Goodbye MS, Alzheimer's... You Won't Be Missed

Structure of a typical neuron. 

We are both lucky and unlucky to be alive today.

Lucky because literally everyday researchers throughout the world are making spectacular discoveries. Unlucky… well, you know… our political leaders and corporate CEOs are psychopaths.

Here’s today’s reason to be happy:

“Scientists have developed a compound that successfully promotes rebuilding of the protective sheath around nerve cells (myelin ) that is damaged in conditions such as multiple sclerosis.

"Damage to myelin is associated with MS, stroke, brain injuries, and certain forms of dementia such as Alzheimer's disease. In addition, delay in myelination can affect infants born prematurely, leading to brain damage or cerebral palsy."

Here’s the story…

New compound promotes healing of myelin in nervous system disorders, Oregon Health & Science University, Neuroscience / medicalxpress.com, 6 Sept 2019.

For the past decade, an international team of researchers led by OHSU has been working to develop a compound that neutralizes the hyaluronidase in the brains of patients with MS and other neurodegenerative diseases, thereby reviving the ability of progenitor cells to mature into myelin-producing oligodendrocytes.

The study published today describes a modified flavonoid—a class of chemicals found in fruits and vegetables—that does just that.

The compound, called S3, reverses the effect of HA in constraining the growth of oligodendrocytes and promotes functional remyelination in mice. Lead author Weiping Su, Ph.D., senior scientist in the Sherman lab, dedicated years of intensive research to make the discovery.

"It's not only showing that the myelin is coming back, but it's causing the axons to fire at a much higher speed," Sherman said. "That's exactly what you want functionally."

The next phase of research involves testing, and potentially refining, the compound in macaque monkeys who carry a naturally occurring version of MS called Japanese macaque encephalomyelitis. The condition, which causes clinical symptoms similar to multiple sclerosis in people, is the only spontaneously occurring MS-like disease in nonhuman primates in the world.

Please go here for more.

Glen Campbell - I'm Not Gonna Miss You - 2014



Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, television host, and actor. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting a music and comedy variety show called The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour on CBS television, from January 1969 until June 1972.[1] He released over 70 albums in a career that spanned five decades, selling over 45 million records worldwide, including twelve gold albums, four platinum albums, and one double-platinum album.In June 2011,

Campbell announced he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease six months earlier. He became a patient at an Alzheimer's long-term care and treatment facility in 2014. That same year Campbell was the subject of the documentary Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me, directed by longtime friend James Keach, which examined Campbell’s Alzheimer's diagnosis and how it affected his musical performances during his final tour across the United States with his family. The documentary received critical acclaim, being one of the rare films to achieve a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Campbell died in Nashville, Tennessee, on August 8, 2017, at the age of 81. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Campbell)

Glen Campbell - Wichita Lineman - 1968

Seeing Again

Sesame Street - Four Blind Mice -1969

Wouldn't it be great if sight could be restored?

Blind people could see again. That would be great.

Well, perhaps that will be true. Soon.

Here's the story...

With single gene insertion, blind mice regain sight, University of California- Berkeley, medicalxpress.com, 15 March 2019.

"It was surprisingly simple. University of California, Berkeley, scientists inserted a gene for a green-light receptor into the eyes of blind mice and, a month later, they were navigating around obstacles as easily as mice with no vision problems. They were able to see motion, brightness changes over a thousandfold range and fine detail on an iPad sufficient to distinguish letters."

"The researchers say that, within as little as three years, the gene therapy—delivered via an inactivated virus—could be tried in humans who've lost sight because of retinal degeneration, ideally giving them enough vision to move around and potentially restoring their ability to read or watch video."

"You would inject this virus into a person's eye and, a couple months later, they'd be seeing something," said Ehud Isacoff, a UC Berkeley professor of molecular and cell biology and director of the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute. "With neurodegenerative diseases of the retina, often all people try to do is halt or slow further degeneration. But something that restores an image in a few months—it is an amazing thing to think about."

About 170 million people worldwide live with age-related macular degeneration, which strikes one in 10 people over the age of 55, while 1.7 million people worldwide have the most common form of inherited blindness, retinitis pigmentosa, which typically leaves people blind by the age of 40.

-more-

Sesame Street - Four Blind Mice -1969