact of a lesion from a trauma or tumour, response to treatment, etc.
Source: Stéfan Catheline INSERMIMAGE Credit: The image is credited to Inserm/Stéfan Cathelineoriginal Research: Abstract for rain palpation from physiological vibrations using MRIBY Ali Zorgani, Rémi Souchon, Au-Hoang Dinh, Jean-Yves Chapelon, Jean-Michel Ménager, Samir
and diseases are foreseen. o
#Single Drop of Blood in Brain Can Trigger Immune response Akin to Multiple sclerosis Disruption of the blood-brain barrier triggers a cascade of events that results in autoimmunity and brain damage characteristic of multiple sclerosis.
A new study from the Gladstone Institutes shows that a single drop of blood in the brain is sufficient to activate an autoimmune response akin to multiple sclerosis (MS). This is the first demonstration that introduction of blood in the healthy brain
is sufficient to cause peripheral immune cells to enter the brain, which then go on to cause brain damage.
A break in the blood-brain barrier (BBB) allows blood proteins to leak into the brain and is a key characteristic of MS,
a disabling autoimmune disease of the brain and spinal cord. However, it was unclear whether the BBB disruption caused the autoimmune response
the scientists created a new animal model of disease to determine if BBB leakage can cause autoimmunity.
and it is the primary site of injury in MS. What more, the scientists were able to pinpoint a specific protein in the blood, the blood-clotting factor fibrinogen,
as the trigger for the disease-causing process. hese findings offer a completely new way of thinking about how the immune system attacks the braint puts the blood in the driver seat of the onset
and progression of disease, says senior author Katerina Akassoglou, Phd, a senior investigator at the Gladstone Institutes and professor of neurology at the University of California,
San francisco. his opens up the possibility for new types of therapies that target blood coagulation factors, upstream of autoimmune processes.
The researchers are now attempting to block fibrinogen using biological and small-molecule approaches as potential new therapies to suppress autoimmunity directed against the brain,
and it is the primary site of injury in MS. Image is for illustrative purposes only. hese findings question a long-held paradigm that myelin-specific T cells initiate inflammation in the brain through activation of microglia
and brain macrophages, says Scott Zamvil, MD, Phd, a professor of neurology at the University of California,
but also in other brain diseases that involve inflammation or a break in the BBB, including traumatic brain injury, stroke, Alzheimer disease,
and other dementias e
#Blood test to Detect Alzheimer Disease Close to Development Early detection presents new opportunities to slow or perhaps even halt disease progression.
Researchers from the Rowan University School of Osteopathic Medicine are nearing development of a blood test that can accurately detect the presence of Alzheimer disease,
which would give physicians an opportunity to intervene at the earliest, most treatable stage. Robert Nagele, Phd, presented his team most recent findings October 18 at OMED 15 in Orlando.
Dr. Nagele work focuses on utilizing autoantibodies as blood-based biomarkers to accurately detect the presence of myriad diseases
and pinpoint the stage to which a disease has progressed. By detecting Alzheimer disease long before symptoms emerge
Dr. Nagele hopes those with disease-related autoantibody biomarkers will be encouraged to make beneficial lifestyle changes that may help to slow development of the disease.
The blood test developed by Dr. Nagele has shown also promise in detecting other diseases, including Parkinsons, multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.
Image is for illustration purposes only. Credit: Tannim101. here are significant benefits to early disease detection
because we now know that many of the same conditions that lead to vascular disease are also significant risk factors for Alzheimer.
People found to have preclinical disease can take steps to improve their vascular health, including watching their diet,
exercising and managing any weight and blood pressure issues to help stave off or slow disease progression,
Nagele said. While the cause of Alzheimer remains elusive, it is clear that maintaining a healthy blood-brain barrier is a critical preventative measure.
Diabetes, high cholesterol, high blood pressure stroke and being overweight jeopardize vascular health. As blood vessels in the brain weaken
or become brittle with age, they begin to leak, which allows plasma components including brain-reactive autoantibodies into the brain.
