Loss of appetite deciphered in brain cell circuit

The meal is pushed way, untouched. Loss of appetite can be a fleeting queasiness or continue to the point of emaciation. While it’s felt in the gut, more is going on inside the head. New findings are emerging about brain and body messaging pathways that lead to loss of appetite, and the systems in place to avoid starvation.

Today, scientists report in Nature about a brain circuit that mediates the loss of appetite in mice. The researchers also discovered potential therapeutic targets within the pathway. Their experimental results may be valuable for developing new treatments for a variety of eating disorders. These include unrelenting nausea, food aversions, and anorexia nervosa, a condition in which a person no longer wants to eat enough to maintain a normal weight.

The senior author of the paper is Dr. Richard D. Palmiter, University of Washington professor of biochemistry and an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His co-authors are Dr. Qi Wu, formerly of the UW and now at the Eagles Diabetes Research Center and Department of Pharmacology at Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, and Dr. Michael S. Clark of the UW Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. Palmiter is known for co-developing the first transgenic mice in the 1980s with Dr. Ralph Brinster at the University of Pennsylvania. His more recent studies are of chemicals that nerve cells use to communicate with each other, their roles in mouse brain development and function, and their relation to behavior.

Palmiter and his colleagues concentrated on a part of the brain, a relay center called the parabrachial nucleus, because it is an important hub for integrating signals from several brain regions to modulate food intake. Nausea, as well as taste aversion or preferences, may originate from signals processed in the parabrachial nucleus.

In this most recent study, the researchers discovered the type and location of brain cells that send signals that agitate the parabrachial nucleus and thereby squelch the ability to eat. They also demonstrate how these signals can be blocked to restore normal appetite and to ward off starvation.

Earlier studies by Palmiter’s team and by Dr. Michael Schwartz’ team at the UW Center for Excellence in Diabetes and Obesity Research showed that certain nerve cells in the brain’s hypothalamus play a role in promoting feeding and weight gain. They do so by collating a variety of signals from the body. If these brain cells are destroyed, feeding stops. Meals will be refused and liquid food placed into the mouth will hardly be swallowed.

The researchers later learned that the ensuing starvation is due to the excessive activation of the brain’s parabrachial nucleus. The researchers found that starvation could be prevented by improving receptor signaling for a substance called GABA and thereby calm the excited parabrachial nucleus. This intervention had to be done within a critical adaptation period to be successful. GABA is one of the most common neurotransmitters – chemicals that ferry messages to and from nerve cells in the brain.

At first, the scientists were puzzled about the source of the command that turns on the parabrachial nucleus and makes it turn feeding off. Their research fingered two suspects and their locations in the brain. Their studies pointed out nerve cells involved with another neurotransmitter, glutamate, in the part of the brain called the nucleus tractus solitarus. Also contributing to the abnormal activation were cells involved in serotonin signaling. Both drive the hyper-excitability of nerve cells in the parabrachial nucleus that inhibit feeding.

The researchers went on to discover several ways to reinstate normal appetite by interfering with input signaling from these two cell types. They also tested how to censor “don’t eat” signals coming from cells in the parabrachial nucleus.

Their studies revealed six interventions that prevented starvation when the cells that modulate food intake in the hypothalamus no longer function. These interventions acted upon various aspects of signaling to and from the parabrachial nucleus, in most cases by disabling or reducing signals or their receptors.

The researchers were able to prevent severe loss of appetite in their mouse model by administering bretazenil, a drug that promotes GABA signaling, or by administering ondansetron, a drug used to prevent nausea and vomiting during cancer chemotherapy. The Palmiter team also used specially constructed viruses to selectively reduce signaling by glutamate – the major excitatory signal in the brain.

The researchers believe that additional progress in dissecting circuits that control feeding will be achieved by identifying genes that are active in specific populations of brain cells within the parabrachial nucleus. Finding such genes will allow investigators to selectively manipulate their activity in the mouse and thereby control feeding behaviors. …

via Loss of appetite deciphered in brain cell circuit.

Climate Change Effect: Big Brother Spy Cameras To Prevent Uninsured Drivers From Getting Gas

Government officials are rolling out a hi-tech automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras to crack down on millions of motorists who drive without insurance.

