Research released today reveals a new model for a genetic eye disease, and shows how animal models — from fruit flies to armadillos and monkeys — can yield valuable information about the human brain. The findings were presented at Neuroscience 2013, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

Animal models have long been central in how we understand the human brain, behavior, and nervous system due to similarities in many brain areas and functions across species. Almost every major medical advance in the last century was made possible by carefully regulated, humane animal research. Today’s findings build on this rich history and demonstrate what animals can teach us about ourselves.

Today’s new findings show that:

• The nine-banded armadillo may serve as a model for certain types of progressive blindness. The animal’s poor eyesight mimics many human disorders and may shed light on new treatment approaches for such diseases (Christopher Emerling, BS, abstract 150.06, see attached summary).
• Analysis of a baboon population reveals particular genes that may be involved in creating the “folds” in the structure of the brain. These findings provide information on how human genes may have evolved to create the brain’s shape and function (Elizabeth Atkinson, BA, abstract 195.13, see attached summary).
• Monkeys and humans use similar brain pathways while processing decisions. Detailed analyses of similarities and differences in brain wiring could provide new insights into decision-making in humans (Franz-Xaver Neubert, abstract 18.03, see attached summary).

Other recent findings discussed show that:

• Use of powerful genetic tools in fruit flies is helping to reveal the basic building blocks of brain circuitry and function. This work is furthering our understanding of the human brain and may be helpful in developing medical diagnostic devices (Rachel Wilson, PhD, presentation 302, see attached speaker summary).
• Research in a tiny worm (C. elegans) has allowed scientists to map all of the connections between neurons in the species, including the pathways for movement, sex, and more. The findings offer new insights into how the human nervous system functions (Scott Emmons, PhD, presentation 009, see attached speaker summary).

“Neuroscience has always relied on responsible animal research to better understand how our brains and bodies develop, function, and break down,” said press conference moderator Leslie Tolbert, of the University of Arizona, whose work in insects provides insights into brain development. “Today’s studies reveal new ways that research on unlikely-seeming animals, such as armadillos, fruit flies, and worms, could have real impact on our understanding of the human brain and what can go wrong in disease.”

Scientists are gaining a new level of understanding of multiple sclerosis (MS) that may lead to new treatments and approaches to controlling the chronic disease, according to new research released today at Neuroscience 2013, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health.

MS is a severe, often crippling, autoimmune disease caused by the body’s immune system attacking the nervous system. Today, more than two million people worldwide suffer from MS and other neuroinflammatory diseases. MS usually strikes in early adulthood and manifests with symptoms including vision loss, paralysis, numbness, and fatigue. The disease can be intermittent or progressive and currently has no cure.

Today’s new findings show that:

• Scientists are one step closer to understanding how antibodies in the blood stream break past the brain’s protective barrier to attack the optic nerves, spinal cord, and brain, causing the symptoms of neuromyelitis optica, a rare disease similar to MS. Understanding how the antibodies bypass the protective blood-brain barrier could provide new approaches to treating the disease (Yukio Takeshita, MD, PhD, abstract 404.09, see attached summary).
• A protein involved in blood clotting might serve as an early detection method for MS before symptoms occur. Early detection of the disease could lead to more effective early treatments (Katerina Akassoglou, PhD, abstract 404.11, see attached summary).
• Low levels of a cholesterol protein correlate with the severity of a patient’s MS in both human patients and mouse models. The finding suggests the protein, known to protect against inflammation, may protect against developing MS, and possibly even aid in the regeneration of damaged neurons. This research opens the door to cholesterol drugs as a possible new avenue for MS treatment (Lidia Gardner, PhD, abstract 404.01, see attached summary).

Other recent findings discussed show that:

• A type of immune system cell has been found to directly target and damage nerve cell axons, a hallmark of MS. This may reveal a target for new therapies (Brian Sauer, PhD, presentation 404.06, see attached speaker summary).
• While no treatments to rebuild cells damaged by MS currently exist, scientists have found that when exosomes — tiny, naturally occurring “nanovesicles” — are produced by dendritic cells and applied to the brain, they can deliver a mixture of proteins and RNAs that promote regeneration of protective myelin sheaths and guard against MS symptoms (Richard Kraig, MD, PhD, presentation 812.02, see attached speaker summary).

“The findings shown today represent real promise for the millions suffering from MS,” said press conference moderator Jeffrey Rothstein of Johns Hopkins University and an expert in neurodegenerative diseases. “These studies are breakthroughs in understanding and treating a disease that remains uncured, difficult to diagnose, and for which it is very difficult to prevent progression.”

