A yeast contribution for the treatment of Parkinson’s disease

Authors of the original paper: Tiago Outeiro e Susan Lindquist

Scientists have just identified several molecules capable of reversing the brain abnormalities of Parkinson’s disease (PD), while also uncovering new clues for its origin in a study just published in the journal Disease Models and Mechanisms¹. PD is characterised by abnormal deposits of a brain protein called alpha-synuclein throughout the damaged brain regions, but exactly what they do there is not clear. The fact that their numbers and spreading are associated disease progression has made them, however, a major point of interest in PD research. The work now published suggests that these deposits are actually a normal physiological process to purge unwanted proteins but, when “overloaded”, they can also cause of the cellular abnormalities seen in PD neurons and, ultimately, neural death.

* This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science. Find all the articles here . Read about this project here.

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Mosquitoes capable of spreading
the West Nile virus exist in large
numbers in the south of Europe

Authors of the original paper: Bruno Gomes e João Pinto

Bruno Gomes e João Pinto

Potentially fatal mosquito-borne West Nile fever (WNF) can become much more widespread in Europe than previously thought, say scientists in a new report just out in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology(1). The disease in temperate climates is carried by a population of Culex pipiens mosquitoes that only bites birds - the disease reservoir host - but Bruno Gomes and colleagues from the Centre for Malaria and Tropical diseases and Institute of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in Portugal found high numbers of hybrids between this population and another one that bites on humans. These hybrids, by feeding on both humans and birds, can act as a bridge transmitting the disease to humans. The study was done in Portugal and follows recent reports of infected mosquitoes and several disease cases in this country.

* This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science. Find all the articles here . Read about this project here.

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Need a helping hand? Just infect a stranger with a cooperative gene!

Authors of the original paper: Teresa Nogueira e Eduardo Rocha

Eduardo Rocha

Cooperation is seen in every corner of life from microbes to humans, many times with no obvious advantages to those that provide it at high costs. Given the existence of “freeloading cheaters” ready to exploit the resources of those cooperating, why is it that cooperation persist?

In an article now published in the journal Current Biology(¹)

Teresa Nogueira

Nogueira and colleagues suggest that in bacteria this can result from highly mobile genes that “jump” from one cell to the next carrying the cooperative traits, effectively turning everyone into a cooperator.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science. Find all the articles here . Read about this project here.

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Calcium is crucial to mend a broken heart say scientists

Authors of the original paper: João Ferreira-Martins
e Carlos Rondon-Clavo

João Martins

Calcium is crucial for heart regeneration by cardiac stem cells following cardiovascular problems say scientists in an article to be published in the journal Circulation Research¹ this 9th of October. The study also identifies the body molecules controlling calcium levels in the stem cells and reveals, how their manipulation, can lead to the formation of new cardiac tissue. The work, that follows the recent surprising discovery of stem cells within the heart, can have important implications in the regenerative medicine of this organ in patients with cardiovascular diseases.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science. Find all the articles here . Read about this project here.

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Discovered key gene for the formation of new neurons

Author of the original paper: Luísa Pinto

Luísa Pinto (clique para ampliar)

Scientists discovered a gene - called AP2gamma – crucial for the neural development of the visual cortex, in a discovery that can have implications for the therapeutics of neural regeneration as well as provide new clues about how the brain evolved into higher sophistication in mammals. The article will come out on the 13th of September in the journal Nature Neuroscience¹.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science. Find all the articles here . Read about this project here.

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Scientists develop a new approach for cancer treatment

Authors of the original paper: David Dingli
e Jorge Pacheco

A new paradigm in the way we look at cancer with important implications on how we treat it is about to be published in the British Journal of Cancer¹ by Portuguese, Belgian and American researchers. The group use a mathematical approach to reveal how - by changing the dynamics of interaction between the cancer cells and those of the affected tissue – it is possible to control and even potentially cure the disease. Even more interesting is the fact that this new approach can be used in any number of pathologies where different cells interact.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science. Find all the articles here . Read about this project here.

