A common epilepsy drug may reverse a condition that impairs memory in elderly patients and increases the risk of developing Alzheimers disease, suggests a study published this week in the journal NeuroImage: Clinical. The drug, atypical antiepileptic levetiracetam, reduced over-activity in the brains of patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), a condition marked by abnormal memory impairment for the patients age. According to the Alzheimers Association, 10 to 20 percent of people aged 65 and older have mild cognitive impairment, and in many cases the condition is an early marker of Alzheimers and other dementias. In addition to calming activity in the brain, the epilepsy drug helped aMCI patients perform better on memory tests, according to a news release. The study involved 84 participants with an average age of about 70. Everyone was over 55 years old. Seventeen were healthy, while 67 had symptoms of aMCI. In a double-blind, randomized trial, researchers administered different doses of the drug and a placebo, and observed brain changes using MRIs during memory tasks. Even low doses of the drug improved memory performance and reduced hyperactivity in the brain, researchers said. What we want to discover now is whether treatment over a longer … Continue reading →

Alzheimers disease begins with mild memory impairment. There are currently no effective treatments for the neurodegenerative disease, which causes severe dementia. But researchers at Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. state of Maryland are hopeful that a generic drug now used to treat seizures can improve memory in the early stages of Alzheimer's, even reversing the condition. Levetiracetam, which goes by the brand name Keppra, is part of the drug arsenal used to treat epilepsy. The anti-seizure medicine seems to quiet the part of the brain called the hippocampus, that is over-activated in those with Alzheimers. The hippocampus is involved in memory. Arnold Bakker, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins, says a recent study has helped doscover the drugs newfound benefits. And what the medication does is it normalizes this increased activation, this dysfunctional activation," he said. "And when you do that, it turns out that you improve their memory function. People who take the medication, [their] memory improved compared to when they are not on the medication. The study, which Bakker conducted with colleagues, involved 84 participants, 17 of whom were normal, healthy older adults. The others had symptoms of pre-dementia. The average age of the subjects was … Continue reading →

SALT LAKE CITY, March 12, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine and genetics professionals from around the world will be on hand to present bicycles to 19 local Salt Lake City-area children from the Shriners Hospitals for Children in Salt Lake City and Wasatch Adaptive Sports of Snowbird, Utah as part of the ACMG's 2015 Annual Clinical Genetics Meeting and Conference in the Salt Palace Convention Center, Exhibit Hall ABC, Friday, March 27 at 10:30 a.m. The annual ACMG Foundation Day of Caring is sponsored by the ACMG Foundation for Genetic and Genomic Medicine, a prominent non-profit genetics foundation based in Bethesda, Maryland. "It's supporters like the ACMG Foundation that help set Shriners Hospitals for Children apart, and for that we're truly grateful," said Dawn Wright, Public Relations Manager at Shriners Hospitals for Children, Salt Lake City said. "We go to great lengths to enrich our patients' lives beyond their medical care and equipment and encourage them to live life without limits." "We would like to thank the ACMG Foundation and their supporters for providing bikes and helmets to children with special needs in our community. We strongly believe in the promotion of independence and … Continue reading →

Case Western Reserve scientists have discovered that speed matters when it comes to how messenger RNA (mRNA) deciphers critical information within the genetic code -- the complex chain of instructions critical to sustaining life. The investigators' findings, which appear in the March 12 journal Cell, give scientists critical new information in determining how best to engage cells to treat illness -- and, ultimately, keep them from emerging in the first place. "Our discovery is that the genetic code is more complex than we knew," said senior researcher Jeff Coller, PhD, associate professor, Division of General Medical Sciences, and associate director, The Center for RNA Molecular Biology, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "With this information, researchers can manipulate the genetic code to achieve more predictable outcomes in an exquisite fashion." The genetic code is a system of instructions embedded within DNA. The code tells a cell how to generate proteins that control cellular functions. mRNA transmits the instructions from DNA to ribosomes. Ribosomes translate the information contained within the mRNA and produce the instructed protein. The genetic code comprises 61 words, called "codons," and a single codon, a sequence of three nucleotides, instructs the ribosome how to build proteins. … Continue reading →

IMAGE:Breastfeeding Medicine, the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, is an authoritative, peer-reviewed, multidisciplinary journal published 10 times per year in print and online. The Journal publishes original... view more Credit: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers New Rochelle, NY, March 12, 2015-- After giving birth, a woman's estrogen levels drop to lower than usual levels, and while they return to the normal range relatively quickly among women who are not breastfeeding, this hypoestrogenic state may continue in lactating women and cause menopause-like symptoms. The results of a new study comparing vaginal dryness, hot flashes, and mood changes in women who are or are not breastfeeding 3 and 6 weeks after giving birth are reported in Breastfeeding Medicine, the official journal of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the Breastfeeding Medicine website until April 12, 2015. The article "Application of the Estrogen Threshold Hypothesis to the Physiologic Hypoestrogenemia of Lactation" provides evidence of the impact of breastfeeding on symptoms related to low estrogen levels during the postpartum period. Whereas lactating women showed no differences in the prevalence of hot flashes than non-breastfeeding women, they were significantly more … Continue reading →