New research shows cerebral microbleeds, which are lesions in the brain, are more common in people over 60 than previously thought. The study is published in the April 1, 2008, issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

“We found a three-to-four-fold higher overall prevalence of cerebral microbleeds compared to other studies,” according to study author Monique M.B. Breteler, MD, PhD, with the Erasmus MC University Medical Center in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. “These findings are of major importance since cerebral microbleeds likely reflect cerebrovascular pathology and may be associated with an increased risk of cerebrovascular problems.”

Cerebral microbleeds are lesions that can be seen on brain scans, such as an MRI brain scan. The lesions are deposits of iron from red blood cells that have presumably leaked out of small brain vessels. … Continue Reading »

It’s well known that the left and right sides of the brain differ in many animal species and this is thought to influence cognitive performance and social behaviour. For instance, in humans, the left half of the brain is concerned with language processing whereas the right side is better at comprehending musical melody.

Now researchers from UCL publishing their work in the open access journal Neural Development have pinpointed for the first time the left/right differences in how brains are wired at the level of individual cells. To do this, a research team led by Stephen Wilson looked at left and right-sided neurons (nerve cells) in a part of the brain called the habenula.

By causing habenular neurons to produce a bright green fluorescent protein they saw that they form remarkable “spiral-shaped” axons, the long nerve fibres that act as the nervous system’s transmission lines. … Continue Reading »

Beta-blockers heal the heart via the brain when administered during heart failure, according to a new study by UCL (University College London). Up to now, it was thought that beta-blockers work directly on the heart, but the new study shows that the drugs may also act via the brain, suggesting that future therapies to treat cardiovascular disease could be targeting the central nervous system.

Heart failure patients are routinely given beta-blockers, although doctors do not know exactly how these drugs boost cardiac performance and reduce the risk of death. The UCL study, based on the rat model of postmyocardial infarction-induced heart failure and published in the journal Circulation Research, has discovered that the beta-adrenoceptor blocker metoprolol acts directly in the brain to slow the progression of heart failure. The action seems to be localised to a group of brain cells that UCL researchers have identified previously as being crucial in the control of blood pressure and heart rate. … Continue Reading »

Researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have successfully tested a virus which targets only brain cancer cells in mice. The researchers implanted cancer cells into mice brains and then injected the mice with the virus. While the virus’s progress in the mice was tracked in real-time using florescent “markers,” the virus attacked and destroyed the brain tumors without affecting non-tumorous tissue. The original paper can be found in The Journal of Neuroscience.

I’ve read several papers recently where a virus has been used to selectively target and destroy tumor cells. I don’t know of a general surface protein or receptor that is common to all tumors; if there indeed isn’t one, then these viruses will have to be engineered to be specific for a particular type of cancer rather than having just one virus that would eradicate all cancer. It’s going to be an exciting next couple years in cancer research and treatment.