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Researchers compared the brain tissue of 10 HIV patients with no neurological symptoms to the brain tissue of 20 patients suffering from HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), and discovered that patients with HAND had elevated levels of microRNAs that affected the expression of proteins needed for the development of peroxisomes, which are subcellular structures. "A number of critical peroxisomal proteins -- which are extraordinarily important for brain development and function -- were virtually absent in the brains of HIV patients," said Tom Hobman, a Canada Research Chair in RNA Viruses and Host Interactions and a professor of Cell Biology in the U of A's Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry. The team believes the finding offers a strong clue as to the underlying cause of HAND and that it could lead to new biomarkers to rapidly diagnose HAND and/or monitor the progression of HIV in patients and predict their likelihood of developing dementia. Approximat...

In a study released in  JCI Insight , Feinstein Institute researchers found that the FDA-approved Alzheimer's drug "galantamine" cut key markers of inflammation -- a hallmark of metabolic syndrome -- by more than 25 percent, leading to reduced insulin resistance. A cluster of four risk factors -- increased blood pressure, a high blood sugar level, excess body fat around the waist and abnormal cholesterol levels -- comprise metabolic syndrome, which greatly raises risks for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes. But there is no treatment for metabolic syndrome as a whole, leaving physicians to tackle the condition by treating symptoms. From previous studies at the Feinstein Institute, Associate Professor Valentin A. Pavlov, PhD, and his colleagues knew that galantamine -- derived synthetically from flowers used in Greek mythology to combat memory loss and delirium -- lessened inflammation levels in mice with obesity. Since inflammation plays a key role in metabol...

Common bodily train not solely enhances health but additionally has a constructive influence on mind metabolism. Credit score: © Giorgio Pulcini / Fotolia Quite a few research have proven that bodily train appears helpful within the prevention of cognitive impairment and dementia in previous age. Now researchers at Goethe College Frankfurt have explored in one of many first research worldwide how train impacts mind metabolism. As a way to additional advance present state of data on the constructive affect of bodily exercise on the mind, gerontologists and sports activities physicians at Goethe College Frankfurt have examined the consequences of normal train on mind metabolism and reminiscence of 60 individuals aged between 65 and 85 in a randomised managed trial. Their conclusion: common bodily train not solely enhances health but additionally has a constructive influence on mind metabolism. Because the researchers report within the present problem o...

Childhood dementia is an inherited disorder that affects the metabolism of the brain. Initial symptoms include degeneration of sight followed by epileptic seizures, blindness, deafness, dementia and early death. The medical term for childhood dementia is neuronal ceroid lipofuscinosis (NCL). More than ten types of the disease are known. They are all caused by different genetic mutations. No treatment is available and they are all lethal. Inflammation of the brain discovered The disease is aggravated by an inflammatory response in the brain. The research team of Professor Rudolf Martini, who heads the Section for Experimental Developmental Neurobiology at the Department of Neurology of the Julius-Maximilians-Universität (JMU) Würzburg in Bavaria, Germany, made this discovery a few years ago. Now Martini's group is busy turning this finding into an effective treatment: "Administering the drugs fingolimod and teriflunomide shows an astonishing therapeutic effect on chil...