Silencing growth inhibitors could help recovery from brain injury...

Silencing natural growth inhibitors may make it possible to regenerate nerves damaged by brain or spinal cord injury, finds a study from Children's Hospital Boston. In a mouse study published in the November 7 issue of Science, researchers temporarily silenced genes that prevent mature neurons from regenerating, and caused them to recover and re-grow vigorously after damage.

Because injured neurons cannot regenerate, there is currently no treatment for spinal cord or brain injury, says Zhigang He, PhD, Associate Professor of Neurology at Children's and senior author on the paper. Previous studies that looked at removing inhibitory molecules from the neurons' environment, including some from He's own lab, have found only modest effects on nerve recovery. But now He's team, in collaboration with Mustafa Sahin, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Neurology at Children's, demonstrates that re-growth is primarily regulated from within the cells themselves.

"We knew that on completion of development, cells stop growing due to genetic mechanisms that prevent overgrowth," explains He. "We thought that this kind of mechanism might also prevent regeneration after injury."

The key pathway for controlling cell growth in neurons, known as the mTOR pathway, is active in cells during development, but is substantially down-regulated once neurons have matured. Moreover, upon injury, this pathway is almost completely silenced, presumably for the cell to conserve energy to survive. He and colleagues reasoned that preventing this down-regulation might allow regeneration to occur.

He and his team used genetic techniques to delete two key inhibitory regulators of the mTOR pathway, known as PTEN and TSC1, in the brain cells of mice. After two weeks, the mice were subjected to mechanical damage of the optic nerve. Two weeks post-injury, up to 50 percent of injured neurons in the mice with gene deletions of PTEN or TSC1 survived, compared to about 20 percent of those without the deletions. And of the surviving mutant mice, up to 10 percent showed significant re-growth of axons, the fiber-like projections of neurons that transmit signals, over long distances. This re-growth increased over time.

Although this study used genetic techniques, He notes that it may be possible to accomplish the same re-growth through pharmacologic means. "This is the first time it has been possible to see such significant regeneration by manipulating single molecules," says He. "We believe that these findings have opened up the possibility for making small-molecule drugs or developing other approaches to promote axon regeneration."

While such long-distance regeneration of axons has not been seen before using other techniques, it is still unknown whether these regenerating axons can restore function, He adds.  The research group is now looking at axon regeneration after spinal cord injury and given the current availability of specific PTEN inhibitors, the researchers hope that these and similar small-molecule inhibitors of the mTOR pathway will lead to future neural regeneration therapies.

Source: Children's Hospital Boston

Pruritus is an itch or a sensation that makes a person want to scratch.

Pruritus can cause discomfort and be frustrating. If it is severe, it can lead to sleeplessness, anxiety, and depression. The exact cause of an itch is unknown. It is a complex process involving nerves that respond to certain chemicals like histamine that are released in the skin, and the processing of nerve signals in the brain. Pruritus can be a part of skin diseases, internal disorders, or due to faulty processing of the itch sensation within the nervous system.

Who gets pruritus?

There are many skin diseases like urticaria (hives), varicella (chicken pox), and eczema which may have itching associated with a rash. Some skin conditions only have symptoms of pruritus without having an obvious rash. Dry skin can itch, especially in the winter, with no visual signs of a rash.  Some parasitic infestations such as scabies and lice may be very itchy. Itchy, pigmented moles may be a sign of a malignant change.  Pruritus may be a manifestation of an internal condition. The most common example is kidney failure. Some types of liver disease like hepatitis, thyroid disease including both hyper (too much) and hypo (too little) thyroid hormone levels, some blood disorders such as lymphomas, iron deficiency anemia, polycythemia vera, multiple myeloma, and neurologic conditions such as pinched nerves and post herpetic neuralgia can cause itch. Infectious diseases like HIV can cause severe itching.

How is pruritus diagnosed and treated?

Often the dermatologist will be able to diagnose these conditions with an examination; however, to determine a specific cause of the itch, a blood test, skin scraping, or biopsy may be needed to help make the diagnosis. If the itch is due to a skin disease such as hives or eczema, treatment of the skin disease, itself, with prescription topical medications and/or oral antihistamines generally relieves the itch. If the itch is secondary to an internal disease, patients may require treatment of the disease, oral medication, or occasionally ultraviolet light therapy to relieve the itch.