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Cicadas – singing a different song

Author of the original paper: José Alberto Quartau

José Alberto Quartau

Cicadas - better known for providing the soundtrack of our hot summer are remarkably interesting animals, they are the longest living insects – 17 years for some species – but spent 99% of this time underground to then emerge for a few weeks, reproduce and finally die. Now a study of north-African and Mediterranean cicadas by scientists in Portugal and the UK uncover yet more interesting data on the group by revealing that these species although differentiated by their mating calls (and genetically) are, nevertheless, morphologically indistinguishable.

**This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science. Find all the articles here . Read about this project here.

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Portuguese scientists discover mechanism how chronic stress leads to bad choices in life

Author of the original paper: Nuno Sousa

Nuno Sousa

Every day we make a multitude of decisions based on the consequences of our actions (goal-orientated responses). In an always changing environment this capacity is crucial but, because it is complex, it also requires a lot from the brain. So repeated actions - like to press the elevator button to our floor - become linked to other type of neural responses, which are automatic and so less demanding. And if necessary it is always possible to switch back to the first kind of response. But research by Portuguese scientists to be published on the 31st of July in the journal Science¹ now reveals that chronic stress – too many times a feature of modern life - interfere with this switching capacity, by freezing individuals into automatic/habit responses mode.

**This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science. Find all the articles here . Read about this project here

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Discovered – key gene for bone development that when mutated lead to dwarfism

Authors of the original paper: Belinda Xavier e Luisa Bonafe

Belinda Xavier

Scientists have just discovered the gene behind Recessive Omodysplasia, a rare skeletal disease characterised by short-limbed dwarfism and craniofacial anomalies. The work, just published in the American Journal of Human Genetics¹, reports the identification, on chromosome 13, of a gene - GPC6 – that is shown to be crucial for normal bone development. The research will allow a better comprehension, as well as prevention, of the disease, by permitting, for example, the screening of potential mutation carriers for pregnancy advise but, and most importantly, will also help to understand better bone development and its molecular bases.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science: http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455  

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Identified key gene behind embryonic stem cells capability to develop into any type of cell

Authors of the original paper: Alexandre Gaspar Maia e Miguel Ramalho-Santo

Alexandre Gaspar Maia

A gene crucial for embryonic stem cell pluripotency (the capability to differentiate into any type of cell) is described in the next issue of the journal Nature1. The gene - called Chd¹ – seems to act by maintaining the genetic material open and, in this way, poised to express any gene. Chd1 is also shown to be fundamental when re-activating differentiated tissue cells in order to create new stem cells. The discovery has implications, not only for a better understanding of stem cells unique characteristics, but also for the process of obtaining them from tissue-specific cells avoiding all the problems associated with embryonic stem cells.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science: http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455  

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Scientists follow live infection by food-poisoning bacteria Listeria

Authors of the original paper: Ana Camejo e Didier Cabanes

Scientists in Portugal and France managed to follow the patterns of gene expression in food-poisoning bacteria Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) live during infection for the first time. The work about to be published in PLoS Pathogens¹ shows how the bacterial genome shifts to better adapt to infection by activating genes involved in virulence and subversion of the host defences, as well as adaptation to the host conditions. This is the first time that the molecular interactions between L. monocytogenes and its host, as they occur during the different steps of infection, are followed in real time paving the way, not only to the development of new therapies against this potentially lethal bacterium, but also for the study of other pathogen/host interactions.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science: http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455

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New clues on the link between Helicobacter pylori and stomach cancer

Authors of the original paper: Ana Machado, Céu Figueiredo, Raquel Seuca e LeneJuel Rasmussen

Heliobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is considered one of the most important risk factors for stomach (or gastric) cancer with as much as 65% of all cases linked back to the bacteria, although exactly how this occurs is not fully clear. But now researchers in Denmark, Portugal and France, publishing in the journal Clinical Cancer Research¹, show that H. pylori infection contribution to cancer can be linked to at least three independent molecular pathways, which, when disturbed by infection, lead to mutations in the patients’ gastric tissues.

* This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science: http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455

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Scientists discovered a new molecular mechanism linking viral infection to cancer susceptibility

Author of the original paper: Pedro Machado Simas

Pedro Simas

Portuguese scientists discovered a new molecular mechanism that allows gamma herpes viruses to chronically infect patients and helps to explain why these patients present an abnormally high incidence of the lymphocyte (or white blood cell) cancer lymphoma, particularly when their immune system is compromised.

