Type 1 diabetes infectiousIJ
Cases of type 1 diabetes in children mirror the spread of flu — suggesting it is triggered by an infection, researchers at Newcastle University, UK have found. They suggest type 1 diabetes could be an infectious disease carried by wild animals and are looking to recruit more children in the North of the UK affected by the condition to help with further research. Comparing cases of type 1 diabetes in North East children with those of flu, the researchers found similar distribution patterns. This suggests that like flu or chicken pox, type 1 diabetes may in part be infectious and display similar “mini-epidemics”. An expert from the University said, “There is a growing body of evidence that supports the idea that while children may be genetically predisposed to develop type 1 diabetes, it could be triggered by infection.”
Toddlers learning the grammer
The sound of small children chattering away as they learn to talk has always been considered cute — but not particularly sophisticated. However, research by a Newcastle University expert has shown that toddlers' speech is far more advanced than previously understood. Dr Cristina Dye, a lecturer in child language development, found that two to three-year-olds are using grammar far sooner than expected. She studied fifty French speaking youngsters aged between 23 and 37 months, capturing tens of thousands of their utterances. She found that the children were using ‘little words’ which form the skeleton of sentences such as a, an, can, is, an, far sooner than previously thought.
Chemical boosts memory
Memory improved in mice injected with a small, drug-like molecule, as discovered by UCSF San Francisco researchers studying how cells respond to biological stress. The same biochemical pathway the molecule acts on might one day be targeted in humans to improve memory, according to the senior author of the study, Peter Walter, PhD, UCSF professor of biochemistry and biophysics and a Howard Hughes Investigator. The discovery of the molecule and the results of the subsequent memory tests in mice were published in elife, an online journal. In one memory test included in the study, normal mice were able to relocate a submerged platform about three times faster after receiving injections of the potent chemical than mice that received sham injections.
Alzheimer’s new threat
Multiple drug classes commonly prescribed for common medical conditions are capable of influencing the onset and progression of Alzheimer's disease, according to researchers at The Mount Sinai Medical Center. The research team used a computer algorithm to screen 1,600 commercially-available medications to assess their impact on the brain accumulation of beta-amyloid, a protein abnormally accumulated in the brain of Alzheimer's disease. They found that currently-available medications prescribed for conditions such as hypertension, depression, and insomnia were found to either to block or to enhance the accumulation of beta-amyloid, the component of amyloid plaques.
Behind the Taste
As anyone who's ever mixed up the sugar and salt while baking knows, too much of a good thing can be inedible. What hasn't been clear, though, is how our tongues and brains can tell when the saltiness of our food has crossed the line from yummy to yucky — or, worse, something dangerous.Now researchers at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the University of California, Santa Barbara report that in fruit flies, at least, that process is controlled by competing input from two different types of taste-sensing cells: one that attracts flies to salty foods, and one that repels them.