A new clinical trial has revealed encouraging results for a muscle-targeting therapy aimed at improving motor function in children and adolescents with spinal muscular atrophy, according to a study published in The Lancet Neurology. Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a rare genetic disorder that affects motor neurons – nerve cells in the spinal cord responsible for controlling voluntary…
Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, Jan and Dan Duncan Neurological Research Institute (Duncan NRI) at Texas Children’s Hospital, Stanford University School of Medicine and collaborating institutions provide new insights into how exercise helps lose weight. The researchers discovered a mechanism by which the compound Lac-Phe, which is produced during exercise, reduces appetite in mice,…
The most common type of brain tumor in children, pilocytic astrocytoma (PA), accounts for about 15% of all pediatric brain tumors. Although this type of tumor is usually not life-threatening, the unchecked growth of tumor cells can disrupt normal brain development and function. Current treatments focus mainly on removing the tumor cells, but recent studies…
For much of the 20th century it was thought that the adult brain was incapable of regeneration. This view has since shifted dramatically and neurogenesis – the birth of new neurons – is now a widely accepted phenomenon in the adult brain, offering promising avenues for treating many neurological conditions. One of the main challenges…