The research, just published in the advance online edition of The Embo Journal ¹, reveals how these viruses mimic the host molecular machinery to shutdown NF-kB –a key regulatory protein complex involved in cell division and death – on infected lymphocytes, and how this - probably by disrupting the cells normal regulatory systems - creates the conditions for the development of lymphomas.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science: http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455  

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A new discovered mutation can hold the key to treat a large number of different cancers

Author's of the original paper: Sonia A. Melo e Manel Esteller

Sonia A. Melo, primeira autora do artigo

Scientists have discovered a mutation responsible for cancer progression, a finding with potential implications for the development of treatment against not one, but a series of cancer types since this mutation can be linked to an abnormality recently discovered to exist in all malignancies. The discovery has just been published in the journal Nature Genetics¹.

Sonia Melo from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre in Madrid and the Institute of Molecular Pathology and Immunology in Porto, Portugal and colleagues from laboratories in Spain, Portugal, Finland, Japan and US, in the study now published, worked with MicroRNAs (or miRNAs), which are tinny pieces of RNA that regulate gene expression by aberrantly binding to other RNAs blocking the formation of their corresponding protein (as normally the information in the DNA is translated into RNA, which then go to serve as “blueprint” for protein formation).

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science: http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455

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How to create less selfish societies? Give individuals the freedom to behave as they wish, say researchers

Authors of the original paper: J.M. Pacheco e S. Van Segbroeck

Cooperation, despite being now considered the third force of evolution, just behind mutation and natural selection, is difficult to explain in the context of an evolutionary process based on competition between individuals and selfish behaviour. But this puzzle, that has haunted scientists for decades, is now a little closer to be solved by research about to be published on the journal Physical Review Letters. The work, by scientists in Portugal and Belgium, reveals that an increasing range of behaviours among the individuals of a population leads to cooperation, supporting the idea that democracy - where individuals are free to act as they wish - is in fact the path for better societies.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science: http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455

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Nicotine receptors found for the first time in the mouth raise new hopes for anti-smoking therapies

Author of the original paper:Albino J. Oliveira-Maia

Albino J. Oliveira-Maia

A research team by scientists in Portugal and the US has found for the first time nicotine receptors in the taste buds. In fact, although most of the toxicity of smoking is linked to other components, it is nicotine that leads to smoking addiction and until now it was believed that this substance had to migrate into the brain to bind its specific receptors and provoke its effects. But this new discovery, about to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), reveals a second recognition pathway most probably contributing for addiction and suggesting a possible new target for anti-smoking drugs.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science: http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455

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The difficult task of saving the Iberian Lynx: a new proposal

Authors of the original paper: Raimundo Real e Marcia Barbosa

The Iberian Lynx is now the most endangered cat in the world with only about 160 animals remaining in the wild and, despite extensive research and millions of Euros spent in decades of protection, nothing seems capable to stop this decline. But a totally new approach to its conservation is now being proposed by Portuguese and Spanish researchers in an article to appear in the journal Diversity and Distributions¹ where it is defended that the key to the lynx survival is the restoration of the animal original habitat as well as the full genetic range of its prey, the European rabbit. The work is based on the study of the geographical distribution of two interacting species over time, and reveals how this type of approach can bring a total different view into the conservation of species resistant to more traditional interventions, such as the lynx.

** This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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How the Nodal family of genes keep you heart in the right (asymmetric) place

Study's first authors: Maria Inês Medeiros de Campos-Baptista, Alexander F. Schier

Inês Baptista

Asymmetry is crucial for the heart proper functioning, and now, scientists from the Institute Gulbenkian of Science in Portugal and Harvard University, have discovered that a family of genes, called Nodal, is crucial determining this asymmetry by controlling the speed and direction of the heart muscle cells during embryonic development. The finding, by helping to understand how the heart develops, is a step closer to intervene and is of particular importance if we consider that problems in heart asymmetry are the main cause of heart congenital diseases that can affect as much as 8 out of 1000 newborns. The research will appear in a special December issue of the journal Development Dynamics 1 dedicated to left-right asymmetry development.

