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View Full Version : Tiny gene change affects brain size, IQ: scientists



Mister D
04-17-2012, 02:07 PM
PARIS — An international team of scientists said Sunday the largest brain study of its kind had found a gene linked to intelligence, a small piece in the puzzle as to why some people are smarter than others.
A variant of this gene "can tilt the scales in favour of a higher intelligence", study leader Paul Thompson told AFP, stressing though that genetic blessings were not the only factor in brainpower.
Searching for a genetic explanation for brain disease, the scientists stumbled upon a minute variant in a gene called HMGA2 among people who had larger brains and scored higher on standardised IQ tests.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5h7gYRMF5mYp-vUbSUIwAjx03IOdw?

waltky
10-23-2012, 03:58 PM
Yea, dat's why Uncle Ferd has Granny mow the lawn - it's good exercise fer her...
:cool2:
Exercising in your 70s 'may stop brain shrinkage'
22 October 2012 - Regular exercise protects the brain, experts suspect


Exercising in your 70s may stop your brain from shrinking and showing the signs of ageing linked to dementia, say experts from Edinburgh University. Brain scans of 638 people past the age of retirement showed those who were most physically active had less brain shrinkage over a three-year period. Exercise did not have to be strenuous - going for a walk several times a week sufficed, the journal Neurology says. But giving the mind a workout by doing a tricky crossword had little impact.

The study found no real brain-size benefit from mentally challenging activities, such as reading a book, or other pastimes such as socialising with friends and family. When the researchers examined the brain's white matter - the wiring that transmits messages round the brain - they found that the people over the age of 70 who were more physically active had fewer damaged areas than those who did little exercise.

And they had more grey matter - the parts of the brain where the messages originate. Experts already know that our brains tend to shrink as we age and that this shrinkage is linked to poorer memory and thinking. And previous studies have shown that exercise helps reduce the risk of dementia and can slow down its onset. But scientists are still baffled about why this is.

'Never too late' (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-20026099)

Chris
10-23-2012, 04:45 PM
The gene is also related to height. Anyway, another report:
...There is little dispute that genetics accounts for a large amount of the variation in people's intelligence, but studies have consistently failed to find any single genes that have a substantial impact. Instead, researchers typically find that hundreds of genes contribute.

...But the effect – although measurable – is small: the gene alters IQ by just 1.29 points....

"It seems like the biggest single-gene impact we know of that affects IQ," says Paul Thompson of the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the collaboration of 207 researchers. "But it's not a massive effect on IQ overall," he says.

The variant is in a gene called HMGA2, which has previously been linked with people's height....

...Steven Pinker, an author and professor of neuropsychology at Harvard University, agrees. "It's an important finding, assuming it holds up," he says. Pinker says that the findings are a first step in demonstrating that intelligence relies on large numbers of genes, each with a tiny effect, rather than on single genes that have moderate or large effects, but which are so rare that none has yet been identified.

@ Best evidence yet that a single gene can affect IQ (http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21705-best-evidence-yet-that-a-single-gene-can-affect-iq.html)

waltky
05-28-2016, 09:53 PM
Gene therapy drug approval for GSK...
:cool2:
Gene therapy drug approval granted to GSK
Fri, 27 May 2016 - Regulators have given one of the world's largest drug companies approval to sell a new gene therapy.


The treatment is for an illness called ADA-SCID which prevents babies from fighting off everyday infections. This is the first approval for a genetic therapy granted to a large multinational drug company, GSK. Commentators say the development marks the beginning of many more genetic medicines from so-called "Big Pharma". The condition is extremely rare and affects around two dozen babies each year. Approval of the gene therapy paves the way for the development of treatments for more widespread illnesses such as thalassemia and sickle cell disease. Hundreds of inherited disorders such as cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophy and many types of blindness are caused by faulty genes.

Hype

The aim of gene therapies is to cure the disease by introducing healthy copies of the gene into the patient. And the big advantage of the treatment is that it only needs to be given once and it offers a potentially permanent cure. The idea first emerged with much hype 30 years ago. At the time, large drug companies such as Novartis and Roche were at the forefront of the technology. Advocates of gene therapy said it would cure everything but, for 20 years, it cured nothing. The practicalities of introducing the right gene in the right cells and getting them to stick proved more difficult than first thought. There were huge setbacks for the technology in the early days.

