Camels give President Obama's Alzheimer's plan a lift

Public release date: 1-Oct-2012
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Contact: Cody Mooneyhan
cmooneyhan@faseb.org
301-634-7104
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that serum from animals such as camels, llamas, and alpacas could enhance brain imaging and help drugs pass through the blood-brain barrier

Bethesda, MDPresident Obama's national plan to fight Alzheimer's disease just got a lift thanks to a team of international researchers whose recent discovery may lead to enhanced imaging of and improved drug delivery to the brain. A research report appearing in The FASEB Journal, describes an entirely new class of antibody discovered in camelids (camels, dromedaries, llamas, and alpacas) that is able to cross the blood-brain barrier, diffuse into brain tissue, and reach specific targets. Having such antibodies, which are naturally available, may be part of a "game changer" in the outcomes for people with brain diseases that are poorly diagnosed and treated, at best, using today's tools.

"This basic biological investigation opens new pathways toward innovative therapeutic solutions for intractable diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or brain tumors," said Pierre Lafaye, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Institut Pasteur, PF: Production de Protines Recombinantes et d'Anticorps Proteopole in Paris, France. "The importance of this study is the hope that this novel approach may be a useful tool in crossing the blood brain barrier for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes," added Babbette Weksler, MD, Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, another author of the study and editorial board member of The FASEB Journal.

Lafaye and colleagues studied alpacas, a member of the camelid family, and discovered an antibody naturally able to cross the blood brain barrier without chemical modification. Then, additional research showed that after these antibodies entered the brain successfully, they diffused into the brain tissue to reach a target, which in this study was astrocytes. This study shows, for the first time, an antibody penetrated into the brain in vivo, under normal physiological conditions. In addition to the obvious clinical applications of this finding, it opens the doors to new research involving the body's systems for recognizing self v. "nonself."

"Camels may be most famous for helping people travel to the outermost reaches of the desert, but soon they could be also known for helping us reach the innermost parts of our brains," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "It appears that these prized animals are far more capable of helping get to hard-to-reach places than we ever could have imagined."

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Receive monthly highlights from The FASEB Journal by e-mail. Sign up at http://www.faseb.org/fjupdate.aspx. The FASEB Journal is published by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and is the most cited biology journal worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information. In 2010, the journal was recognized by the Special Libraries Association as one of the top 100 most influential biomedical journals of the past century. FASEB is composed of 26 societies with more than 100,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. Celebrating 100 Years of Advancing the Life Sciences in 2012, FASEB is rededicating its efforts to advance health and well-being by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.

Tengfei Li, Jean-Pierre Bourgeois, Susanna Celli, Fabienne Glacial, Anne-Marie Le Sourd, Salah Mecheri, Babette Weksler, Ignacio Romero, Pierre-Olivier Couraud, Franois Rougeon, and Pierre Lafaye. Cell-penetrating anti-GFAP VHH and corresponding fluorescent fusion protein VHH-GFP spontaneously cross the blood-brain barrier and specifically recognize astrocytes: application to brain imaging. FASEB J October 2012, 26:3969-3979; doi:10.1096/fj.11-201384 ; http://www.fasebj.org/content/26/10/3969.abstract

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Public release date: 1-Oct-2012
[ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Cody Mooneyhan
cmooneyhan@faseb.org
301-634-7104
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology

New research in The FASEB Journal suggests that serum from animals such as camels, llamas, and alpacas could enhance brain imaging and help drugs pass through the blood-brain barrier

Bethesda, MDPresident Obama's national plan to fight Alzheimer's disease just got a lift thanks to a team of international researchers whose recent discovery may lead to enhanced imaging of and improved drug delivery to the brain. A research report appearing in The FASEB Journal, describes an entirely new class of antibody discovered in camelids (camels, dromedaries, llamas, and alpacas) that is able to cross the blood-brain barrier, diffuse into brain tissue, and reach specific targets. Having such antibodies, which are naturally available, may be part of a "game changer" in the outcomes for people with brain diseases that are poorly diagnosed and treated, at best, using today's tools.

