Gene Therapy Helps Children With Rare, Incurable Brain DiseaseUsing gene transfer techniques pioneered by University of Florida faculty, Taiwanese doctors have restored some movement in four children bedridden with a rare, life-threatening neurological disease. The first-in-humans achievement may also be helpful for more common diseases such as Parkinson's that involve nerve cell damage caused by lack of a crucial molecule in brain tissue...
Unravelling How Locomotion StartsScientists at the University of Bristol have shed new light on one of the great unanswered questions of neuroscience: how the brain initiates rhythmic movements like walking, running and swimming...
Potential To Predict Parkinson's Disease Via Colonoscopy Or Flexible SigmoidoscopyTwo studies by neurological researchers at Rush University Medical Center suggest that, in the future, colonic tissue obtained during either colonoscopy or flexible sigmoidoscopy may be used to predict who will develop Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disorder of aging that that leads to progressive deterioration of motor function due to loss of neurons in the brain tha...
Damaged Stem Cells Commit Suicide For The Good Of The EmbryoEmbryonic stem cells - those revered cells that give rise to every cell type in the body - just got another badge of honor. If they suffer damage that makes them a threat to the developing embryo, they swiftly fall on their swords for the greater good, according to a study published online in the journal Molecular Cell...
Once-Marginalized Parkinson's Disease Theory May Be Valid The March issue of the FEBS Journal reports that scientists from the Californian University in San Diego have discovered new evidence for a theory that was once marginalized with regard to the underlying causes of Parkinson's disease, which conflicts with an older theory that Parkinson's and other neurodegenerative diseases are caused by insoluble intracellular fibrils called amyloids...
Strong Support Uncovered For Once-Marginalized Theory On Parkinson's DiseaseUniversity of California, San Diego scientists have used powerful computational tools and laboratory tests to discover new support for a once-marginalized theory about the underlying cause of Parkinson's disease. The new results conflict with an older theory that insoluble intracellular fibrils called amyloids cause Parkinson's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases...
Parkinson's Patients Might Respond To 19th Century Vibration-Chair Therapy To relieve symptoms of Parkinson's disease, Jean-Martin Charcot, a famous neurologist in the 19th century developed a "vibration chair" that showed improvements in his patients. However, Charcot died soon afterwards, before being able to conduct a more comprehensive evaluation of his therapy...
Parkinson's Protein Causes Disease Spread In Animal ModelLast year, researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania found that small amounts of a misfolded brain protein can be taken up by healthy neurons, replicating within them to cause neurodegeneration...