Duke University Medical Center scientists have made a significant finding that could lead to better drugs for several degenerative diseases including Huntington's disease and Alzheimer's disease.

Researchers at Peninsula Medical School in the South West of England, San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan and Cancer Research UK, have for first time identified protein that is key to regeneration of damage in peripheral nervous system and which could with further research lead to understanding diseases of our peripheral nervous systems and provide clues to methods of repairing damage in central nervous system, according to paper published this week in Journal of Cell Biology.

A team of medical researchers led by Dr Ruth Kluck at Melbourne’s Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) has discovered a key step in the mechanism by which cells destroy themselves. In this process, called “apoptosis”, certain proteins cause the cell to self-destruct by puncturing its “power plant.” How the proteins do this has been clarified by the WEHI team. The discovery is an important step towards the identification of targets for drugs designed to regulate cell death.

In the 1960s, Ancer Keys, a US expert on nutrition, studied the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet for the first time. Since then many studies on the benefits of olive oil have been conducted.

A remarkable change takes place in the brains of tiny songbirds every year, and some day the mechanism controlling that change may help researchers develop treatments for age-related degenerative diseases of the brain such as Parkinson’s and dementia.

Glycine is a non-essential amino acid used by the organism to synthesise proteins and is present in foods such as fish, meat or dairy products.

Researchers said today they have identified the mechanism of action of lipoic acid, a remarkable compound that in animal experiments appears to slow down the process of aging, improve blood flow, enhance immune function and perform many other functions.

A new study from researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) shows that treadmill exercises may benefit patients with Parkinson's Disease and those with similar movement disorders.

Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, type 2 diabetes, the human version of mad cow disease, and other degenerative diseases are more closely related at the molecular level than scientists realized, a team reports this week in an advanced online publication of the journal Nature.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a degenerative disease affecting the central nervous system of 400,000 Americans with 200 more diagnosed each week. The disease causes reduced nerve function and consequently a variety of symptoms. The most commonly reported symptoms include muscle weakness, spasticity, excess fatigue and depression, which often results in a vicious cycle of reduced mobility and decreased physical activity.