The first results from a scan of the world's largest collection of DNA samples from families affected by autism point to two new genetic links that may predispose people to the brain disorder. Nature Genetics reports the study's findings in its Feb. 18 online edition.
In the fruit fly Drosophila, the mutated parkin gene causes motor dysfunction and may be key to understanding the cause of familial Parkinson's in humans.
For years, scientists have assumed that the brain possesses an inner clock that allows it to process time. Now a UCLA study in the Feb. 1 edition of Neuron proposes a new model in which a series of physical changes in the brain's cells help the organ to mark the passage of time -- much like counting the rings in a tree stump reveals the age of a fallen tree.
UCLA cardiologists offer healthy heart health tips for adults and children. UCLA will hold heart awareness day event on Feb. 15.
A World Health Organization (WHO) plan to track transmitted resistance to HIV drugs in Botswana could fail because the threshold the organization has set is too high, according to new UCLA research.
UCLA researchers report that for patients hospitalized with acute heart failure, a higher body mass index (BMI) was associated with a substantially lower in-hospital mortality rate. The finding offers more insight into an observed phenomenon in chronic heart failure called the "˜obesity paradox.'
Academic researchers reported that all five standard hospital-based performance measures used to gauge quality of care for hospitalized heart failure patients may not be the best benchmarks since none were significant predictors of patient mortality during the critical first 60 to 90 days immediately following hospital discharge.
The findings suggest that facilitating health insurance coverage for homeless youths may lead to increased use of outpatient care services, which may prevent costly emergency room services for conditions that could have been treated in the outpatient setting.
After stroke, new blood vessels form and newly born neurons migrate to the damaged area to aid in the regeneration process of the brain. In mice, UCLA neurologists identified the cellular cues that start this process, casually linking angiogenesis, the development of blood vessels, and neurogenesis, the birth of neurons.
UCLA researchers used innovative brain scan technology with a new imaging molecule, invented at UCLA, to show that abnormal brain protein deposits that define Alzheimer's disease can be detected in people with mild cognitive impairment, a condition affecting 15-20 million Americans that increases risk for developing Alzheimer's disease. The new imaging technique helped researchers track disease progression over a two-year period and may be helpful in detecting pre-Alzheimer's conditions.
Dr. William J. Dignam, a founding member of the UCLA Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology and former senior associate dean for Academic Affairs at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, died Dec. 5.
The UCLA Department of Family Medicine is receiving $300,000 from Finding Answers: Disparities Research for Change, a National Program Office of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that evaluates interventions aimed at eliminating racial and ethnic health care disparities in local communities.
UCLA experts are available today for interviews regarding U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson and the condition known as arteriovenous malformation.
Dr. Raffi Tachdjian, a third-year pediatric fellow in the division of allergy and immunology at Mattel Children's Hospital at UCLA, founded the nonprofit Children's Music Fund to help bring music to his patients.
Neurologist George Bartzokis argues that the brain's miles of myelin are a key evolutionary change that may make us vulnerable to highly prevalent neuropsychiatric disorders. He argues that viewing the brain as myelin-dependent may be key to developing new and novel treatments against disease.
A new study showed that it can be safe and cost-efficient to discharge pediatric tonsillectomy patients after a short post-operative recovery period at an outpatient surgery center.
Doctors at UCLA's Jules Stein Eye Institute have pioneered the first technique to biopsy tumor tissue from the living eye and test it for a genetic marker linked to aggressive metastasis. The new test is life-changing, because ocular melanoma doesn't just cause blindness -- it can kill you in as quickly as a year.
Six million years ago, chimpanzees and humans diverged from a common ancestor and evolved into unique species. Now UCLA scientists have identified a new way to pinpoint the genes that separate us from our closest living relative "“ and make us uniquely human.
A new UCLA study has found that physicians discuss cost and aspects of obtaining newly prescribed medications only about one-third of the time during patient/doctor interactions. But questions about pricing and prescription drug insurance coverage are critical "” the high costs of drugs, including out-of-pocket payouts such as co-payments, are linked to patient non-adherence.
A team of academic researchers report that systolic blood pressure taken at hospital admission may be a key factor in predicting mortality risk and revealing important disease characteristics for heart failure patients.
UCLA AIDS Institute experts are available for interviews about the following news story: Dec. 1, 2006 is World AIDS Day, when the world unites to fight AIDS and HIV.
On Dec. 1, 2006 UCLA will present a day-long, campus-wide, cross-departmental commemoration of World AIDS Day 2006, including the opening of two major art installations: "˜Dress Up Against AIDS: Condom Couture by Adriana Bertini' on display at the Fowler Museum, and "˜The Keiskamma Altarpiece: Transcending AIDS in South Africa'.
In a first-of-its-kind study, UCLA researchers have shown that segments of the HIV-infected population who have little to no consistent outpatient medical care "” and yet are most in need of such services "” are overwhelmingly minorities, the poor and substance abusers.
Using an innovative three-dimensional imaging technique, a team of UCLA researchers have tracked how Alzheimer's disease spreads through the hippocampus, the area of the brain linked with memory.
The NIH has awarded Dr. Peter Anton, professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, a $4.5-million supplemental grant to expand the Center for HIV Prevention and Research's ongoing efforts to develop microbicides to combat the transmission of HIV.
