Latest Neuroprotection Stories

Parkinson's disease is caused by the degeneration of neurons in the midbrain. The mechanisms leading to the loss of these neurons, however, are largely unknown. Recent research revealed that about ten per cent of cases are caused by defects in so-called Parkinson-associated genes. Furthermore, mitochondria, the cellular powerhouses, seem to play a major role. New results from researchers at the LMU Munich under the lead of associate professor Dr. Konstanze Winklhofer and Professor Christian...

Parkinson's disease is caused by the degeneration of neurons in the midbrain. The mechanisms leading to the loss of these neurons, however, are largely unknown. Recent research revealed that about ten per cent of cases are caused by defects in so-called Parkinson-associated genes. Furthermore, mitochondria, the cellular powerhouses, seem to play a major role. New results from researchers at the LMU Munich under the lead of associate professor Dr. Konstanze Winklhofer and Professor Christian...

FREMONT, Calif., July 27 /PRNewswire/ -- Quark Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a development-stage pharmaceutical company discovering and developing novel RNA interference (RNAi)-based therapeutics, today announced data suggesting that QPI-1007 prevents progressive retinal ganglion cell (RGC) loss in an increased ocular pressure (IOP) rat model of glaucoma. The experiments performed by Prof. Adriana Di Polo of the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Universite de Montreal, indicate that...

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most prevalent chronic childhood motor disability with an estimated lifetime cost of nearly $1 million per individual. There is evidence that magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) can reduce the incidence of CP for very early preterm infants. Many thousands of pregnant women and their fetuses are exposed to MgSO4 every year in the United States for a variety of indications, and most obstetricians are comfortable with its use. Yet, there is still some controversy over whether...

GAI-122, an investigational injectable nano-emulsion formulated with AlphaRx's proprietary drug delivery technology, provides significant neuroprotection in animal behavioral models. Gaia BioPharma plans to initiate a clinical development program to further study GAI-122 for an acute and as yet, unmet neurological indication. MARKHAM, ON, June 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - AlphaRx Inc. (OTCBB: ALRX) and Gaia BioPharma Limited, a privately held, early stage...

--Orally Active Enhancer of Human Nerve Growth Factor Has Demonstrated Promising Activity Preclinically-- --Broad Potential Applications Include Neuropathies, Alzheimer's and Huntington's Disease and Others-- RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., June 16 /PRNewswire/ -- CeNeRx BioPharma, Inc., a clinical stage company developing and commercializing innovative treatments for diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), today announced that it has obtained the rights to develop and market a novel...

Make Synaptic Contact with Host Motor Neurons ROCKVILLE, Md., March 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Transplanted human neural stem cells (hNSCs) developed by Neuralstem, Inc. (NYSE Alternext US: CUR) made synaptic contacts with the motor neurons of rats with ALS-like symptoms, a paper published in the current online edition of the Journal of Comparative Neurology reported. This constitutes evidence that the transplanted cells integrated into the nervous system of the host. The rats had a...

Report from the 4th ARVO/Pfizer Ophthalmics Research Institute ConferenceAlthough scientists know progressive degeneration of retinal ganglion cells and their axons is the primary cause of glaucoma, researchers have yet to identify a way to stop or prevent the degeneration.The challenge to find a solution brought together a panel of 39 scientists to discuss the factors that may contribute to the disease. The report from the Fourth Annual ARVO/Pfizer Ophthalmics Research Institute Conference...

Women with a longer fertile lifespan -- first menstruation to menopause -- have a lower risk of developing Parkinson's disease, U.S. researchers said The study found women with a fertile lifespan of more than 39 years had about a 25 percent lower risk of developing Parkinson's than women with fertile lifespans of less than 33 years. However, lead author Dr. Rachel Saunders-Pullman of Yeshiva University's Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York said the researchers stress only...

Scientists from the Gladstone Institute of Neurological Disease (GIND), UCSF, and Stanford have discovered that a certain type of collagen, collagen VI, protects brain cells against amyloid-beta (Aβ) proteins, which are widely thought to cause Alzheimer's disease (AD). While the functions of collagens in cartilage and muscle are well established, before this study it was unknown that collagen VI is made by neurons in the brain and that it can fulfill important neuroprotective functions.The...