As little as 20 minutes of moderate exercise three times per week during pregnancy enhances the newborn child’s brain development, according to researchers at the University of Montreal and its affiliated CHU Sainte-Justine children’s hospital. This head-start could have an impact on the child’s entire life. “Our research indicates that exercise during pregnancy enhances the newborn child’s brain development,” explained Professor Dave Ellemberg, who led the study. “While animal studies have shown similar results, this is the first randomized controlled trial in humans to objectively measure the impact of exercise during pregnancy directly on the newborn’s brain. We hope these results will guide public health interventions and research on brain plasticity. Most of all, we are optimistic that this will encourage women to change their health habits, given that the simple act of exercising during pregnancy could make a difference for their child’s future.” Ellemberg and his colleagues Professor Daniel Curnier and PhD candidate Élise Labonté-LeMoyne presented their findings today at the Neuroscience 2013 congress in San Diego.

Not so long ago, obstetricians would tell women to take it easy and rest during their pregnancy. Recently, the tides have turned and it is now commonly accepted that inactivity is actually a health concern. “While being sedentary increases the risks of suffering complications during pregnancy, being active can ease post-partum recovery, make pregnancy more comfortable and reduce the risk of obesity in the children,” Curier explained. “Given that exercise has been demonstrated to be beneficial for the adult’s brain, we hypothesized that it could also be beneficial for the unborn child through the mother’s actions.”

To verify this, starting at the beginning of their second trimester, women were randomly assigned to an exercise group or a sedentary group. Women in the exercise group had to perform at least 20 minutes of cardiovascular exercise three times per week at a moderate intensity, which should lead to at least a slight shortness of breath. Women in the sedentary group did not exercise. The brain activity of the newborns was assessed between the ages of 8 to 12 days, by means of electroencephalography, which enables the recording of the electrical activity of the brain. “We used 124 soft electrodes placed on the infant’s head and waited for the child to fall asleep on his or her mother’s lap. We then measured auditory memory by means of the brain’s unconscious response to repeated and novel sounds,” Labonté-LeMoyne said. “Our results show that the babies born from the mothers who were physically active have a more mature cerebral activation, suggesting that their brains developed more rapidly.”

The researchers are now in the process of evaluating the children’s cognitive, motor and language development at age 1 to verify if these differences are maintained.

(Source: nouvelles.umontreal.ca)

New human and animal research released today demonstrates how experiences impact genes that influence behavior and health. Today’s studies, presented at Neuroscience 2013, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience and the world’s largest source of emerging news about brain science and health, provide new insights into how experience might produce long-term brain changes in behaviors like drug addiction and memory formation.

The studies focus on an area of research called epigenetics, in which the environment and experiences can turn genes “on” or “off,” while keeping underlying DNA intact. These changes affect normal brain processes, such as development or memory, and abnormal brain processes, such as depression, drug dependence, and other psychiatric disease — and can pass down to subsequent generations.

Today’s new findings show that:

• Long-term heroin abusers show differences in small chemical modifications of their DNA and the histone proteins attached to it, compared to non-abusers. These differences could account for some of the changes in DNA/histone structures that develop during addiction, suggesting a potential biological difference driving long-term abuse versus overdose (Yasmin Hurd, abstract 257.2, see attached summary).
• Male rats exposed to cocaine may pass epigenetic changes on to their male offspring, thereby altering the next generation’s response to the drug. Researchers found that male offspring in particular responded much less to the drug’s influence (Matheiu Wimmer, PhD, abstract 449.19, see attached summary).
• Drug addiction can remodel mouse DNA and chromosomal material in predictable ways, leaving “signatures,” or signs of the remodeling, over time. A better understanding of these signatures could be used to diagnose drug addiction in humans (Eric Nestler, PhD, abstract 59.02, see attached summary).

Other recent findings discussed show that:

• Researchers have identified a potentially new genetic mechanism, called piRNA, underlying long-term memory. Molecules of piRNA were previously thought to be restricted to egg and sperm cells (Eric Kandel, MD, see attached summary).
• Epigenetic DNA remodeling is important for forming memories. Blocking this process causes memory deficits and stunts brain cell structure, suggesting a mechanism for some types of intellectual disability (Marcelo Wood, PhD, see attached summary).

"DNA may shape who we are, but we also shape our own DNA," said press conference moderator Schahram Akbarian, of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, an expert in epigenetics. "These findings show how experiences like learning or drug exposure change the way genes are expressed, and could be incredibly important in developing treatments for addiction and for understanding processes like memory."

