An ingredient found in the natural supplement green tea may help treat brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s.
According to a study published in Natural Chemical Biology, mixing EGCG, a green tea ingredient, with the chemical DAPH-12 may help destroy amyloids—proteins that can lead to brain diseases.
Some feel this study is significant as no other research has found a chemical combination to destroy amyloids. Read the rest of this entry »
A new study has found a derivative of cholesterol is necessary for brain cell formation.
Researchers at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute say tests on mice prove that the formation of dopamine-producing neurons during brain development is dependent on the activation of a specific receptor in the brain by an oxidized form of cholesterol called oxysterol.
Dopamine-producing nerve cells play an important part in many brain functions and processes, from motor skills to reward systems and dependency. They are also the type of cell that die in Parkinson’s disease. Read the rest of this entry »
Irregular arm swings while walking could be an early sign of Parkinson’s disease, according to neurologists who believe early detection may help physicians apply treatments to slow further brain cell damage until strategies to slow disease progression are available. Parkinson’s disease is an age-related disorder involving loss of certain types of brain cells and marked by impaired movement and slow speech.
“The disease is currently diagnosed by tremors at rest and stiffness in the body and limbs,” said Xuemei Huang, associate professor of neurology, Penn State Hershey College of Medicine. Read the rest of this entry »
An ingredient found in natural supplement green tea may help treat brain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s and Parkinson’s.
According to a study published in Natural Chemical Biology, when EGCG, a green tea ingredient mixed with chemical DAPH-12, it may help destroy amyloids, which are proteins that bring on the brain diseases.
Some feel this study is significant as no other research has found a chemical combination to destroy amyloids. Researchers found that while EGCG could destroy weaker amyloids on their own, it needed to be mixed with DAPH-12 to destroy the stronger proteins. Read the rest of this entry »
A team of scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) report their success in solving the molecular structure of a key portion of a cellular receptor implicated in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and other serious illnesses.
Assistant Professor Hiro Furukawa, Ph.D., and colleagues at CSHL, in cooperation with the National Synchrotron Light Source at Brookhaven National Laboratory, obtained crystal structures for one of several “subunits” of the NMDA receptor. This receptor, formally called the N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor, belongs to a family of cellular receptors that mediate excitatory nerve transmission in the brain. Excitatory signals represent the majority of nerve signals in most regions of the human brain. Read the rest of this entry »
Working with certain chemicals, which have been shown to disrupt signals in the brain, significantly increased the chances of developing the devastating neurological condition, researchers found.
Many of the pesticides studied are still used in Britain, while those which have been banned can remain in the body for decades, previous research has shown.
Although the latest findings looked at exposure to the chemicals through work, earlier studies have suggested that damage could be caused even by small amounts of exposure to the chemicals. Read the rest of this entry »