Difficulties

In 1999, an 18-year-old man Jesse Gelsinger died in a clinical trial of a gene therapy to treat a liver disease. The virus used to transfer the gene into his cells triggered his immune system into overdrive which led to multiple organ failure and brain death. Three years later, children being treated in Paris for a problem with their immune system developed leukaemia because the healthy gene was inserted too close to a cancer-causing gene which consequently became active. The setbacks saw large drug companies withdraw from research in the field. Small biotechnology companies and publicly funded research groups persevered and, in time, many of the early difficulties were overcome.


http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/news/320/cpsprodpb/B02E/production/_89820154_c0134690-gene_therapy,_conceptual_image-spl.jpg

As well as today's approval of GSK's treatment, which the company calls Strimvelis, in 2012 regulators gave the green light to a gene therapy called Glybera for a pancreatic disorder and another last year called T-Vec for skin cancer. According to Prof Alan Boyd, who is president of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine and a pioneer in the development of gene therapy, more approvals are likely to be given in the next few years. "Most of the hard work has been done by small companies. But as some of these products have come closer to market, Big Pharma has come back in," he says.

Significant step (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-36400206)

waltky
06-09-2017, 03:25 AM
Two Toronto scientists honoured for their work on thalassemia breakthrough ...
http://www.politicalwrinkles.com/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif
Two Toronto scientists honoured for their work with breakthrough drug
June 8, 2017 | Two Toronto scientists, Michael Spino and Fernando Tricta, will jointly receive the Humanitarian of the Year Award from Cooley’s Anemia Foundation Gala in New York City on June 8 for their work on a medication that clears excess iron from the bodies of patients with thalassemia, a red blood cell disorder.


Thalassemia is a genetic disease in which the body doesn’t produce enough red blood cells, so patients require blood transfusions every two to four weeks for their entire lives. A side effect of those transfusions is a buildup of iron around vital organs — most commonly, the heart. Before the approval of deferiprone, patients with thalassemia had to undergo eight- to twelve-hour long overnight injections directly into their stomach. “I tried it once,” said Tricta. “I tried to sleep with this. I injected myself for one night and it’s not a pleasant experience. And this is every single day.” With deferiprone oral tablets, patients simply take a few pills a day.

They never gave up on us

Maria Hadjidemetriou was diagnosed with thalassemia when she was two years old. “We woke up with abscesses, black and blue marks and bumps that looks like tumors. It’s very uncomfortable,” she said. Tricta is from Brazil, and started his career by founding the first Brazilian treatment centre for children with thalassemia. He saw the daily struggle and pain of the injections wearing on the kids and their parents, and began searching for an easier solution. “We knew that if they would not take those injections at least five days a week, every week, the (chance) for them to survive would be very little. But you can understand how hard it is,” he said. “The problem is when they become adolescents and then they think that, ‘nothing’s gonna happen to me,’ and they decrease their use of medication. That’s when we used to see the patients die. They go into heart failure and they die, in front of our eyes.”


http://wpmedia.news.nationalpost.com/2017/06/tricta-spino-2.png?w=620
Fernando Tricta and Michael Spino.

Tricta took notice of a group of scientists from London’s King’s College, who created a drug called deferiprone. In 1996, ApoPharma’s Michael Spino asked if Tricta would assist them in developing the drug. Initially, he said no, as he was cautious about making the leap from academia to a pharmaceutical company, but Spino was eventually able to convince him it was in the public interest. “He said the commercial interests would never trump the welfare of the patients,” said Tricta. Although licensed for use in Europe and Asia for years, deferiprone was approved in the U.S. in 2011, and in Canada in 2015 — but not without controversy.

In 1989, Toronto haematologist Nancy Olivieri began to study the drug. Later, with her research partially funded by Apotex, the mother corporation to ApoPharma, Olivieri became concerned about the efficacy and safety of the drug. Apotex tried to block her from telling patients about her concerns, noting that she had signed a confidentiality agreement. She told patients anyway, and Apotex ended the portion of the study that she was working on. Apotex contested her findings based on results from their clinical trials. In 1998, Olivieri and seven others wrote a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine that suggested deferiprone led to progressive hepatic fibrosis. Regardless, the drug is now used in more than 50 countries.

Hadjidemetriou describes deferiprone as “fantastic.” “My breathing got better … And it got better and better and better as the days went on.” She holds Tricta and Spino in high regard. “They never gave up on us.” “As a clinician, I could not have greater satisfaction in my life that I have participated in something that has impacted so many lives,” said Tricta. “I’m very honoured and humbled by this award.”

http://news.nationalpost.com/health/two-toronto-scientists-honoured-for-their-work-with-breakthrough-drug?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+NP_Top_Stories+(National+Post +-+Top+Stories)