On the website of the University of California there is a description of a rare disease with a non-specific clinical course. A 51-year-old lawyer, previously healthy, starts to spend the financial resources of his company to pornographic material. It turns out that he does it in order to hide his sexual activity from his wife. In these circumstances it is not difficult to accuse the man of unethical behavior. But this case refers to the example of a rare nervous system disorder manifestation.

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Polish scientists from Medical Genetics Institute of Warsaw Medical University discovered that tendencies to certain reactions to alcohol are genetically conditioned and may lead to an increase in probability of suicidal attempts. Read full text »

Polish scientists from the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology of the Polish Academy of Science and The International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology (IIMCB) in Warsaw under the guidance of dr. Ewelina Knapska, Ph.D. Jacek Jaworski and professor Leszek Kaczmarek confirmed common speculations that two independent of each other neuronal pathways are responsible for triggering and inhibiting phobias. It is manifested in difficulties of phobias treatment because creating competing engrams is responsible for quenching fear. Read full text »

Scientists from a team of professor Małgorzata Kossut from Experimental Biology Institute of M. Nencki in Warsaw announced that using popular anti-inflammatory drugs may facilitate brain tissue regeneration after cerebral crisis in rats. Read full text »

Canadian researchers have discovered that the neglected diabetes drug – AC253 has a potential to restore the memory in brain cells affected by Alzheimer’s. The study on laboratory rodents published this year in the Journal of Neuroscience shines a spark of hope upon those who fight against the disease. Perhaps the new treatment will not only be able to stop the progress but also to reverse the damage caused by it. Read full text »

Radiosurgical Gamma Knife is a device used to treat benign and malignant brain tumors as well as some of the other diseases of the nervous system. Gamma Knife (also known as the Leksell Gamma Knife-from the name of one of the originators) was invented in Sweden in the 60s. The principle of the intervention is to deliver a high dose of cobalt radiation concentrated in a small area. Read full text »

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease that involves a destruction of central nervous system’s axons. The destructive process affects neurons, oligodendrocytes and microglia. The disease leads to a progressive disability. Researchers at Northwestern University in the U.S. have created biodegradable nanoparicles that may provide a mean of transport for antigens. The antigens proved to have an ability to halt the immune system from destroying myelin sheaths of the neurons. Studies performed on laboratory rodents have shown the effectiveness of the method in the fight against remitting-relapsing multiple sclerosis. Read full text »

Surely everyone of us could think of at least one film or book story involving characters whose mind is taken over by a foreign creature, usually of an extraterrestrial origin. It turns out that fiction might not be that far from truth. Thanks to the article (1) published online in the open-access journal PlosOne, we learn that female brains harbor male DNA and probably male cells. The source and consequences of this fact have already been studied but so far no definite conclusion was reached. Read full text »

Overweight and obesity have become a very big problem over the last two decades. This problem is so significant that the experts of the World Health Organization (WHO) have qualified the obesity as the civilisation disease of the 21st century [1].

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All the students beware! Nibbling sweets and drinking soda during cramming might actually threaten your exams. UCLA scientists found that unhealthy diet hampers the brain functions such as learning and memory. According to their findings, presented in the May edition of Journal of Physiology (1), rats watered with fructose solution were slow in finding the way out of a maze, which they had learnt before the introduction of diet. A mechanism responsible for this relation is connected with insulin receptor signalling and synaptic plasticity in the central nervous system. Fortunately, the researchers found the antidote – omega -3 fatty acids (n-3) minimize the harmful effects of high-sugar diet. Read full text »