The application of stem cells for research and treatment of neurological disorders

Neðst á síðunni er hægt að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn View/OpenIt has long been a common view that neurons in the human central nervous system were not capable of self renewal. But in the mid-1990s scientists discovered that certain areas of the human brain do have the ability generate new neurons, at least under certain circumstances. It was subsecuently confirmed that the human central nervous system contains stem cells similar to the cells which originally give rise to the central nervous sysem during fetal development. The possible use of stem cells in the treatment of various neurological disorders, holds great promise. However, much research needs to be carried out before stem cell therapy can be moved from the bench to the bedside. Now researchers are pursuing two fundamental strategies to exploit the possible application of stem cells. One is to cultivate stem cells in vitro and to design the right differentiation profile of cells suitable for implantation. The other strategy relies on studying endogenous signals that could stimulate the patient s own stem cells and repair mechanisms. Here we give an overview of neural stem cells and their possible future use in the treatment of neural diseases such as Parkinson s disease, Motor Neuron Disease and Spinal cord injury.Lengi hefur verið talið að taugafrumur manna hefðu enga eða takmarkaða hæfileika til endurnýjunar. Nánast var um kennisetningu að ræða þrátt fyrir að endurnýjun taugafrumna væri að einhverju leyti þekkt til dæmis hjá fuglum og froskum. Það var svo á miðjum tíunda áratug síðustu aldar að vísindamenn komust að því að á vissum svæðum í mannsheilanum færi fram endurnýjun taugafrumna. Í framhaldi af þessu var staðfest að taugavefur manna inniheldur stofnfrumur. Eru þær taldar líkjast þeim frumum sem eru uppruni taugakerfisins í fósturþroska. Miklar væntingar eru bundnar við notkun stofnfrumna til lækninga á ýmsum sjúkdómum. Í grundvallaratriðum eru tvær megin leiðir mögulegar til að nálgast þetta markmið. Annars vegar er það ræktun stofnfrumna utan líkama sem svo eru græddar í sérhæfðu eða ósérhæfðu ástandi í sjúkling í þeim tilgangi að lækna vefjaskaða. Hins vegar eru rannsóknir á umhverfi stofnfrumna. Aukin þekking á umhverfi vefjastofnfrumna og á þáttum sem stuðla að endurnýjun og sérhæfingu þeirra gæti leitt til þess að hægt sé að örva vefjastofnfrumur sjúklingsins og efla þannig hin innlægu viðgerðarferli sem gera líkamanum kleift að takast á við sjúkdóma eða slys með áhrifaríkari hætti en áður. Markmið þessarar greinar er að gefa stutt yfirlit yfir stöðu mála og framtíðarsýn hvað varðar rannsóknir á taugastofnfrumum og mögulega nýtingu þeirra til lækninga á sjúkdómum á borð við Parkinsonsjúkdóm, hreyfitaugungahrörnun og mænuskaða

Illness severity and risk of mental morbidities among patients recovering from COVID-19: a cross-sectional study in the Icelandic population.

To access publisher's full text version of this article, please click on the hyperlink in Additional Links field or click on the hyperlink at the top of the page marked DownloadObjective: To test if patients recovering from COVID-19 are at increased risk of mental morbidities and to what extent such risk is exacerbated by illness severity. Design: Population-based cross-sectional study. Setting: Iceland. Participants: A total of 22 861 individuals were recruited through invitations to existing nationwide cohorts and a social media campaign from 24 April to 22 July 2020, of which 373 were patients recovering from COVID-19. Main outcome measures: Symptoms of depression (Patient Health Questionnaire), anxiety (General Anxiety Disorder Scale) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; modified Primary Care PTSD Screen for DSM-5) above screening thresholds. Adjusting for multiple covariates and comorbidities, multivariable Poisson regression was used to assess the association between COVID-19 severity and mental morbidities. Results: Compared with individuals without a diagnosis of COVID-19, patients recovering from COVID-19 had increased risk of depression (22.1% vs 16.2%; adjusted relative risk (aRR) 1.48, 95% CI 1.20 to 1.82) and PTSD (19.5% vs 15.6%; aRR 1.38, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.75) but not anxiety (13.1% vs 11.3%; aRR 1.24, 95% CI 0.93 to 1.64). Elevated relative risks were limited to patients recovering from COVID-19 that were 40 years or older and were particularly high among individuals with university education. Among patients recovering from COVID-19, symptoms of depression were particularly common among those in the highest, compared with the lowest tertile of influenza-like symptom burden (47.1% vs 5.8%; aRR 6.42, 95% CI 2.77 to 14.87), among patients confined to bed for 7 days or longer compared with those never confined to bed (33.3% vs 10.9%; aRR 3.67, 95% CI 1.97 to 6.86) and among patients hospitalised for COVID-19 compared with those never admitted to hospital (48.1% vs 19.9%; aRR 2.72, 95% CI 1.67 to 4.44). Conclusions: Severe disease course is associated with increased risk of depression and PTSD among patients recovering from COVID-19. Keywords: COVID-19; epidemiology; mental health; public health.Icelandic government NordFors