Sometimes, the dermatologist will prescribe a cooling topical lotion or cream and/or an oral medication to relieve the itch.Pruritus is often disrupting and difficult to control but usually responds well to treatment. While a specific identifying cause for the itch may not be found, an appropriate work-up to exclude internal disease should be completed.

Although there are many causes for pruritus, some basics apply to most treatments:

When bathing or showering, use tepid or lukewarm water.
Use mild cleansers with low pH.
Rinse soap film off completely, pat the skin lightly, and immediately apply a moisturizing lotion or cream after bathing.
Wear light, loose clothing.
A cool work or domestic environment can help reduce the severity of itching.
For itchy conditions where blistering or weeping of the skin is present, such as chicken pox or poison ivy, a cool oatmeal bath or topical drying agents such as calamine lotion can be helpful.

To learn more about pruritus, call toll free (888) 462-DERM (3376) to find a dermatologist in your area.

Here is something to be very excited about—

doctors have come up with a possible cure for type 1 diabetes...  it is a combination of two cancer drugs— "The drugs - imatinib (marketed as Gleevec) and sunitinib (marketed as Sutent) - were found to put type 1 diabetes into remission in 80 percent of the test mice and work permanently in 80 percent of those that go into remission."

They show that remission to be permanent, which basically means it is a cure...  this treatment could be available to humans as soon as a year from now...  if you know any people with type 1 diabetes, pass on this data to them so they can research it...

 

NYT Editorial

Who Should Take a Statin?
Published: November 17, 2008

A large new study seems to suggest that millions of people with low cholesterol could benefit from taking the cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins. That would be a boon for some drug companies, but whether it would be good for all patients remains an open question.  The study, led by researchers at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, involved some 17,800 patients with normal or low levels of the bad form of cholesterol but high levels of C-reactive protein, or CRP, which is often a measure of inflammation in artery walls. Half were given the statin Crestor, made by AstraZeneca; the other half received a placebo.

The benefits of the statin were so striking that a monitoring board stopped the trial in midcourse so that the placebo group could get the medicine, too. Those who got the statin had 54 percent fewer heart attacks, 48 percent fewer strokes and 20 percent fewer deaths from all causes. The participants included men 50 and older and women 60 and older with no history of heart disease or high cholesterol. But they all had high levels of CRP, and many had such other risk factors as high blood pressure, obesity and smoking. Whether the statin helped because it reduced normal cholesterol to even lower levels or because it reduced CRP levels is not clear.

Some 16 million to 20 million Americans take statins to reduce bad cholesterol, but some experts believe the new study suggests several million more should probably take statins as well.  Before rushing ahead it will be crucial to establish who might really benefit. An editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine, where the study was published, stresses the importance of establishing the long-term safety of drastically lowering cholesterol levels before committing patients who have no clinical signs of disease to decades of drug treatment. Participants who took Crestor also had a worrisome increase in diabetes.

The results must also be evaluated in the light of two potential conflicts of interest. The lead investigator stands to benefit from a patent involving the use of CRP to evaluate the risk of cardiovascular disease, and AstraZeneca financed the study whose results it is now trumpeting as "dramatic."  Given that half of all heart attacks and strokes occur in people whose cholesterol is not considered high, it seems likely that there is a group of people with normal cholesterol who could benefit by taking statins. The task ahead for the writers of medical guidelines is to define just who those people might be.

NoEnzLefttoSplit wrote:
heh...

 triskele wrote: 
Slabby, log on under your own name goddam

Coaxial wrote:
hmmm... that sounds EXACTLY like ME during p.m.s.  Especially #4 and #7.

Specifically, the dissocial personality disorder is described by the World Health Organization by the following criteria:

1. Callous unconcern for the feelings of others and lack of the capacity for empathy.
2. Gross and persistent attitude of irresponsibility and disregard for social norms, rules, and obligations.
3. Incapacity to maintain enduring relationships.
4. Very low tolerance to frustration and a low threshold for discharge of aggression, including violence.
5. Incapacity to experience guilt and to profit from experience, particularly punishment.
6. Marked proneness to blame others or to offer plausible rationalizations for the behavior bringing the subject into conflict.
7. Persistent irritability.