(Source: eurekalert.org)

Johns Hopkins engineers and cardiology experts have teamed up to develop a fingernail-sized biosensor that could alert doctors when serious brain injury occurs during heart surgery. By doing so, the device could help doctors devise new ways to minimize brain damage or begin treatment more quickly.

In the Nov. 11 issue of the journal Chemical Science, the team reported on lab tests demonstrating that the prototype sensor had successfully detected a protein associated with brain injuries.

“Ideally, the testing would happen while the surgery is going on, by placing just a drop of the patient’s blood on the sensor, which could activate a sound, light or numeric display if the protein is present,” said the study’s senior author, Howard E. Katz, a Whiting School of Engineering expert in organic thin film transistors, which form the basis of the biosensor.

The project originated about two years ago when Katz, who chairs the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, was contacted by Allen D. Everett, a Johns Hopkins Children’s Center pediatric cardiologist who studies biomarkers linked to pulmonary hypertension and brain injury. As brain injury can occur with heart surgery in both adults and children, the biosensor Everett proposed should work on patients of all ages. He is particularly concerned, however, about operating room injuries to children, whose brains are still developing.

“Many of our young patients need one or more heart surgeries to correct congenital heart defects, and the first of these procedures often occurs at birth,” Everett said. “We take care of these children through adulthood, and we have all have seen the neurodevelopment problems that occur as a consequence of their surgery and post-operative care. These are very sick children, and we have done a brilliant job of improving overall survival from congenital heart surgery, but we have far to go to improve the long-term outcomes of our patients. This is our biggest challenge for the 21^st century.” 

He said that recent studies found that after heart surgery, about 40 percent of infant patients will have brain abnormalities that show up in MRI scans. The damage is most often caused by strokes, which can be triggered and made worse by multiple events during surgery and recovery, when the brain is most susceptible to injury. These brain injuries can lead to deficiencies in the child’s mental development and motor skills, as well as hyperactivity and speech delay. 

To address these problems, Everett sought an engineer to design a biosensor that responds to glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), which is a biomarker linked to brain injuries. “If we can be alerted when the injury is occurring,” he said, “then we should be able to develop better therapies. We could improve our control of blood pressure or redesign our cardiopulmonary bypass machines. We could learn how to optimize cooling and rewarming procedures and have a benchmark for developing and testing new protective medications.” 

At present, Everett said, doctors have to wait years for some brain injury-related symptoms to appear. That slows down the process of finding out whether new procedures or treatments to reduce brain injuries are effective. The new device may change that. “The sensor platform is very rapid,” Everett said. “It’s practically instantaneous.” 

To create this sensor, materials scientist Katz turned to an organic thin film transistor design. In recent years sensors built on such platforms have shown that they can detect gases and chemicals associated with explosives. These transistors were an attractive choice for Everett’s request because of their potential low cost, low power consumption, biocompatibility and their ability to detect a variety of biomolecules in real time. Futhermore, the architecture of these transistors could accommodate a wide variety of other useful electronic materials. 

The sensing area is a small square, 3/8ths-of-an-inch on each side. On the surface of the sensor is a layer of antibodies that attract GFAP, the target protein. When this occurs, it changes the physics of other material layers within the sensor, altering the amount of electrical current that is passing through the device. These electrical changes can be monitored, enabling the user to know when GFAP is present. 

“This sensor proved to be extremely sensitive,” Katz said. “It recognized GFAP even when there were many other protein molecules nearby. As far as we’ve been able to determine, this is the most sensitive protein detector based on organic thin film transistors.” 

Through the Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer Office, the team members have filed for full patent protection for the new biosensor. Katz said the team is looking for industry collaborators to conduct further research and development of the device, which has not yet been tested on human patients. But with the right level of effort and support, Katz believes the device could be put into clinical use within five years. “I’m getting tremendous personal satisfaction from working on a major medical project that could help patients,” he said.

Everett, the pediatric cardiologist, said the biosensor could eventually be used outside of the operating room to quickly detect brain injuries among athletes and accident victims. “It could evolve into a point-of-care or point-of-injury device,” he said. “It might also be very useful in hospital emergency departments to screen patients for brain injuries.”

(Source: releases.jhu.edu)

Scientists at Rutgers and Emory universities have discovered that a compound often emitted by mold may be linked to symptoms of Parkinson’s disease.

Arati Inamdar and Joan Bennett, researchers in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers, used fruit flies to establish the connection between the compound  – popularly known as mushroom alcohol – and the malfunction of two genes involved in the packaging and transport of dopamine, the chemical released by nerve cells to send messages to other nerve cells in the brain.

