Researchers have discovered an important similarity in the causes of cell degeneration and death in diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, type II diabetes and CJD, suggesting that a single therapy could combat these different ailments.
Medical advice rarely supports a high-fat diet, but a team of UC Irvine researchers has found that such a diet protects newborn brain cells from damage caused by prolonged seizures. New findings from a study on infant rats suggest that the high-fat diet of newborns, and the related increased production of a specific protein, protects their brain cells from damage that otherwise may accompany prolonged seizures. The finding may lead to new strategies to prevent brain injury in adults.
A unique telescope buried in Antarctic ice promises unparalleled insight into such extraordinary phenomena as colliding black holes, gamma-ray bursts, the violent cores of distant galaxies and the wreckage of exploded stars. An international team of physicists and astronomers report that the AMANDA telescope is capable of tracking high-energy neutrinos ? elusive subatomic particles ? to their sources, which are emitted by these signature events. Their findings will be published in the Feb. 1. 2003, issue of the Astrophysical Journal.