* This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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Gene regulation – it’s all in the DNA

Study’s first authors: Michael D. Wilson, Nuno Barbosa-Morais, Duncan T. Odom

Scientists in Cambridge, UK, using a mouse with a human chromosome in its cells, discovered that gene expression, contrary to what was previously thought, is mostly controlled by regulatory DNA sequences. Mice and humans (and most vertebrates) share the majority of their genes but a distinct gene regulation – so, when and where these shared genes become activated – assures their many individual characteristics, and knowledge of this regulation is crucial if we want one day to be able to control gene expression. These new results - just published on the journal Science – challenge current belief that gene regulation is mediated by a combination of many factors, implying that, to be able to understand the mechanisms behind different specialised cells, scientists will have to track species-specific regulatory pieces of DNA, what will be no easy task. The research has implications in the study of phenomena as diverse as genetic diseases, tissue and organ growth and even cloning.

* This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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A new improved gene therapy can be the first treatment for Machado-Joseph disease

Authors of the original paper: Sandro Alves e Almeida

Portuguese, Swiss and French researchers show, for the first time, that is possible to inhibit, in a living organism, the mutated copies of a gene without affecting any existing normal copies of the same gene. The research, to appear in the 8th of October edition of the journal PLoS One, describes how scientists successfully used the approach in rats to reverse the symptoms of Machado Joseph Disease (MJD), an untreatable and potentially fatal neurodegenerative disease. If these results can be transferred to humans – and the method is shown to work on isolated human cells - it can, not only become the first available treatment for MJD, but also open the door to promising new safer and more efficient gene therapy for other neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.

* This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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I have faith, therefore, I have less pain : Scientists discover brain area linked to pain resistance during intense religious experiences

Author of the original paper: Katja Wiech e Miguel Farias

Religious emotions and believes have often been linked to a capacity to deal with pain, as those images of Philippine men being willingly crucified during religious festivals so well demonstrate. But although changes in pain sensitivity during a religious experience are well documented, the exact psychological or/and neurological reasons of the phenomenon are unclear and, as such, have now become the aim of an investigation by a group of scientists, philosophers and psychologists from the University of Oxford.

* This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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How friendly bacteria avoids immune attack to live happily in the gut

Authors of the original paper: Nouara Lhocine, Paulo S. Ribeiro e Francois Leulier

Paulo S. Ribeiro

For a long time scientists have been puzzled by the fact that the immune system in the gut is capable of fighting toxic bacterial infection while staying, at the same time, tolerant to its resident “friendly” bacteria. But an article now published in the journal Cell Host & Microbe(1) is starting to open the door to this mystery by revealing how a recently discovered gene - pims – is activated by the gut immune response against friendly bacteria to rapidly suppress it, effectively creating tolerance to the gut microbiota.

* This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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Scientists 1: Animal Rights Extremists 0 (A new proof on why mice and other mammals are good experimental models to understand human biology)

Authors of the original paper: Jorge M. Pacheco, David Dingli e Arne Traulsen

The architecture of haematopoiesis – which is the process by which all blood cells originate – is essentially the same throughout the mammal world, report scientists in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. This is an unexpected result considering the thousands of mammals’ species with a myriad of habitats and lifestyles, as so well demonstrated when comparing the 30 mm flying bumblebee bat and the 30 metre-long aquatic blue whale both mammals. But the work now published shows that the variations in the blood system - necessary to adapt to the evolutionary changes found within the mammals’ world - can be explained quantitatively (for example by producing more cells or having the cells dividing faster), and are directly correlated to the animals’ body mass and do not require any fundamental alteration in the haematopoietic process.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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How a simple mathematic formula is starting to explain the bizarre prevalence of altruism in society

Authors of the original paper:Francisco C. Santos, Marta D. Santos e Jorge M. Pacheco

 Why do humans cooperate in things as diverse as environment conservation or the creation of fairer societies, even when they don't receive anything in exchange or, worst, they might even be penalized? This is a question that has puzzled academics for centuries, especially since in evolution the basis for the "survival of the fittest" is, after all, selfishness. But in an article just published in the journal Nature, three Portuguese theoretical physicists developed a mathematical model capable of providing a way out from this conundrum through the introduction of social diversity - a ubiquitous characteristic of modern social networks - and suggesting that that the act of cooperation may depend on one's social context/ranking.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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A new molecular mechanism for colorectal cancer: a new target for cancer therapies

Authors of the original paper: Paulo Matos, Peter Jordan e Raquel Seruca

Scientists in Portugal just found a new molecular mechanism behind colorectal cancer in which a mutated and a normal, but over-expressed, gene cooperate and are both needed to create the disease. The research, published in the journal Gastroenteroloy¹, also reveals how a technique called RNA interference can – by inactivating both genes - kill, in just 48 hours, as much as 80% of cancer cells. These are extremely promising results if transferred into new therapies for humans against a disease that still is one of the most common cancers in the western world.