November [picture] /

Also available in an electronic version via the Internet at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-an14108969-32; Exhibited: "Shadows in the dust : a contemporary portrait of Aboriginal station life". Touring exhibition, 1996-1998.Peter Sellars, Willie Lawrence and their horses drink from the dam whilst the mob of cattle they've mustered find shade from the stifling November heat, Glen Garland Station, Queensland, 199

The application of stem cells for research and treatment of neurological disorders

Neðst á síðunni er hægt að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn View/OpenIt has long been a common view that neurons in the human central nervous system were not capable of self renewal. But in the mid-1990s scientists discovered that certain areas of the human brain do have the ability generate new neurons, at least under certain circumstances. It was subsecuently confirmed that the human central nervous system contains stem cells similar to the cells which originally give rise to the central nervous sysem during fetal development. The possible use of stem cells in the treatment of various neurological disorders, holds great promise. However, much research needs to be carried out before stem cell therapy can be moved from the bench to the bedside. Now researchers are pursuing two fundamental strategies to exploit the possible application of stem cells. One is to cultivate stem cells in vitro and to design the right differentiation profile of cells suitable for implantation. The other strategy relies on studying endogenous signals that could stimulate the patient s own stem cells and repair mechanisms. Here we give an overview of neural stem cells and their possible future use in the treatment of neural diseases such as Parkinson s disease, Motor Neuron Disease and Spinal cord injury.Lengi hefur verið talið að taugafrumur manna hefðu enga eða takmarkaða hæfileika til endurnýjunar. Nánast var um kennisetningu að ræða þrátt fyrir að endurnýjun taugafrumna væri að einhverju leyti þekkt til dæmis hjá fuglum og froskum. Það var svo á miðjum tíunda áratug síðustu aldar að vísindamenn komust að því að á vissum svæðum í mannsheilanum færi fram endurnýjun taugafrumna. Í framhaldi af þessu var staðfest að taugavefur manna inniheldur stofnfrumur. Eru þær taldar líkjast þeim frumum sem eru uppruni taugakerfisins í fósturþroska. Miklar væntingar eru bundnar við notkun stofnfrumna til lækninga á ýmsum sjúkdómum. Í grundvallaratriðum eru tvær megin leiðir mögulegar til að nálgast þetta markmið. Annars vegar er það ræktun stofnfrumna utan líkama sem svo eru græddar í sérhæfðu eða ósérhæfðu ástandi í sjúkling í þeim tilgangi að lækna vefjaskaða. Hins vegar eru rannsóknir á umhverfi stofnfrumna. Aukin þekking á umhverfi vefjastofnfrumna og á þáttum sem stuðla að endurnýjun og sérhæfingu þeirra gæti leitt til þess að hægt sé að örva vefjastofnfrumur sjúklingsins og efla þannig hin innlægu viðgerðarferli sem gera líkamanum kleift að takast á við sjúkdóma eða slys með áhrifaríkari hætti en áður. Markmið þessarar greinar er að gefa stutt yfirlit yfir stöðu mála og framtíðarsýn hvað varðar rannsóknir á taugastofnfrumum og mögulega nýtingu þeirra til lækninga á sjúkdómum á borð við Parkinsonsjúkdóm, hreyfitaugungahrörnun og mænuskaða

Interior of prisoners' barracks, Maria Island, Tasmania ca 1900 [picture] /

Title from caption.; Part of collection: Albums of photographs of Tasmania, 1820-1860.; Condition: Yellowing; glued to album page.; Also available in an electronic version via the Internet at: http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic-vn4235717