Down syndrome or trisomy 21, also Down’s syndrome, is a genetic disorder, associated with some impairment of cognitive ability and physical growth as well as facial appearance, usually identified at birth.
Stem cell transplant restores memory, learning in mice – A study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is the first to show that human stem cells can successfully implant themselves in the brain and then heal neurological deficits, says senior author Su-Chun Zhang, a professor of neuroscience and neurology.
Cholesterol increases risk of Alzheimer’s and heart disease – High levels of blood cholesterol increase the risk of both Alzheimer’s disease and heart disease, but it has been unclear exactly how cholesterol damages the brain to promote Alzheimer’s disease and blood vessels to promote atherosclerosis.
Prenatal intervention reduces learning deficit in mice — NIH study shows improvements in animals with Down syndrome characteristics – Mice with a condition that serves as a laboratory model for Down syndrome perform better on memory and learning tasks as adults if they were treated before birth with neuroprotective peptides, according to researchers at the National Institutes of Health.
deCODE Genetics Study Finds Father?s Age?Not Mother?s Critical to New Mutations Passed to Offspring — Nature Published Study Signals Rise in Autism Spectrum Disorder May Be Partially Tied to Increasing Age of Fathers at Time When Children are Conceived – deCODE Genetics, a global leader in analyzing and understanding the human genome, in collaboration with Illumina, a global leader in the making of instruments to analyze the genome, reported in the journal Nature that a father?s age, not a mother?s, at the time a child is conceived is the single largest contributor to the passing of new hereditary mutations to offspring.
Study finds Alzheimer’s disease link in eyes of children with Down syndrome — Findings may lead to eye tests for brain disease in Alzheimer’s and Down syndrome – Researchers are going to develop an innovative eye test for early detection of Alzheimer’s disease and Down syndrome. As they discovered the protein that forms plaques in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease also accumulates in the eyes of people with Down syndrome.
Ultrasound enhances noninvasive Down syndrome tests – The addition of a “genetic sonogram” maximizes the accuracy of non-invasive testing for Down syndrome, revealed by US researchers.
New Down syndrome treatment suggested by Stanford/Packard study — Cognitive dysfunction reversed in mouse model of Down syndrome. – Findings from the Stanford University School of Medicine and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital shed light on the neural basis of memory defects in Down syndrome and suggest a new strategy for treating the defects with medication.
Patients with Down syndrome have a reduced risk for cancer focused on endostatin, an anti-angiogenic compound made by the body. – Most cancers are rare in people with Down syndrome, whose overall cancer mortality is below 10 percent of that in the general population.
New prenatal test for Down syndrome less risky than amniocentesis, Stanford/Packard scientists say. – Pregnant women worried about their babies’ genetic health face a tough decision: get prenatal gene testing and risk miscarriage, or skip the tests and miss the chance to learn of genetic defects before birth.
Healthy men who report lower levels of the nutrient folate in their diets have higher rates of chromosomal abnormalities in their sperm. – Healthy men who report lower levels of the nutrient folate in their diets have higher rates of chromosomal abnormalities in their sperm, according to a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