 *This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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How to construct a «firefly» worm

Authors of the original paper: Cristina Lagido e L. Anne Glover

Cristina Lagido (clique para ampliar)

Research describing a new modified luminescent worm that allows, for the first time, to measure, in real time, the metabolism of an entire living organism has just been published in the journal BMC Physiology¹. The key behind this capacity relies in the fact that the luminescence is produced using the animal’s available energy, which reflects its metabolism that, as such, can be extrapolated from measuring the emitted light. The new altered Caenorhabditis elegans (C.elegans) - which is widely used to study human genes - by detecting metabolic changes in the exact moment these occur, will help to understand the cause behind these changes and contribute to understand C. elegans (and human) genes, as well as the mechanisms behind disease and health. In fact, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease and different types of stress – such as starvation and oxygen deprivation - are just some of the phenomena characterised by visible metabolic changes that can now be further investigated using this new animal model.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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A new animal model for Machado Joseph disease involves yet another brain area in the disorder

Authors of the original paper: Sandro Alves e Luís Pereira de Almeida

Machado Joseph disease (MJD) is a neurodegenerative disorder associated with deposits of an aberrant form of the protein ataxin-3 in the brain. The disease is also fatal and the most common hereditary motor neurodegenerative disease in many countries. Despite this, not much is known about MJD including the neurological basis of some of its symptoms, which cannot be linked to the brain damage found in patients. But now, researchers in Portugal and France using a new animal model of the disease were able to show, for the first time, that MJD also affects the striatum, a brain area associated with movement and balance control.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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A diaphanous control during embryo formation

Authors of the original paper: Catarina Homem e Mark Peifer

Catarina Homem

A gene called Diaphanous (or Dia) has just been uncovered as a major regulator during embryo formation. The research now published in the journal Development shows how Dia mutations in fruit flies embryos result in a serious of defects during morphogenesis (process by which cells differentiate into tissues and structures), including loss of adhesion, abnormal movements and even migration of cells from one tissue to another. The discovery contributes to a better understanding of how tissue and organ formation is regulated and, consequently, to, one day, be able to intervene therapeutically. Furthermore, the loss of adhesion and abnormal mobility that occurs when Dia is mutated is very similar to what happens during cancer metastases formation, suggesting that this gene might also have a role in cancer.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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Food calories - independently of its taste - are directly recognised by the brain, says new research

Authors of the original paper: Albino J. Oliveira-Maia e Ivan E. de Araujo

Albino Maia

We all know how pleasurable it is too eat a chocolate and how difficult it is, once we started, to stop. Scientists know that it is the recognition of its sweet taste in the mouth, activating the brain to produce dopamine – a neurotransmitter associated with strong feelings of pleasure – that leads to a desire for more. But while this hedonistic effect of food in the brain is well known, new research reveals that calories - per se - can do exactly the same. The study, to be published on the 27th of March issue of the journal Neuron, reveals that not only can calories induce dopamine release - independently of food palatability- but also, that this is done through activation of a same brain area responsive to sweet tastes.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

ND - Ver entrevista com Albino Maia em http://www.cienciahoje.pt/index.php?oid=25727&op=all

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A new "2 in 1" anticoagulant is isolated from a tick

Authors of the original paper:Sandra Macedo-Ribeiro, Pedro José Barbosa Pereira

The discovery of a new anticoagulant with promising therapeutic value is reported on the 20th of February issue of the journal PLoS ONE(1). Boophilin – as it was named - is particularly interesting due to a capability to block thrombin – probably the most important (and difficult to inhibit) protein in blood clotting – as well as a second pro-coagulant molecule making it the first bivalent thrombin-inhibitor ever described. This specific bivalence suggests that boophilin can be a very effective anti-coagulant even at small quantities, opening the door to the development of new more specific and effective, and so also safer, blood thinning therapies.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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A few more pieces for the puzzle that is Alzheimer's disease