"This basic biological investigation opens new pathways toward innovative therapeutic solutions for intractable diseases such as Alzheimer's disease or brain tumors," said Pierre Lafaye, Ph.D., a researcher involved in the work from the Institut Pasteur, PF: Production de Protines Recombinantes et d'Anticorps Proteopole in Paris, France. "The importance of this study is the hope that this novel approach may be a useful tool in crossing the blood brain barrier for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes," added Babbette Weksler, MD, Professor of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, NY, another author of the study and editorial board member of The FASEB Journal.

Lafaye and colleagues studied alpacas, a member of the camelid family, and discovered an antibody naturally able to cross the blood brain barrier without chemical modification. Then, additional research showed that after these antibodies entered the brain successfully, they diffused into the brain tissue to reach a target, which in this study was astrocytes. This study shows, for the first time, an antibody penetrated into the brain in vivo, under normal physiological conditions. In addition to the obvious clinical applications of this finding, it opens the doors to new research involving the body's systems for recognizing self v. "nonself."

"Camels may be most famous for helping people travel to the outermost reaches of the desert, but soon they could be also known for helping us reach the innermost parts of our brains," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "It appears that these prized animals are far more capable of helping get to hard-to-reach places than we ever could have imagined."

###

Receive monthly highlights from The FASEB Journal by e-mail. Sign up at http://www.faseb.org/fjupdate.aspx. The FASEB Journal is published by the Federation of the American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) and is the most cited biology journal worldwide according to the Institute for Scientific Information. In 2010, the journal was recognized by the Special Libraries Association as one of the top 100 most influential biomedical journals of the past century. FASEB is composed of 26 societies with more than 100,000 members, making it the largest coalition of biomedical research associations in the United States. Celebrating 100 Years of Advancing the Life Sciences in 2012, FASEB is rededicating its efforts to advance health and well-being by promoting progress and education in biological and biomedical sciences through service to our member societies and collaborative advocacy.

Tengfei Li, Jean-Pierre Bourgeois, Susanna Celli, Fabienne Glacial, Anne-Marie Le Sourd, Salah Mecheri, Babette Weksler, Ignacio Romero, Pierre-Olivier Couraud, Franois Rougeon, and Pierre Lafaye. Cell-penetrating anti-GFAP VHH and corresponding fluorescent fusion protein VHH-GFP spontaneously cross the blood-brain barrier and specifically recognize astrocytes: application to brain imaging. FASEB J October 2012, 26:3969-3979; doi:10.1096/fj.11-201384 ; http://www.fasebj.org/content/26/10/3969.abstract

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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2012-10/foas-cgp100112.php

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Homolog of mammalian neocortex found in bird brain

ScienceDaily (Oct. 1, 2012) ? A seemingly unique part of the human and mammalian brain is the neocortex, a layered structure on the outer surface of the organ where most higher-order processing is thought to occur. But new research at the University of Chicago has found the cells similar to those of the mammalian neocortex in the brains of birds, sitting in a vastly different anatomical structure.

The work, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, confirms a 50-year-old hypothesis about the identity of a mysterious structure in the bird brain that has provoked decades of scientific debate. The research also sheds new light on the evolution of the brain and opens up new animal models for studying the neocortex.

"If you want to study motor neurons or dopamine cells, which are biomedically important, you can study them in mammals, in chick embryos, in zebrafish. But for these neurons of the cerebral cortex, we could only do that in mammals before," said Clifton Ragsdale, PhD, associate professor of neurobiology at University of Chicago Biological Sciences and senior author of the study. "Now, we can take advantage of these other experimental systems to ask how they are specified, can they regenerate, and other questions."