There, the autoantibodies can bind to neurons and accelerate the accumulation of beta amyloid deposits, a hallmark of Alzheimer pathology.
The blood test developed by Dr. Nagele has shown also promise in detecting other diseases, including Parkinsons, multiple sclerosis and breast cancer.
His team research on the role of autoantibodies explains that: All humans possess thousands of autoantibodies in their blood;
These autoantibodies specifically bind to blood-borne cellular debris generated by organs and tissues all over the body;
An individual autoantibody profile is influenced strongly by age, gender and the presence of specific diseases or injuries;
Diseases cause characteristic changes in autoantibody profiles that, when detected, can serve as biomarkers that reveal the presence of the disease.
In Alzheimer, the brain begins to change years before symptoms emerge. Detecting Alzheimer antibodies at the preclinical stage would give patients an opportunity to work with their physician to make lifestyle changes
or receive available treatments before they become symptomatic. Potentially, this early intervention could help those with preclinical Alzheimer avoid
or delay the most devastating symptoms. s osteopathic physicians, we constantly tell patients that a healthy lifestyle is the best medicine for preventing disease.
We also know that many people tune out messages about nutrition and exercise until a health crisis gets their attention,
said Jennifer Caudle, DO, assistant professor of family medicine at Rowan University. can think of a single patient who wouldn take steps to prevent the progression of Alzheimer
if they could directly affect their prognosis. Today, there is no definitive FDA-approved blood test for Alzheimer,
#New Drug Delivery Technique Bypasses Blood-brain barrier Breakthrough could help countless patients with neurological conditions that are currently hard to treat.
Their findings, published in Neurosurgery, lend hope to patients around the world with neurological conditions that are difficult to treat due to a barrier mechanism that prevents approximately 98 percent of drugs from reaching the brain
and central nervous system. e are developing a platform that may eventually be used to deliver a variety of drugs to the brain,
Eye and Ear/Harvard Medical school. lthough we are currently looking at neurodegenerative disease, there is potential for the technology to be expanded to psychiatric diseases, chronic pain,
seizure disorders and many other conditions affecting the brain and nervous system down the road. Using nasal mucosal grafting,
a therapeutic protein in testing for treating Parkinson disease, to the brains of mice. They showed through behavioral
and histological data capture that their delivery method was equivalent to direct injection of GDNF the current gold standard for delivering this drug in Parkinson disease despite its traumatic nature and high complication rates in diffusing drugs
because the therapy has been shown to delay and even reverse disease progression of Parkinson disease in preclinical models.
rain diseases are notoriously difficult to treat due to the natural protections the body builds against intrusion,
and we look forward to the next stage of research to further test its utility in people with Parkinson disease.
Nasal mucosal grafting is a technique regularly used in the ENT field to reconstruct the barrier around the brain after surgery to the skull base.
ENT surgeons commonly use endoscopic approaches to remove brain tumors through the nose by making a window through the blood-brain barrier to access the brain.
with the nasal lining protecting the brain from infection just as the blood brain barrier has done. Illustration of a brain.
Drugs used to treat a variety of central nervous system diseases may be administered through the nose and diffused through an implanted mucosal graft (A,
which represents part of the blood-brain barrier (B). After endoscopic skull base surgery (C), all of these layers are removed
surgeons may create a creen doorto allow for drug delivery to the brain and central nervous system. The technique has the potential to benefit a large population of patients with neurodegenerative disorders,
where there remains a specific unmet need for blood-brain penetrating therapeutic delivery strategies. e see this expanding beyond Parkinson disease,
as there are multiple diseases of the brain that do not have good therapeutic options, Dr. Bleier said. t is a platform that opens doors for new discovery
and could enable drug development for an underserved population
#Step Closer to Prosthetic Limbs That Recreate Sense of touch A new study led by neuroscientists from the University of Chicago brings us one step closer to building prosthetic limbs for humans that re-create a sense of touch through a direct interface with the brain.
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