Cognitive Labs

A single-celled protista may revolutionize our understanding of how complex life evolved on Earth, illuminating the transition from algae, for example, to fish. With a width of up to 30 mm, or 1.2 inches, the grohia sphaerica even leaves a trail in the mud at the bottom of the sea floor.

Labels: cambrian, grohia, matz, texas

We'll shortly break this barrier.

Other things related to 10 million...



Fungus-farming leaf-cutter ants originated about 10 million years ago.

iPhone: 10 million aps downloaded in one phar-out weekend.

Cleopatra spent 10 million sesterces on a banquet for Mark Antony.

Omega Centauri has 10 million stars.


Omega Centauri, largest globular cluster in the Milky Way galaxy.

10 million: the estimated number of animal species on earth.

XBox: 10 million consoles sold in U.S. as of mid-2008.

WOW. World of Warcraft: 10 million subscribers reached in 2008.

Dr. Mercola: 10 Million baby boomers face alzheimers epidemic



Ten million rivets were used to build the Queen Mary in the 1930's.


The Santa Fe grain elevator at Kansas City once held 10 million bushels.


U.K. teacher Michael LeCount, 40, has 10 million lego bricks in his collection.

Labels: 10, ants, biomes, centauri, cutter, fungus, iphone, leaf, lego, mary, million, omega, queen, sesterces

Dr. Ashford and the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America have passed on this statement by U.S. Senator Herb Kohl (D-WI), Chairman of the Senate's Special Committee on Aging, on Alzheimer’s awareness month. Our participation in 2005 contributed formatively to the direction of this website....

KOHL STATEMENT ON NATIONAL ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE AWARENESS MONTH


Aging Committee Chair Encourages Participation in National Memory Screening Day

WASHINGTON – Today U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Chairman Herb Kohl (D-WI) released the following statement in support of National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month.

"Studies show that without a cure, or at least some treatment to delay the progression of Alzheimer’s, there will be almost a half million new cases of the disease each year by 2010. This disease is a growing national crisis and we must commit to addressing it in the most comprehensive way possible by increasing support for research, raising Alzheimer's awareness, and helping families living with the disease. Tackling Alzheimer's will require a serious investment in the search for new treatments, and I have been joined by many of my Senate colleagues in the fight for increased research funding in order to slow the onset of the disease and eventually find a cure."



Chairman Kohl plans to introduce a bill early in the 111th Congress that would provide training and support to family caregivers who care for loved ones, including those that are living with the disease. Almost 10 million Americans are caring for a person with Alzheimer's disease or other dementias. They often perform the same functions as a professional caregiver, but they do so voluntarily and with little or no training or access to broader support services.



On November 18, Americans are invited to participate in free confidential memory screenings at community sites nationwide as part of National Memory Screening Day. The screenings are administered by qualified healthcare professionals as part of the annual initiative sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America (AFA). To find a screening site in your area, go to http://www.afascreenings.org/index.php.



More on National Memory Screening Day can be found here: http://www.nationalmemoryscreening.org/





Ashley Glacel
Press Secretary
Special Committee on Aging
Senator Herb Kohl, Chair

http://aging.senate.gov

Labels: Alzfdn, ALZHEIMER, ashford, awareness, cognitive, Kohl, labs, MONTH

Insulin growth factor 1

Sometimes research leads to unexpected results. For example, stimulating growth hormone secretion in Alzheimer's patients did not help clear protein-containing beta-amyloid plaques or halt disease progression, as was hypothesized, particularly in APOEe4 carriers. Researchers used an experimental growth hormone secretion booster known as MK-677.

While the growth hormone dramatically increased levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1), which in animal studies had been shown to increase clearance of beta-amyloid, there was no incipient trend of beta-amyloid clearance in a subgroup of patients.

"Given that multiple pathways contribute to the clinical Alzheimer's disease phenotype," the scientists wrote, "it is possible that selectively altering the IGF-1 system alone is insufficient to slow the overall rate of disease progression."

563 patients age 50 or older were analyzed at 45 sites. Participants were randomized to double-blind treatment with the growth hormone-stimulating agent MK-677 at a dose of 25 mg or placebo for 12 months.

Growth hormone secretagogue therapy had the expected effect on serum IGF-1 levels -- a 60.1% increase at six weeks and a 72.9% increase at 12 months -- that were significantly greater than in the placebo group (difference 61.4 ng/mL at 12 months, P<0.001).

