In this month's Nature Cell Biology, Frank Lezoualc'h and colleagues at the University of South Paris report that serotonin, or 5-hydroxy tryptamine (5HT), mediates sAPPα release through a cyclic AMP (cAMP) signaling pathway independent of protein kinase A (PKA)...
In the 24 June PNAS Early Edition, researchers report that a biologically ancient defense mechanism for ridding the central nervous system (CNS) of invading pathogens also damages neurons...
Soon after the World Health Organization bestowed its approval on the protein 14-3-3 as an important diagnostic marker for sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (sCJD), reports began to come in that its sensitivity and specificity might not be all that was advertised...
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has given approval for the drug Stalevo—a cocktail of levodopa (L-dopa), carbidopa, and entacapone—to be marketed in the United States for the treatment of Parkinson's disease...
The blood-brain barrier (BBB) is cropping up with increasing frequency in discussions of Alzheimer's disease therapy. It is an ever-present concern for researchers hoping to introduce therapies...
The not-for-profit Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis-Therapy Development Foundation (ALS-TDF), based in Newton, Massachusetts, has entered into a collaboration with University of Chicago stem cell researcher Kimonobu Sugaya...
Two in-press papers in the Journal of Biological Chemistry reveal the crystal structure of DJ-1, a protein of unknown function that was recently implicated in the etiology of familial Parkinson's disease...
In last week's PNAS online, researchers reported that murine embryonic stem cells exposed to pyrrolpyrimidines differentiate into neurons. This result raises hope that the fate of stem cells in vivo may one day be controlled by the use of small molecules...
Mutations in the enzyme Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD) have been linked to about 20 percent of familial cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), but there is no explanation yet for how the mutations contribute to ALS pathology...
Both selective (COX-2 inhibitor, rofecoxib) and nonselective (COX-1/COX-2 inhibitor, naproxen) nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) fail to slow the cognitive decline associated with Alzheimer's disease (AD)...
Dopaminergic neurons in the mouse substantia nigra are replenished throughout the life of the animal, according to a report in the June 2 early online edition of PNAS...