Psychologist on trial for criminal association, fraud (ANSA) - Turin, January 23 - A psychologist who developed the now-banned Stamina stem-cell treatment for terminal nerve disease patients has tried to plea bargain his way out of trial, sources said Friday. Davide Vannoni and 13 co-defendants are on trial on charges including aggravated criminal association with intent to commit fraud in connection with the therapy, which he used on terminally ill degenerative nerve disease patients. Vannoni offered to withdraw his suit against the health ministry and to shut down his Stamina Foundation in Italy in exchange for a prison sentence of one year and ten months. In Italy, custodial sentences of under three years are usually suspended. The health ministry last November decreed the end of experimentation with the controversial Stamina treatment, which supporters say could help cure degenerative nerve diseases but which experts say lacks a scientific basis. The credibility of the Stamina treatment, which involves extracting bone-marrow stem cells from a patient, supposedly turning them into neurons by exposing them to retinoic acid for two hours, and injecting them back into the patient, has long been suspect. The health ministry in late 2013 ruled that the Stamina Foundation would … Continue reading →

Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION By: Mary Agnes Welch Posted: 01/23/2015 10:43 AM | Comments: | Last Modified: 01/23/2015 12:19 PM | Updates After days of silence, the Winnipeg medical researcher who charged MS patients thousands for overseas stem cell treatment says hes been "unfairly accused and victimized by inaccurate media reporting" and looks forward to clearing his name. In a statement sent to local media Friday morning, Doug Broeska, owner of Regenetek Research says media reports that he falsified his credentials, overstated the effects of the stem cell clinical trial, failed to follow up with patients and was recently asked to step down as the studys researcher are false. He said he stands by his role in the "case-based study" where his job was to track patients for follow-up. He said he has not breached ethical standards and did not give medical advice to patients. He also enclosed a notarized copy of his PhD certificate from Brightland University, which is not accredited in Canada, the United States or the United Kingdom. Brightlands website includes no contact or location information, spells Brightland incorrectly and is linked to a well-known degree mill operator He also enclosed a notarized copy of … Continue reading →

A single gene that coordinates a network of about 400 genes involved in epilepsy could be a target for new treatments, according to research. Epilepsy is a common and serious disease that affects around 50 million people worldwide. The mortality rate among people with epilepsy is two to three times higher than the general population. It is known that epilepsy has a strong genetic component, but the risk is related to multiple factors that are 'spread' over hundreds of genes. Identifying how these genes are co-ordinated in the brain is important in the search for new anti-epilepsy medications. This requires approaches that can analyse how multiple genes work in concert to cause disease. Instead of studying individual genes, which has been the usual approach in epilepsy to date, researchers from Imperial College London developed novel computational and genetics techniques to systematically analyse the activity of genes in epilepsy. Published in Nature Communications, the study is the first to apply this 'systems genetics' approach to epilepsy. The researchers studied samples of brain tissue removed from patients during neurosurgery for their epilepsy. Starting from these samples, they identified a gene network that was highly active in the brain of these patients, and … Continue reading →

AUSTIN, TX (KLTV) - From the office of Senator Kevin Eltife Senator Kevin Eltife, R-Tyler, and Representative Stephanie Klick, R-Fort Worth, filed a bill Friday to legalize the use of medical marijuana to treat epilepsy. Dubbed the Texas Compassionate Use Act, the measure would expand treatment options for people with intractable epilepsy. Intractable epilepsy afflicts an estimated 149,000 people in Texas. Patients with intractable epilepsy can suffer hundreds of severe seizures each week. These individuals are at a higher risk for a shortened life span, excessive bodily injury, neurophyscological and mental health impairment, and social disability. Senate Bill 339 and House Bill 892 will regulate the growth and dispensation of cannabidiol (CBD) oil, an oil extracted from the cannabis plant. Patients with intractable epilepsy have seen dramatic reductions in seizures through the use of CBD oil without exhibiting adverse reactions. As filed, these bills require this oil to not contain more than 0.5 percent tetrahydrocannabinols (THC) and not less than 10 percent CBD by weight. This level of THC, the psychoactive component of the cannabis plant, is not sufficient to get the consumer 'high,' even in large doses. Leading epileptologists and neurologists from across Texas support these bills. "Our legislation … Continue reading →

An international team of researchers with the involvement of the University of Bonn Hospital discovers a central switch IMAGE:This is a surgical specimen of an antiepileptic-resistant patient with temporal lobe epilepsy, which represents a unique access to the human brain tissue (upper left). Nerve cells, visible as blue... view more An international team of scientists together with the University of Bonn Hospital have taken a new path in the research into causes of epilepsy: The researchers determined the networks of the active genes and, like a dragnet, looked for the "main perpetrators" using a computer model. In doing so, they discovered the molecule sestrin-3 as a central switch. In animal models, the scientists were able to demonstrate that inhibition of sestrin-3 leads to a reduction in seizures. The results are now being presented in the renowned journal Nature Communications. During an epileptic seizure, many nerve cells lose their regular rhythm and switch into a rapid rhythm. This results in seizures to the point of a loss of consciousness. The temporal lobes in the brain are most frequently the region in which such synchronous discharges occur. "Drugs have the desired effect in only about two-thirds of patients with temporal lobe epilepsy," … Continue reading →