The findings were published online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

“Parkinson’s has been linked to exposure to environmental toxins, but the toxins were man-made chemicals,” Inamdar said. “In this paper, we show that biologic compounds have the potential to damage dopamine and cause Parkinson’s symptoms.”

For co-author Bennett, the research was more than academic. Bennett was working at Tulane University in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. Her flooded house became infested with molds, which she collected in samples, wearing a mask, gloves and protective gear.

“I felt horrible – headaches, dizziness, nausea,” said Bennett, now a professor of plant pathology and biology at Rutgers. “I knew something about ‘sick building syndrome’ but until then I didn’t believe in it.  I didn’t think it would be possible to breathe in enough mold spores to get sick.” That is when she formed her hypothesis that volatiles might be involved.

Inamdar, who uses fruit flies in her research, and Bennett began their study shortly after Bennett arrived at Rutgers. Bennett wanted to understand the connection between molds and symptoms like those she had experienced following Katrina. 

The scientists discovered that the volatile organic compound 1-octen-3-ol, otherwise known as mushroom alcohol, can cause movement disorders in flies, similar to those observed in the presence of pesticides, such as paraquat and rotenone. Further, they discovered that it attacked two genes that deal with dopamine, degenerating the neurons and causing the Parkinson’s-like symptoms. 

Studies indicate that Parkinson’s disease – a progressive disease of the nervous system marked by tremor, muscular rigidity and slow, imprecise movement — is increasing in rural areas, where it’s usually attributed to pesticide exposure. But rural environments also have a lot of mold and mushroom exposure.

“Our work suggests that 1-octen-3-ol might also be connected to the disease, particularly for people with a genetic susceptibility to it,” Inamdar said. “We’ve given the epidemiologists some new avenues to explore.”

(Source: news.rutgers.edu)

A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research have identified a novel therapeutic approach for the most frequent genetic cause of ALS, a disorder of the regions of the brain and spinal cord that control voluntary muscle movement, and frontotemporal degeneration, the second most frequent dementia.

Published ahead of print in last week’s online edition of the journal PNAS, the study establishes using segments of genetic material called antisense oligonucleotides – ASOs – to block the buildup and selectively degrade the toxic RNA that contributes to the most common form of ALS, without affecting the normal RNA produced from the same gene.

The new approach may also have the potential to treat frontotemporal degeneration or frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a brain disorder characterized by changes in behavior and personality, language and motor skills that also causes degeneration of regions of the brain. 

In 2011, scientists found that a specific gene known as C9orf72 is the most common genetic cause of ALS.  It is a very specific type of mutation which, instead of changing the protein, involves a large expansion, or repeated sequence of a set of nucleotides – the basic component of RNA. 

A normal C9orf72 gene contains fewer than 30 of the nucleotide repeat unit, GGGGCC.  The mutant gene may contain hundreds of repeats of this unit, which generate a repeat containing RNA that the researchers show aggregate into foci.

“Remarkably, we found two distinct sets of RNA foci, one containing RNAs transcribed in the sense direction and the other containing anti-sense RNAs,” said first author Clotilde Lagier-Tourenne, MD, PhD, UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences and Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. 

The researchers also discovered a signature of changes in expression of other genes that accompanies expression of the repeat-containing RNAs. Since they found that reducing the level of expression of the C9orf72 gene in a normal adult nervous system did not produce this signature of changes, the evidence demonstrated a toxicity of the repeat-containing RNAs that could be relieved by reducing the levels of those toxic RNAs.

“This led to our use of the ASOs to target the sense strand. We reduced the accumulation of expanded RNA foci and corrected the sense strand of the gene. Importantly, we showed that we could remove the toxic RNA without affecting the normal RNA that encodes the C9orf72 protein. This selective silencing of a toxic RNA is the holy grail of gene silencing approaches, and we showed we had accomplished it,” Lagier-Tourenne added. 

Targeting the sense strand RNAs with a specific ASO did not, however, affect the antisense strand foci nor did it correct the signature of gene expression changes. “Doing that will require separate targeting of the antisense strand – or both - and has now become a critical question,“ Lagier-Tourenne said.

“This approach is exciting as it links two neurodegenerative diseases, ALS and FTD, to the field of expansion, which has gained broadened interest from investigators,” said co-principal investigator John Ravits, MD, UC San Diego Department of Neurosciences. “At the same time, our study also demonstrates the – to now – unrecognized role of anti-sense RNA and its potential as a therapeutic target.”

(Source: health.ucsd.edu)