UCLA/VA researchers found that curcumin "“ a chemical found in curry and tumeric "“ may help the immune system clear the brain of amyloid beta, which form the plaques found in Alzheimer's disease. These early laboratory findings may lead to a new approach in treating Alzheimer's disease by enhancing the natural function of the immune system using curcumin, known for its anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.
A new study found that in too many instances, physicians did not address such things as the purpose of a medication, potential adverse side effects or even the names of drugs they were prescribing to their patients. This can lead to serious problems.
Using a technique called recursive partitioning, the researchers found that combinations of neuroendocrine and immune markers frequently appeared in high-risk male pathways, while systolic blood pressure was present, in combination with other biomarkers, in high-risk female pathways.
Researchers have uncovered a natural protective mechanism against neuronal death in Alzheimer's and similar neurodegenerative diseases. They discovered that a particular enzyme snips apart the abnormal tangles of protein called tau that are associated with cognitive decline; The enzyme, called PSA, may prove to be a promising drug target.
Women with new-onset breast discomfort showed a 3.9 percent increase in breast density, compared with a 0.6 percent density increase in women who did not experience discomfort. As women with dense tissue face an increased cancer risk, new-onset discomfort during HRT may indicate a greater risk for developing breast cancer.
UCLA scientists have discovered that infants who possess a specific immune gene that too closely resembles their mothers' are more likely to develop schizophrenia later in life. Reported in the October issue of the American Journal of Human Genetics, the study suggests that the genetic match may increase fetal susceptibility to schizophrenia, particularly in females.
UCLA researchers have found the human gut to be a major reservoir harboring the HIV virus "” holding almost twice as much as a person's blood. In addition, the virus stored in the gut does not decay or reduce over time, as is also the case with blood-related reservoirs.
In contrast to traditional beliefs that stroke-causing clots derived from arterial and cardiac sources are distinctly different, a new study shows they are composed of similar components.
A new study shows that MRSA is the most common cause of skin and soft-tissue infections among patients presenting in emergency rooms across the country.
UCLA researchers found that altering the fatty acid ratio found in the typical Western diet to include more omega-3 fatty acids and decreasing the amount of omega-6 fatty acids may reduce prostate cancer tumor growth rates and PSA levels. This initial animal model study is one of the first to show the impact of lowering an inflammatory response known to promote prostate cancer tumor progression.
A unique nerve-stimulation treatment for epilepsy developed at UCLA offers a potential new alternative for tens of thousands of individuals unable to control their seizures with medication and ineligible for surgery. A study published in the July edition of the peer-reviewed journal Epilepsia reports that four of seven subjects who used an external stimulator for at least three months in a pilot human clinical trial enjoyed a 50 percent or better reduction in seizure frequency.
UCLA researchers have transformed adult stem cells taken from human adipose "“ or fat tissue "“ into smooth muscle cells, which help the normal function of a multitude of organs like the intestine, bladder, and arteries. The research may help lead to use of fat stem cells for smooth muscle tissue engineering and repair.
UCLA Investigators found that an experimental cancer drug improved signs of progeria in a new mouse model of progeria. The effects of the drug were more dramatic than in previous studies using other animal models.
With diabetes disease-management programs becoming more commonly used among physician groups, the question arises: Just how effective are they at improving patient care? The answer is that they lead to better examination and testing"”but not to better control of key factors associated with diabetes complications.
A new UCLA imaging study finds political party allegiance affects the brain activity of partisans viewing the faces of candidates. Published online July 9, 2006, by the peer-reviewed journal Neuropsychologia, the study finds a partisan's brain responds to the opposition candidate's face by activating cognitive networks designed to regulate emotion.
Researchers found that women who transmitted HIV to their offspring were significantly less likely to have aNAB, an antibody which neutralizes the virus, than non-transmitting mothers. This suggests that the antibody has a potent protective or selective effect in perinatal HIV transmission.
A UCLA-evaluated study of a demonstration project led by Community Health Councils, Inc. (CHC) in Los Angeles shows how incorporating physical activity and healthy eating into an office or other organizational culture pays dividends for participants.
Researchers report that thousands of genes behave differently in the same organs of males and females "“ something never detected to this degree. The study sheds light on why the same disease often strikes males and females differently, and why the genders may respond differently to the same drug.
Researchers from the UCLA AIDS Institute and the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine have demonstrated for the first time that human embryonic stem cells can be genetically manipulated and coaxed to develop into mature T-cells, raising hopes for a gene therapy to combat AIDS.
Drinking an eight ounce glass of pomegranate juice daily increased by nearly four times the period during which PSA levels in men treated for prostate cancer remained stable, a three-year UCLA study has found.
The Jules Stein Eye Institute will celebrate 40 years of excellence this month as a world-class facility for patient care, vision research and the training of future eye specialists. The center will commemorate its 40th anniversary with a gala dinner and research symposium at UCLA on May 19"“20.
Using novel 3-D mapping techniques to analyze MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) data from 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment, the researchers found that the patients with the smaller hippocampus face an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's dementia.
A new study found a shortage exists in the number of adults (non-students) who volunteer in academic hospitals.
Viral dynamics have an intrinsic periodicity, or cycle, varying from patient to patient. These forces interact with therapeutically prescribed, structured treatment interruptions (STI) in a way that causes high fluctuations in the patient's viral load and, ultimately, virologic failure.
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