Both the mammalian neocortex and a structure in the bird brain called the dorsal ventricular ridge (DVR) originate from an embryonic region called the telencephalon. But the two regions mature into very different shapes, with the neocortex made up of six distinct cortical layers while the DVR contains large clusters of neurons called nuclei.

Because of this divergent anatomy, many scientists proposed that the bird DVR does not correspond to the mammalian cortex, but is analogous to another mammalian brain structure called the amygdala.

"All mammals have a neocortex, and it's virtually identical across all of them," said Jennifer Dugas-Ford, PhD, postdoctoral researcher at the University of Chicago and first author on the paper. "But when you go to the next closest group, the birds and reptiles, they don't have anything that looks remotely similar to neocortex."

But in the 1960s, neuroscientist Harvey Karten studied the neural inputs and outputs of the DVR, finding that they were remarkably similar to the pathways traveling to and from the neocortex in mammals. As a result, he proposed that the DVR performs a similar function to the neocortex despite its dramatically different anatomy.

Dugas-Ford, Ragsdale and co-author Joanna Rowell decided to test Karten's hypothesis by using recently discovered sets of molecular markers that can identify specific layers of mammalian cortex: the layer 4 "input" neurons or layer 5 "output" neurons. The researchers then looked for whether these marker genes were expressed in the DVR nuclei.

In two different bird species -- chicken and zebra finch -- the level 4 and 5 markers were expressed by distinct nuclei of the DVR, supporting Karten's hypothesis that the structure contains cells homologous to those of mammalian neocortex.

"Here was a completely different line of evidence," Ragsdale said. "There were molecular markers that picked out specific layers of cortex; whereas the original Karten theory was based just on connections, and some people dismissed that. But in two very distant birds, all of the gene expression fits together very nicely with the connections."

Dugas-Ford called the evidence "really incredible."

"All of our markers were exactly where they thought they would be in the DVR when you're comparing them to the neocortex," she said.

A similar experiment was conducted in a species of turtle, and revealed yet another anatomical possibility for these neocortex-like cells. Instead of a six-layer neocortex or a cluster of nuclei, the turtle brain had layer 4- and 5-like cells distributed along a single layer of the species' dorsal cortex.

"I think that's the interesting part, that you can have all these different morphologies built with the same cell types, just in different conformations," Rowell said. "It's a neocortex or a big clump of nuclei, and then in reptiles they have an unusual dorsal cortex unlike either of those."

Future experiments will test the developmental steps that shape these neurons into various structures, and the relative pros and cons of these anatomical differences. The complex language and tool-use of some bird species suggests that the nuclear organization of this pathway is also capable of supporting advanced functions -- and even may offer advantages over the mammalian brain.

"If you wanted to have a special nuclear processing center in Broca's area to carry out language processing, you can't do that in a mammal," Ragsdale said. "But in a bird they have these special nuclei that are involved in vocalization. It's as if you have additional flexibility: You can have shorter circuits, longer circuits, you can have specialized processing centers."

Beyond the structural differences, the discovery of homologous neocortex cell types will allow scientists to study cortical neurons in bird species such as the chicken, a common model used for examining embryonic development. Such research could help scientists more easily study the neurons lost in paralysis, deafness, blindness, and other neurological conditions.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Chicago Medical Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/~3/7yquC0L6-_U/121001151953.htm

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Pamper Your Pets in Englewood Saturday

Englewood, Fla. -- Pamper your pet and help other furry friends Saturday, September 29th at the Englewood Animal Rescue Sanctuary.

Englewood Animal Rescue Sanctuary (EARS) will host their Pampered Pets event. This offers local residents cost-effective pet care services from grooming to micro-chipping. The event will take place at the EARS Store and Adoption Center at 145 W. Dearborn Street, Englewood, from 10am to 4pm.

Because of its success EARS has decided to offer this service to the community on the last Saturday of every month. All proceeds from this monthly event will go directly towards caring for the animals that are rescued by EARS.

