{"id":937,"date":"2016-02-22T20:15:29","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T20:15:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mc.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbiltmedicine\/?p=937"},"modified":"2021-08-11T19:41:11","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T19:41:11","slug":"quicknotes-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/quicknotes-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Quicknotes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Compound developed at VUMC\u2008may delay Huntington\u2019s disease\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A compound developed by researchers at Vanderbilt University can improve early symptoms and delay progression of Huntington\u2019s disease in a mouse model of the neurodegenerative disorder.<\/p>\n

The findings, reported in the Proceedings of the National \u00a0Academy of Sciences, offer one \u00a0of the first glimmers of hope for \u00a0a way to treat the rare genetic\u00a0disease, which killed folk singer Woody Guthrie in 1967 at age 55.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are very excited by the results\u00a0 of this study,\u201d said P. Jeffrey Conn, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery and lead investigator on the study.<\/p>\n

A type of muscarinic acetylcholine receptor called M4, which binds the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, can block these signals. Researchers reasoned that selective activation of M4, therefore, should normalize excessive transmission caused by Huntington\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

Using a compound called a\u00a0 positive allosteric modulator or PAM, which\u2014like the dimmer switch in an electrical circuit\u2014 can turn up the activity of M4, \u00a0the researchers showed that they \u00a0could completely counteract early deficits in neuronal transmission \u00a0in a mouse model of the disease.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Study explores nicotine patch to treat memory loss\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Can a nicotine patch improve memory loss in older adults with mild cognitive impairment (MCI)?<\/p>\n

Vanderbilt has received a $9.4\u00a0 million grant from the National \u00a0Institute on Aging (NIA) to find out.\u00a0 About 300 older individuals with MCI will be enrolled at about 20 different sites around the country \u00a0in the two-year Memory Improvement through Nicotine Dosing study\u2014 the largest study of a nicotine patch in non-smokers.<\/p>\n

MCI affects millions of people around the world and is the stage between normal aging and dementia when others begin to notice that an individual is developing mild memory or thinking problems. Most people with MCI (about 75 percent) go on to develop Alzheimer\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

Nicotine, a natural plant alkaloid,\u00a0 is a \u201cfascinating drug with interesting properties,\u201d said Paul Newhouse, M.D., professor of Psychiatry.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople think of it as a potentially noxious substance, but it\u2019s a plant-derived medication just like a lot of other medications.\u201d<\/p>\n

Nicotine binds to very specific\u00a0 receptors in the brain that are \u00a0important for thinking and memory and may have neuroprotective \u00a0effects. People with Alzheimer\u2019s disease are known to lose some \u00a0of those receptors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re excited about this study, and to see whether it can change the course of illness in these patients,\u201d Newhouse said. \u201cIt\u2019s the essence of repurposing an old drug for a new use.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Vitamin C protects blood vessel lining<\/strong><\/p>\n

The endothelial cells lining blood vessels form a tight barrier, which\u00a0is weakened (permeabilized) by inflammation. Vitamin C tightens the endothelial barrier and maintains\u00a0 its integrity during inflammation, but the mechanisms for vitamin C action remain unclear.<\/p>\n

James May, M.D., and colleagues explored whether and how vitamin C can stabilize the endothelial barrier using human umbilical vein endothelial cells. They reported in the Aug. 28, 2015, issue of the \u00a0Journal of Biological Chemistry \u00a0that vitamin C prevented increased permeability induced by thrombin, an inflammatory stimulus.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Compound developed at VUMC\u2008may delay Huntington\u2019s disease\u00a0 A compound developed by researchers at Vanderbilt University can improve early symptoms and delay progression of Huntington\u2019s disease in a mouse model of the neurodegenerative disorder. The findings, reported in the Proceedings of the National \u00a0Academy of Sciences, offer one \u00a0of the first glimmers of hope for \u00a0a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":229,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[11,30],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vm-around-the-medical-center","category-winter-2016"],"acf":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcDnub-f7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/229"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3128,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/937\/revisions\/3128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/medschool.vanderbilt.edu\/vanderbilt-medicine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}