RADIATIONS AND ALZHEIMER'S SYNDROME

RADIATIONS MAY CAUSE ALZHEIMER'S

Ionizing radiations from medical equipments,aeroplans,may cause destruction of neurons especially at hippo campus region of the brain and eventually leads to the development of Alzheimer's Disease(AD), a newer study reveals.

In elderly patients AD causes a kind of dementia which erases totally their past memories.It is estimated that dementia's global prevalence is supposed to increase in the coming eras upto 80 million patients by 2040.

Dr.Stefan J.Kempf from University of Southern Denmark says it is crucial that we investigate AD.

His research is mainly on the possible connections between radiations and memory impairments.

Hippocampus is situated in cerebral subcortical region at the mid temporal lobe.Hippocampus is the brain center for memories and orientations.Hippocampus is the first part of the brain that gets damaged in AD.

In a new study he and an inernational team of research collegues from Italy,Japan,Germany,and Denmark prove that low doses of ionizing radiation induce molecular changes in the brain that are similar to AD's symptoms.

The study has been published in Oncotarget.

Every occasions people of various ages are increasingly exposed to ionizing radiations from various sources and situations such as travelling in an airplane,working with a nuclear medical equipment,(X-ray,CT scan etc.). 

Unfortunately it is true that approximately one third of all diagnostic CT scans are scans of the head region.

According to Dr.Kempf statement all these exposures are low doses of ionizing radiations only and if they are once in a life time event then it may not be a concern.But in reality these exposes are more frequent and unavoidable as the needs of the modern times and hence it is a serious concern that because of these frequent exposures we do not know how much the accumulations of these frequent radiations and their effects.

A recent study shown that even a smaller dose of radiation supplied by a few CT scan examination can damage neorons of cognitive regions of the brain.

It has been proved by the research study that there are molecular damages by low dose ionizing radiations at the hippocampus of the mice.

The researches induced changes in the hippocampus by two kinds of chronic low doses of ionizing radiation treatments.The mice were exposed to cumulative doses of 0.3Gy or 6.0Gy given at low dose rate of 1mGy over 24 hrs or 20 mGy over 24 hrs for 300 days 

Both these rates are capable of inducing molecular changes similar to AD.

When a patient undergoes head scan,the dose varies between 20 to 100 mGy.and last for about one minute.

When a person flies in an airplan he or she gets exposure to ionizing radiation from the space but the rates are by far smaller than the CT scan.

 

NEWS UPDATE-AN EMINENT APPROACH TO CURE PARKINSON'S DISEASE

AN EMINENT TRIAL TO CURE P.D.

Parkinson Disease is a devastating body condition that affects movements.The disease is progressive and brain wasting.The symptoms are tremors in the hands,limbs,jaws,and face;muscuar rigidity;impaired posture and gait.Speech problems also.

Depletion of an hormone called dopamine in P.D because there are  unexplained damages of the dopamine cells in a part of the brain called substantia nigra.As the disease progresses the dopamine cells malfunctioning and die leading to insufficient secretion and circulation of dopamine.

Dopamine the hormone is functioning as a chemical messenger necessary for controlling movements.

Now a modern techniques of stem cell therapies for brain diseases such as P.D.is rapidly moving towards clinical trials.

However before the trial get ralized,it is very important to clear away the possiblities of consistantly produce high quality stem cells for transplant.

Now scientists in Sweden have foundout some insights plus a set of markers that should help control the quality of stem cells engineered for use in P.D.

The researches are conducted by the teams from the Lund University and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm,Sweden.

Their work has been published in the journal Cell-Stem Cell.

In the study the researchers take a close look a the molecular pathways involved in the journey from a stem cells to a dopamine neuron.

In the other study they found out some important features of dopamine cell development and what make these cells different from other similar and neighbouring neuron.

The results should help fine-tune stem cell engineering to produce pure populations of high-quality dopamine neurons they said.

The main purpose of this study is to successfully a pool of progenitor cells into the brain of the patients so that they can make new supplies of dopamine cells,because he natural dopamine cell that dwindles during the progression of P.D.will not be able to regenerate or replaced by the body.

The teams in 2014,they showed how it is possible to produce dopamine cells from embryonic stem cells and transplant them into the brain of the rats that suffered from P.D. to replace the damaged cells.

In one of their papers they found out that it is not possible to just produce a population of active dopamin cells in a dish and induce hem into the brain.

They found that in case of brain disease like P.D.first of all they have implant immature stem cells to let them to differentiate and mature after planted into the brain which may take several months.

The declaration by  the author Dr.Agnete Kirkeby,Lund University is as follows.

"We have identified a specific set of markers that correlate with high dopaminergic yield and graft function afer transplantation in animal models of P.D.

Guided by this study we have developed better and more accurate methods for producing dopamine cells for clinical use in a reproducible way"