Authors of the original paper: Ivo Martins, Inna Kuperstein, Joost Schymkowitz e Frederic Rousseau

Ivo Martins

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) affects as much as 10% of the world population above 65 years of age but after years of research it is still not understood exactly how the disease appears and, even less, how to treat it. But work just published in The EMBO Journal (1) opens the door to new ways for disease intervention by showing that lipids found throughout the brain can dissolve the large insoluble protein plaques characteristic of the disease, releasing their soluble protofibrillar components, and also that it is the soluble components and not the insoluble plaques that provoke neural death.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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In Embryonic Stem Cells gene inactivation can have a totally new meaning

Author of the original paper: Ana Pombo

Embryonic stem cells (ESC) can both self-renew or differentiate into the many cells of the organism and it is crucial to understand the mechanism behind this capability if we want to use them in clinic. Developmental regulator genes are responsible for the activation of many ESC differentiation-pathways and, as such, they are a fundamental key to understand them. And now, research about to be published in Nature Cell Biology, reveals that these genes -always believed to be inactive in ESC before differentiation start - when apparently silent (non-active) are in fact poised, already on the first steps of gene activation only unable to go further due to the presence of repressor molecules.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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How a stressful life can contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease

Authors of the original paper: C Catania, Nuno Sousa e OFX Almeida

Nuno Sousa, Universidade do Minho

Research about to published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, resulting from a collaboration between scientists in Germany, Portugal and the UK, suggests that stress contribute directly to the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). According to the results now published, stress induces the production of amyloid beta (Aß) peptide – the molecule associated with the neural plaques characteristic of the disease – and also makes neurons more vulnerable to Aß toxicity. Administration of glucocorticoids (GC) - the production of which is the first physiological response to stress – was shown to have the same effect, confirming the role of stress in AD. This last result is particularly important as GC are used to treat Alzheimer’s patients and according to this research instead of helping they might be, instead, contributing to the disease.

*This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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How ecstasy can kill brain neurons by cutting their power supply

Authors of the original paper: Ema Alves, Teresa Summavielle e Félix de Carvalho

Félix de Carvalho é um dos autores do estudo

Research by Portuguese scientists reveals how ecstasy can compromise the neurons in the brain by damaging their mitochondria – the structures responsible for energy production in the cell - causing the equivalent to a “power-cut” on the affected neurons. The work to be published in the Journal of Neuroscience (1) also reveals that a drug used in Parkinson’s disease is capable of prevent this damage. By showing how ecstasy can directly compromise such a crucial cellular process the research might help an eventual resolution of the two decade-long debate over whether or not ecstasy use is dangerous.

* This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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BubR1: new clues for Down Syndrome?

Authors of the original paper: Cláudio Sunkel e J. E. Tomkiel

Scientists in Portugal and the US have discovered a key mechanism involved in the correct separation of chromosomes during the formation of eggs and sperm. The research about to be published in the journal Current Biology shows that BubR1- a gene recently shown to affect cell division – maintains the cohesion of paired chromosomes (until their time to divide) during the production of reproductive cells. Because BubR1 mutations can result in cells with abnormal numbers of chromosomes, the research has potential implications for human disorders resulting from loss or gain of chromosomes such as Down Syndrome, a disease caused by an extra copy of chromosome 21.

* This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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Bacteria mutate much more than thought

Authors of the original paper:Lidia Perfeito e Isabel Gordo

Isabel Gordo

Portuguese scientists in a study just published in the journal Science(1) shows that in bacteria the rate of beneficial mutations – those that increase the capacity of an organism to survive in a particular environment – is much higher than previously thought. In the case of Escherichia coli, the bacteria studied, this is as much as 1,000 times higher than previously believed. The study also suggests that many more genes than previously thought mutate during bacteria adaptation to a new environment. Both results - a much higher rate of advantageous mutations and a bigger number of genes mutating - have important implications for studies in antibiotic resistance and also on how bacteria capacity to attack their host develops.

* This article is the result of a project for the divulgation of portuguese science" http://www.cienciahoje.pt/1455"

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