Catarina Amorim

Astrocytes, the cells
that make the background of the brain and support neurons, might be behind mental
disorders such as depression and schizophrenia, according to new research by a
Portuguese team from the ICVS at the University of Minho.  The study, in this month Molecular Psychiatry, shows how a simple reduction of astrocytes in
the prefrontal cortex (which is linked to cognition) can kill its neurons and
lead to the cognitive deficits that characterise several mental diseases.

Portuguese government shuts down half of the research units in the countryThe Portuguese funding agency for science (Fundação para a Ciência e aTecnologia – FCT) has just announced lthat it will stop  funding nearly half of the research units in the country (154 units out of 322), which means to destroy the career of about a third of the total number of researchers in the country (5187 out of 15444).

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease that infects 243million people worldwide, and kills about 200 thousand every year. Theinfection is contracted through contaminated waters, and in the developingworld, where is most common, is 2nd only to malaria in rates of infection andpublic health impact.To make things worse, women, already one of the most vulnerable groups in these regions, often develop infertility secondary to the infection, with the parasite being a main cause for the problem in these regions . Places where female role is centred on being a mother, and gynaecological medical care is next to inexistent. 

Some
genetic diseases caused by an abnormal repeat in the DNA are known to become
more severe with each new generation - this dreadful trait is called anticipation.
Now a study by Portuguese researchers from Porto University has proved for the first time the existence of anticipation
in diseases caused by a different type of errors that not a DNA repeat, in this case in the fatal neurodegenerative
disorder Familial Amyloid Polyneuropathy
(FAP). 

“The gift that
keeps on taking” someone called it. It starts with a little twitching that you
think it will go away, but instead grows and soon your limbs shake, your balance
and coordination lost. Parkinson’s disease (PD) affects almost 10 million
people worldwide, but many more still undiagnosed until their symptoms
emerge often years into the disease. It is also incurable.

In times of
easy access to the Internet and cheap travel, we consider ourselves part of a global society, but
how connected this really makes us will surprise many of us.

Vaccines are the safest, cheapest and most effective way
to protect against infectious diseases  but to make a good one remains a
challenge, and traditional approaches are now stretched to the limit while
fatal diseases, like HIV and malaria, remain without vaccine.  But a major breakthrough that turns vaccine design on its head has now been published in Nature on the 6th of February - a new computational method that, from the protective antibodies of patients, can design the vaccine specific to induce them (and protect against the disease).

The desert locust (a type of grasshopper), much like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, goes from being an innocuous solitary-living individual to become a voracious gregarious animal that destroys everything on its path (and back).

A week ago, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) delivered to massive media coverage an unsettling message – climate change is real, humans are the main cause of it, and unless we stop the warming of the planet, in 50 years life as we know will be no more. The problem now, is that despite in numerous attempts, world consensus on how to do it has proved impossible.Research in Nature Climate Change by
a Portuguese team known worldwide for their studies on cooperation claims to have not only identified the root of the problem but also its solution.

A stressful pregnancy might be the last thing a future mother needs, but it is to her unborn baby that this stress spells real trouble. All because stress hormones (called glucocorticoids or GCs) can disrupt foetal brain development, leading to serious behavioural and emotional problems, much in the same way that traumas early in life can result in children with serious mental problems. 

New research just out in the
journal Science Translational Medicine opens
the door for treatments capable of stopping Alzheimer’s
disease (AD) before its first symptoms, that is to say before crucial
damage occurs. In fact, while AD is a devastating disorder, it is also an extremely
slow one; it takes more than 10 years for the first symptoms to appear making
this preclinical period (pre-symptoms) the ideal time to intervene. 

We all know about
people’s personalities, and anyone with a dog or a cat will also tell you about
their temperaments. More surprising, though, is how many others, from octopuses
to frogs and even spiders have them. So why behave according to a personality,
when flexibility could allow smarter choices?