To add to the already out of control civilian camera spying system running 1% of the national debt while failing to prevent crime and new terror laws that feed all private messages to the government the UK is now rolling out a high-tech set of camera’s with license plate sensing technology.

The justification for the new camera’s is to prevent uninsured motorists from being able to refill their gas tanks and cut down on the millions of dollars of revenue the nation loses due to uninsured motorists.

The system will also prevent “untaxed” from being able to refill as well and just as with any program the government will surely expand it to find new applications for it. …

Downing Street officials hope the hi-tech system will crack down on the 1.4million motorists who drive without insurance

Cameras at petrol stations will automatically stop uninsured or untaxed vehicles from being filled with fuel, under new government plans.

Downing Street officials hope the hi-tech system will crack down on the 1.4million motorists who drive without insurance.

Automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras are already fitted in thousands of petrol station forecourts.

Drivers can only fill their cars with fuel once the camera has captured and logged the vehicle’s number plate.

Currently the system is designed to deter motorists from driving off without paying for petrol.

But under the new plans, the cameras will automatically cross-refererence with the DVLA’s huge database.

When a car is flagged as being uninsured or untaxed, the system will prevent the fuel pump being used on that vehicle. …

One in 25 drivers in the UK do not have insurance …

via Big Brother Spy Cameras To Prevent Uninsured Drivers From Getting Gas | the Mirror

My god. What’s next? They could use the cameras that read your license plate to determine where you live, and if you are uninsured, they could have a special team sent to your house to forcibly take blood or organs to pay for the car insurance.

What is to blame for this? A genetic defect that causes control freakism in the UK? This time, I blame global climate change which is going to freeze the UK (see “BRITAIN is set to suffer a mini ice age that could last for decades and bring with it a series of bitterly cold winters.”)

RSA Insurance – owner of the More Than brand – has reported a 14% drop in annual profits as snow  ion the UK and floods and typhoons overseas pushed up claims more than £255 million than expected levels.In the UK, severe cold weather led to thousands of burst pipe claims adding up to  £110 million more than expected in the last to months of 2010 alone. – link

In ‘highly unusual’ move, Marines asked to disarm before Leon Panetta speech

In a highly unusual move, around 200 U.S. Marines were asked to leave their weapons outside the tent where U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was set to speak during his trip to Afghanistan on Wednesday.

Although the military said the order was not given in response to Sunday’s shooting of 16 Afghan civilians allegedly by an American soldier, it possibly underlined how high tensions were running after the incident.

“You’ve got one of the most important people in the world in the room,” Maj. Gen. Mark Gurganus told reporters at Camp Leatherneck, dismissing concerns related to the shooting. “This is not a big deal.”

He said he had given the order because the two dozen Afghan soldiers also there were unarmed and he did not want to treat them differently.

Among those killed Sunday were nine children, and some of the bodies were reportedly burned. The suspect, who hasn’t been named, is in U.S. custody.

According to reporters at Camp Leatherneck, the Marines were waiting to hear Panetta’s speech when they were abruptly told by their commander to get up, leave their weapons, including M16 and M-4 automatic rifles and 9 mm pistols, outside and return unarmed.

“All I know is I was told to get the weapons out,” Sergeant Major Brandon Hall told The New York Times. Asked why, he replied, “Somebody got itchy, that’s all I’ve got to say. Somebody got itchy; we just adjust.”

Hall said he was acting on orders from superiors, the Times reported. …

via World News – In ‘highly unusual’ move, Marines asked to disarm before Leon Panetta speech.

UFO Clouds Over Reno, NV – March 12, 2012

Surreal Lenticular Clouds Over Reno, NV (multiple camera angles) – March 12, 2012 – YouTube.

Town’s Police Department Shut Down by Mayor Over Tasered Child

Tide Detergent Crime Wave Puzzles Law Enforcement Officials

Thieves in America may be cleaning up by stealing Tide detergent off the shelves of grocery stores and markets.

News reports suggest that the thefts have become so rampant that some cities are hoping to turn the tide by setting up special task forces to stop it. In St. Paul, Minn., one suds-stealing shoplifter stole $25,000 of the product over 15 months before he was arrested last year.

“That was unique that he stole so much soap,” West St. Paul Police Chief Bud Shaver told Fox News. “The name brand is [all] Tide. Amazing, huh?”