 JrzyTmata wrote: 
The previous post made it totally crazy with laughter.

 Servo wrote: 
actually we're pretty worried about you Servo.

Coaxial wrote:
that smiley looks crazy. or something.

 meower wrote: 
Is that "crazy pill" an antagonist or a protagonist?

From what I've seen of the population here, I suspect that there's a lot of "crazy pill" popping, loco weed smoking, excessive liquor drinking etc. etc.  That would explain a lot.

 hippiechick wrote: 
The collusion is one thing.  That has been going on for decades.  But the Reagan-era deregulation that allowed drug companied to direct market their prescription drugs to the general public is just plain criminal.  One might think from the sheer volume of TV ads that most Americans are afflicted with restless leg syndrome, bladder problems and other things that are ironically considered to be too grotesque to put into actual TV programming.  When I was shown the numbers of real RLS patients, literally one in a million, that laid bare the scope of the fraud that the drug industry is perpetrating on the American people.


To be fair, no pharmaceutical medicine is completely free of side-effects.  Drug therapy is a trade-off — one necessary evil over an unnecessary evil.  Except when that "necessary evil" cure becomes worse than the disease, that is.

Returning prescription drugs was never permitted (at least not in my lifetime).  Before the Tylenol Murders, it was primarily about infection control (you wouldn't want to get a bottle of pills that some ill person coughed all over, would you?).  But now it's all about liability.

The real bugger is that A.) the price of the Lipitor would be much less if Pfizer hadn't been permitted to spend massive amounts of money on TV advertising, and then pass those costs along to the patients; B.) if Pfizer hadn't waged their extensive ad campaign, you might have gotten the better drug on the first try.


  Caveat emptor.

The thing is that there's no need to have to be so vigilant when it comes to prescriptions.  We know this because before the 1980s it wasn't this way.  There were laws to protect us!  The laws that forbade the direct marketing of prescription drugs directly to the patients were there for a very good reason.  That reason for those laws has remained completely valid throughout.

It's the crooked politicians who caused the Great Deregulation who are squarely to blame.  They should be held accountable, criminally if applicable.  At the very least they should be disgraced and their misdeeds should be recorded into history in bold type.  Ronald Reagan's name should be removed from the monuments that were built for him, and every other place, to remind us of the massive damage and suffering that Reaganomics has caused.

After a tough 22-month election "year", it's hard to think about getting motivated for more political battles.  But people like you and I are the ones who have the power to bring about badly-needed change.  It is our right to petition our representatives (both House and Senatorial) in government to bring about that change that will protect us from predators once again.  But if we remain silent, then only Big Business will be heard.  It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.  Please, light that candle, for your own sake, and for everyone!

 Xeric wrote: 
Dude! I didn't even know I had started this thread! Fixed now!

Crazy Girl...that's me

 meower wrote: 

A CRAZY GIRL IS HARD TO FIND

I'm sorry you're so crazy
I'm sorry you're so blue
I'm sorry that this sad old song's for you

Just when we had a good thing going
You had to go and lose your mind
Sane girls are so easy

But a crazy girl's hard to find

You see rabbits in the mirror
And you cry at puppet shows
You laugh at me when I take off my clothes

But underneath the dusty covers
Your madness almost shines
Well those sane girls, they come so easy

But a crazy girl's hard to find

Just when I think I got ya figured
You leave me way behind
Just when I think I see your shadow
I see it's only mine

So you can see why I get nervous
When you say you're gonna go
'Cause you could leave forever and never know
So stay here in this mad house
We'll lose it together this time
Well those sane girls, they're so easy

But a crazy girl's hard to find
Yeah, those sane girls, they come so easy

But a crazy girl's hard to find.

  ~ John Hiatt ~

 

 meower wrote: 
Crazy girls are hard to find...

 Xeric wrote: 
or lack of, she said she wasnt taking her "crazy pill" (you oughta see me without MY crazy pill.

 meower wrote: 
And HC apparently not only typed "Ohter" but likes it that way!

Maybe it's another med side effect. . . .

 Xeric wrote: 
It's the fish... the fish makes them high...