NOBEL PRIZE. The recipients of this year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine have identified how cells respond to varying levels of oxygen – a vital molecular machinery. The discoveries are described as groundbreaking. “This is a superb prize for basic research,” declares Bengt Hallberg, professor of medical and physiological chemistry at Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg. Three researchers share the prize: William G. Kaelin, Jr., Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe…
Training can reverse nicotine-induced brain damage
NEW STUDY. Motor-skill training has proved capable of reversing brain impairments in rats treated with nicotine. This effect has been demonstrated in a recent study and, in the long term, the method may also come to be tested as an aid to human smoking cessation. “It was as if the training counteracted many of the changes caused by nicotine in the animals’ brains, and helped to restore the balance faster,”…
Epilepsy surgery: the earlier the better, new overview study shows
STUDY. A person with drug resistant epilepsy who gets an early surgical intervention has a better chance of becoming seizure free. This is shown in a systematic review and meta-analysis in which Sahlgrenska Academy researchers, in collaboration with the Swedish Council for Assessment of Health Technology and Social Services (SBU), analysed results from a range of previous studies. They concluded that people with drug resistant epilepsy should, as early as…
Epilepsy surgery: the earlier the better, new overview study shows
STUDY. A person with drug resistant epilepsy who gets an early surgical intervention has a better chance of becoming seizure free. This is shown in a systematic review and meta-analysis in which Sahlgrenska Academy researchers, in collaboration with the Swedish Council for Assessment of Health Technology and Social Services (SBU), analysed results from a range of previous studies. They concluded that people with drug resistant epilepsy should, as early as…
New brain mechanisms regulating body weight
NEW STUDY. Researchers at University of Gothenburg, Sweden, clarify the link between the molecule interleukine-6 (IL-6) in the brain and obesity. In experiments on rats and mice they show that the molecule does affect the risk of obesity, and also where this effect occurs in the brain. Interleukine-6 (IL-6) is a well-known pro- inflammatory molecule, and an integral element of body’s first line of defense during infection. Intriguingly, the brain…