Latest Neuropeptides Stories

A neuropeptide called Substance P is the cause of seizures in patients with brains infected by the pork tapeworm (Taenia solium), said Baylor College of Medicine researchers in a report that appears online in the open access journal PLoS Pathogens. "Neurocysticercosis or the tapeworm parasitic infection in the brain, is the major cause of acquired seizures," said Dr. Prema Robinson, assistant professor of medicine – infectious diseases, and corresponding author of the report. "It is...

External stimuli control the hormonal regulation of our eating behavior Max Planck researchers have proven something scientifically for the first time that laypeople have always known: the mere sight of delicious food stimulates the appetite. A study on healthy young men has documented that the amount of the neurosecretory protein hormone ghrelin in the blood increases as a result of visual stimulation through images of food. As a main regulator, ghrelin controls both eating behavior and...

Oxytocin, the "love hormone" that builds mother-baby bonds and may help us feel more connected toward one another, can also make surly monkeys treat each other a little more kindly. Administering the hormone nasally through a kid-sized nebulizer, like a gas mask, a Duke University research team has shown that it can make rhesus macaques pay more attention to each other and make choices that give another monkey a squirt of fruit juice, even when they don't get one themselves. Two...

(Ivanhoe Newswire) – Postpartum depression affects children’s social and emotional development. According to this study, Oxytocin, a hormone associated with love and produced naturally in the body, can help protect children from the negative effects of maternal depression. Led by Ruth Feldman, PhD, Professor at the Department of Psychology and the Gonda Brain Sciences Center, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, researchers found children exposed to maternal depression throughout the first...

New research hopes to explain premature births and failed inductions of labor. The study by academics at the University of Bristol suggests a new mechanism by which the level of myosin phosphorylation is regulated in the pregnant uterus. The researchers, Dr Claire Hudson and Professor Andrés López Bernal in the School of Clinical Sciences and Dr Kate Heesom in the University Proteomics Facility and the School of Biochemistry, have discovered that phosphorylation of uterus proteins at...

Concordia study finds hormone makes people more sociable First dates, job interviews or Christmas cocktail parties can be stressors for some people. Such social rites of passage have no doubt made shy or introverted individuals wish for a magic potion that could make them feel like socialites, yet the answer might actually come from a nasal spray. New research from Concordia University, published in the journal Psychopharmacology, has found that an intranasal form of oxytocin can...

WAIKOLOA, Hawaii, Dec 8, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Research studying the impact of postpartum depression on children's social and emotional development found that Oxytocin, a hormone associated with love and produced naturally, can help protect children from the negative effects of maternal depression. The study, presented at the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology annual meeting, shows children born to depressed mothers are at greater risk of mental disorders, but this...

The effect of the messenger substance neuropeptide Y depends on the behavior of the mother during infancy Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is the most abundant peptide hormone of the central nervous system. It is involved in various processes including stress management, the development of anxiety behavior and body weight regulation. A collaborative research group including scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research in Heidelberg has demonstrated using mice that intensive maternal...

BOSTON, Nov. 30, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Rhythm announced today that Lex Van der Ploeg, PhD, has joined the company as Chief Scientific Officer. Dr. Van der Ploeg brings to Rhythm more than 25 years of drug development expertise in obesity, metabolic diseases, and other therapeutic areas. "Lex has considerable experience with the biology and genetics of the metabolic pathways we are targeting with our ghrelin and melanocortin 4 receptor clinical programs," said Keith Gottesdiener, MD,...

QUÉBEC CITY, Nov. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ - Aeterna Zentaris Inc. (NASDAQ: AEZS) (TSX: AEZ) (the "Company") today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Jose M. Garcia, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Division of Diabetes Endocrinology and Metabolism, Departments of Medicine and Molecular and Cell Biology, Baylor College of Medicine and Michael I. DeBakey Veterans Administration Medical Center, in Houston Texas, an Investigational New Drug (IND)...