A research team led by Giovanni Marsicano has succeeded in elucidating how the endocannabinoid system controls food intake through its effects on the perception of smells.
In an article published in Science, the researchers demonstrate that chloride levels are elevated in the neurons of mice used in an animal model of autism, and remain at abnormal levels from birth.
A French and English team (AP-HP, Inserm, UPEC, CEA/Mircen, Oxford Biomedica, Cambridge University) has conducted a clinical phase 1/2 gene therapy study among patients suffering from an evolved form of Parkinson’s disease. Fifteen patients were able to benefit from this new treatment, which involves injecting a vector expressing the genes of three enzymes that are essential for the biosynthesis of dopamine, which is lacking in Parkinson’s disease. Thanks to...
Two INSERM research teams led by Pier Vincenzo Piazza and Giovanni Marsicano (INSERM Unit 862 "Neurocentre Magendie" in Bordeaux) recently discovered that pregnenolone, a molecule produced by the brain, acts as a natural defence mechanism against the harmful effects of cannabis in animals.
A phase I/II gene therapy clinical trial for children suffering from Sanfilippo B syndrome, a rare genetic disease, enrolled a first patient in October of this year.
A team of researchers at Inserm led by Cyril Herry (Inserm Unit 862, “Neurocentre Magendie,” Bordeaux) has just shown that interneurons located in the forebrain at the level of the prefrontal cortex are heavily involved in the control of fear responses. Using an approach combining in vivo recordings and optogenetic manipulations in mice, the researchers succeeded in showing that the inhibition of parvalbumin-expressing prefrontal interneurons triggers a chain reaction...
The largest international study ever conducted on Alzheimer's disease, as part of the IGAP (International Genomics of Alzheimer Project) international consortium, coordinated by the joint research unit comprising Inserm, the Pasteur Institute at Lille-University Lille Nord de France 'Public health and molecular epidemiology of diseases associated with ageing' and LabEx DISTALZ, directed by Philippe Amouyel, has identified eleven new regions of the genome involved in the appearance of this...
How can some people resist the attraction of immediate pleasures and pursue long-term goals, while others easily succumb and compromise their ultimate expectations? One secret factor might lie in the activity of a deep brain structure: the hippocampus.
A team of researchers led by Michel De Waard, Inserm Research Director at the Grenoble Institute of Neurosciences (Inserm, University Joseph Fourier, CNRS), has discovered that an African medicinal plant produces large quantities of molecules with analgesic properties.
A l’occasion de la journée mondiale de la maladie d’Alzheimer qui se tiendra le 21 septembre 2013, le service de presse de l’Inserm vous compile les dernières actualités/avancées sur cette maladie.
