News by Subject Chemistry & Physics

A new chemical synthesis strategy to harvest the rich information found in natural products -- organic compounds isolated from natural sources -- has led to the identification of novel, simpler derivatives with potential to selectively protect neurons, important for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease, or to prevent the immune system from rejecting organ transplants, a Baylor-led study finds

Scientists used a compound found in a shrub native to Africa to reveal the three major shapes of the serotonin transporter, a protein in the brain linked to anxiety and depression. The discovery opens new avenues for developing medications to treat addiction.

There is now further evidence that a drug that is effective in treating the rare muscle-wasting disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) early in life may be associated with improvement in older children, according to a study published in the April 24, 2019, online issue of Neurology®, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Research by a Barrow Neurological Center scientist on mechanisms of dysfunctional RNA processing in ALS and frontaltemporal dementia (FTD) was published in the April issue of Acta Neuropathologica. The research was conducted by Dr. Rita Sattler and her graduate student Stephen Moore in her laboratory at the Department of Neurobiology at Barrow Neurological Institute, which is dedicated to understanding the mechanisms of disease in ALS, FTD and related neurodegenerative diseases.

A new study shows that a synthetic molecule developed by Oregon Health & Science University scientists stimulates repair of the protective sheath that covers nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. The study demonstrates in mice that a synthetic molecule called sobetirome efficiently repairs damaged myelin without side effects.

Circulation and cellular activity were restored in a pig's brain four hours after its death, a finding that challenges long-held assumptions about the timing and irreversible nature of the cessation of some brain functions after death, Yale scientists report April 18 in the journal Nature.