The public is offered microchipping, pet bathing, nail clipping and professional grooming at reduced prices for each service. An overall pet evaluation will be offered for free and customers can then choose which services they want. Only the professional grooming requires an appointment. These appointments may be made by calling 941-681-3877 or by stopping in at the store. Customers can also purchase a cold drink and shop the on-site thrift store while their pets are being pampered.

Source: http://www.winknews.com/Local-Florida/2012-09-29/Pampered-Pets-Event

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Jim Webb on 'Givers' and 'Takers' (Atlantic Politics Channel)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, News Feeds and News via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/251867156?client_source=feed&format=rss

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$150 off Sony VAIO 24" L Series Custom Desktop PC/TV (SVL241190X Standard) Now: $999. ...

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Guest lineups for the Sunday news shows

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Guest lineups for the Sunday TV news shows:

ABC's "This Week" ? Gov. Chris Christie, R-N.J.; White House adviser David Plouffe; former Govs. Haley Barbour, R-Miss., and Howard Dean, D-Vt.

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NBC's "Meet the Press" ? Christie; Plouffe; former Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa.

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CBS' "Face the Nation" ? Christie; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich; Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn.

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CNN's "State of the Union" ? Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Roy Blunt, R-Mo.; Gov. Martin O'Malley, D-Md.

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"Fox News Sunday" ? Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/guest-lineups-sunday-news-shows-183815643.html

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DISH to Launch Satellite Internet - Zacks.com

DISH Network Corp.(DISH - Analyst Report) ? the second largest satellite TV operator in the U.S., has announced to launch satellite-based broadband service in the rural U.S. market starting from October, this year. DISH Network will become the first satellite TV provider in the U.S. to provide satellite net services in the rural areas as arch rival DIRECTV (DTV - Analyst Report) plans to launch similar services in 2013.

Bundled with its popular satellite TV packages, the 10GB data plan will offer a download/upload speed of 5/1 Mbps and will charge its customers $39.99 per month. Customers can upgrade to a higher 20GB data plan, which provides a download/upload speed of 10/1 Mbps and costs upto $49.99. New and existing bundled customers will save $10 per month and won?t have to provide any installation charge, while stand alone customers have to pay an upfront fee of $99.

The company will use a satellite of EchoStar Corp. (SATS - Snapshot Report) to deliver this service. DISH Network is already providing satellite Internet service using the network of ViaSat Inc. (VSAT - Snapshot Report) in certain parts of the U.S. particularly in the West Coast. Both the existing and new services will be offered under the dishNET brand. According to Federal Communication Commission (FCC) 14.5 million rural people doesn?t have access to high speed internet. The Englewood, Colorado-based company is trying to capture 2 million new customers with these services.

We believe, with the launch of this service DISH network will become a formidable challenger to large cable pay-TV and telecom service providers, which also offers triple-play video, voice, and data services. Furthermore, the launch of this service will allow it to diversify as the U.S. satellite market is already saturated.

Additionally, DISH Network is currently waiting for the FCC nod to launch a nationwide high-speed wireless broadband network to offer mobile Internet and phone services to its customers. If the company gets the green signal from FCC to use its airwaves then the company can offer a unique quad-play bundled service of satellite TV; satellite Internet, mobile Internet, and mobile phone services.

The current Zacks Consensus Estimate for Dish Network Corp. is pegged at 55 cents for the third quarter with a growth rate estimate of (22.63%). For 2012 and 2013, the Zacks Consensus Estimates stand at $2.43 and $2.50 with a growth rate of (16.08%) and 3.21%, respectively.

Recommendation:

Currently, DISH Network has a Zacks #3 Rank, implying a short-term Hold rating on the stock. We are also maintaining our long-term Neutral recommendation on the company?s shares.

Read the full analyst report on DTV

Read the full analyst report on DISH

Read the full analyst report on SATS

Read the full analyst report on VSAT

Source: http://www.zacks.com/stock/news/83822/dish-to-launch-satellite-internet

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