Epilepsy drug can restore memory in Alzheimer's: study

Scientists have claimed that a commonly prescribed anti-epileptic drug can reverse memory loss and ease other Alzheimer's-related impairments.
Researchers from Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco found how levetiracetam -a drug prescribed for patients who suffer from epilepsy- suppresses abnormal brain activity and restores memory function in a mouse model.
Lennart Mucke from Gladstone conducted the research on mice genetically modified to simulate key aspects of Alzheimer's disease.

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"For the millions of people suffering from Alzheimer's worldwide, we have no effective drug to prevent or reverse memory loss- the hallmark symptom of this ultimately fatal disease," said Mucke. "This study builds on our earlier findings linking Alzheimer's and epilepsy. It provides new insights into the processes underlying memory loss in Alzheimer's and demonstrates the ability of an anti-epileptic drug to block these processes," Mucke said in a statement.
Healthy activity in neuronal networks is critical for essential brain functions such as memory. Alzheimer's wreaks havoc on these brain networks, causing disruptions that occasionally escalate into epileptic seizures.
"But whether such neuronal-network disruptions also impair memory was unknown," said Gladstone Postdoctoral Fellow Pascal Sanchez, who is the paper's lead author.
"So we screened seven FDA-approved anti-epileptic medications- including levetiracetam- in our Alzheimer's mouse model to see if minimising these network disruptions could improve memory," Sanchez said.
When the Gladstone scientists administered levetiracetam to the mice, they found that abnormal network activity in their brains dropped by 50 per cent in less than a day.
After two weeks of treatment, the neurons' ability to communicate with each other improved. The mice also showed better learning and memory in a maze test. Finally, the researchers observed that several proteins that are important for healthy brain function returned to normal levels.
The study was published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Ginger can control diabetes’

MELBOURNE: Ginger, a common spice in Indian kitchens can manage high levels of blood sugar which create complications for long-term diabetic patients, a new study said. Researchers from University of Sydney found that ginger has the power to control blood glucose by using muscle cells.

"Ginger extracts obtained from Buderim Ginger were able to increase the uptake of glucose into muscle cells independently of insulin," professor of pharmaceutical chemistry Basil Roufogalis who led the research said .

"This assists in the management of high levels of blood sugar that create complications for longterm diabetic patients, and may allow cells to operate independently of insulin," Roufogalis said.

"The components responsible for the increase the uptake of glucose were gingerols, the major phenolic components of the ginger rhizome. Under normal conditions , blood glucose level is strictly maintained within a narrow range, and skeletal muscle is a major site of glucose clearance in the body," Roufogalis added. The pharmacy researchers extracted whole ginger rhizomes obtained from Buderim Ginger and showed that that one fraction of the extract was the most effective in reproducing the increase in glucose uptake by the whole extract in muscle cells grown in culture.

Laser system that can show what’s hidden behind walls

WASHINGTON: Now, you can see what's behind walls using a laser system which recreates 3-D images of the hidden objects, according to a research led by an Indian-origin scientist. Researchers from the MIT, Harvard University, the University of Wisconsin, and Rice University have studied the erratic behaviour of photons zooming around and bouncing off objects and walls inside a room and combined these photons with advanced optics to enable them to "see" what's hidden around the corner.

"Imagine photons as particles bouncing right off the walls and down a corridor and around a corner — the ones that hit an object are reflected back. When this happens, we can use the data about the time they take to move around and bounce back to get information about geometry," an MIT graduate student and author Otkrist Gupta said. This technique could prove invaluable in disaster recovery situations , as well as in noninvasive biomedical imaging applications, study said.