But the researchers noted that the effect was small and substantially less than reported for FDA-approved cholinesterase inhibitors.

The only subgroup that appeared to potentially benefit from growth hormone treatment were noncarriers of the apolipoprotein E (APOE) epsilon (e) 4 allele gene, that is, individuals with APOE2 or APOE3 biomarkers. (the link provides a general overview of APOE)

This group had a marginally significant improvement in global clinical status measured by CIBIC-plus (P≤0.05) and some numerical but nonsignificant effects on the other efficacy outcomes.

The researchers noted that this was not a prespecified subgroup analysis and should be interpreted with caution.

Source reference:

Sevigny JJ, et al "Growth hormone secretagogue MK-677: No clinical effect on AD progression in a randomized trial" Neurology 2008; 71:1702-1708.

Note: The research was funded by Merck and the authors have been financially supported by, and/or own stock-options of Merck, Inc.

Labels: apoe, hgh, igf1, merck, mk677

Inset: image of planet Fomalhaut b orbiting star Fomalhaut

UC Berkeley and LLNL astronomers led by Paul Kalas and Eugene Chiang have taken the first optical picture of a planet outside the solar system, with collaboration from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center and JPL in Pasadena.

The planet, with a mass of no more than 3 Jupiters and a likely Saturn-like ring system, orbits the star Fomalhaut (Arabic: fum al-hawt فم الحوت or 'mouth of the whale') in the constellation Piscis Austrinis, 25 light years away. Fomalhaut has a diameter 1.7 times that of the sun and is only 300 million years old, compared to an estimated 5 billion for the sun. Over the past decade, exoplanet hunting has become an intriguing new field, with the presence of planets mostly detected through careful measurements of radial velocity. In 2007, the first-ever spectroscopy of exoplanets commenced with HD209458b in Pegasus, where the planetary spectrum could be resolved against the overwhelming glare of its sun.

It's now believed that those stars with heavier elements in their spectra (e.g., iron) will have a corresponding greater likelihood of earth or mars-like solid planets, leading to a vast potential for discovery using well established spectroscopic techniques coupled with more powerful telescopes to probe the basic DNA of stars and accompanying planetary systems without ever leaving earth.

Fomalhaut has appeared frequently in fiction and also in the RPG Final Fantasy as the nomenclature referring to a class of lasergun. Berkeley-native and writer Phillip K. Dick (Blade Runner, A Scanner Darkly, VALIS, etc.) believed that he periodically was in receipt of communications beamed from Fomalhaut's then-unknown planetary system which he imagined exerted a matrix-like control over earth. Interestingly, Ursula K. LeGuin, daughter of UC-Berkeley anthropologist Alfred Kroeber (studies of Ishi, the last 'wild Indian') wrote a novel, Rocannon's World, speculatively set on the second planet of Fomalhaut, which of course, happens to be known as Fomalhaut b today - and has now been photographed.

Labels: acid blockers, chiang, dick, exoplanet, fomalhaut, hd209458b, kalas, leguin, radial, rocannon, spectroscopy, valis, velocity

Isoflurane

The gas isoflurane, a commonly used anesthetic, is now being associated with stimulating the growth of amyloid proteins in the brain according to new research by a team at Massachusetts General Hospital led by Zhongcong Xie, MD., PhD.

The implications could be profound.

Labels: General, Massachusetts, neurology, Xie

An extract of the plant oleander may offer potential as an anti-cancer treatment. Researchers at the University of Texas have been examining the properties of a derived substance and find that it inhibits the spread of a cancer growth agent and injects oxygenated free radicals into the impacted tissues, which cause cell death. Normally, presence of free radicals in the body is not positive and is associated with oxidation, aging, and cancer initiation.

However, in its natural state, all parts of the plant are very poisonous with alkanoids and glycosides and can be fatal to humans as well as grazing animals. It is ignored by omnivorous browsing deer for this reason.

Nevertheless, Pliny the Elder in Historia Naturalis observed:

The rhododendron (referring to oleander and the related desert rose) has not so much as found a Latin name among us, its other names being "rhododaphne" and "nerium." It is a marvellous fact, but the leaves of this plant are poisonous to quadrupeds; while for man, if taken in wine with rue, they are an effectual preservative against the venom of serpents. Sheep too, and goats, it is said, if they drink water in which the leaves have been steeped, will die immediately.

Labels: glycosides, oleander, pliny, texas