The method of Tide-stealing involved one crook loading up a cart with a bunch of bottles and running for the exit to a waiting getaway car, Newser reported.

Why Tide? Well, the retail price is steadily high — between $10 to $20 a bottle — so thieves can get $5 to $10 a bottle on the black market or even by reselling to stores, according to The Daily

“There’s no serial numbers and it’s impossible to track,” Detective Larry Patterson of the Somerset, Ky., Police Department, where authorities have seen a huge spike in Tide theft, told The Daily. “It’s the item to steal.”

George Cohen, spokesman for Philadelphia-based Checkpoint Systems, which produces alarms being tested on Tide in CVS stores, said the reason why Tide is the most popular detergent with thieves is because it’s the most popular brand with consumers.

“Name brands are easier to resell,” Cohen told The Daily. “In organized retail crimes they would love to steal the iPad. It’s very easy to sell. Harder to sell the unknown Korean brand.”

Although Harrison Sprague, a detective with police department in Prince George’s County, Md., calls Tide “liquid gold,” and told The Daily that thousands of dollars’ worth of it are being stolen, CVS Pharmacy official Mike DeAngelis told Fox News that stories about the rising tide of Tide thefts are overblown.

“We are not experiencing a ‘wave’ of Tide thefts,” DeAngelis wrote in an email to Fox News. “In a few markets, we’ve placed security devices on Tide bottles that will trigger an alarm if a shoplifter tries to remove it from the store without paying,” DeAngelis said. “However, theft of Tide is not a new issue in the retail industry.”

via Tide Detergent Crime Wave Puzzles Law Enforcement Officials (VIDEO).

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Cheney says Canada ‘too dangerous’ for visit

Former Vice President Dick Cheney has foregone a trip to Canada on the grounds that it’s “too dangerous,” according to a report in Canada’s National Post.

Cheney was set to appear at an event in Toronto on April 24, but canceled on grounds that the risk of trouble from protesters was too great.

Cheney’s last Canadian appearance in September of 2011 erupted in violence as protesters swarmed the entrance of the private Vancouver club where the former Bush administration official and Iraq War architect was speaking. The protesters rained down verbal abuse on attendees and, in once instance, choked a security guard.

Vice President Cheney was trapped inside the venue for more than seven hours as police in riot gear attempted to disperse the crowd and quell to the resulting melee.

Ryan Riggins, a spokesperson for the promotions company who booked Cheney for the April 24 appearance said, “He felt that in Canada the risk of violent protest was simply too high.”

Cheney says Canada ‘too dangerous’ for visit | The Raw Story – StumbleUpon.

 

Brown Recluse Spider Bite: Woman Loses Ear, Almost Blinded In Texas

A venomous brown recluse spider bite almost blinded a Texas woman and took part of her ear.

Nikki Perez, 21, documented the swelling of her face and the necrosis afflicting her ear over a two week period as the poison took hold, as (gruesome) pictures obtained by the Daily Mail show.

Perez was waiting at the Amarillo airport with her boyfriend Eric and his mom last September, when she felt a sharp sting on the back of her neck.

“Next, I felt something crawling over my face and my eye,” she told the Daily Mail. “I yelled for Eric to help me, and when he saw the spider crawling over my face, he swatted it to the floor and stamped on it.”

Her boyfriend’s mom, a nurse, identified the all-telling mark on the brown recluse instantly: a violin-shaped mark on its back.

Doctors couldn’t do much for Perez until she showed signs of necrosis, or dying skin cells. She took pictures of herself as her head began to swell — so much so that her left eye swelled shut.

“I was going blind … it was terrifying,” she said. “It was spreading all over my head, which actually felt like a bit of a relief as the pain was so concentrated behind my ear.”

When her ear started to literally rot off, she visited a spider expert and spent five days in the hospital, ABC News reported. Doctors surgically removed the dead tissue around her ear and injected her with steroids as her head started to shrink back to its normal size.

Perez made it out of the hospital with little more than a skin graft on her ear.

Other people bitten by the creature — usually the elderly and children — haven’t been so lucky. The spider’s poison can be lethal.

Worse, the recluse is reportedly spreading throughout North America as the planet warms. But the spiders are called “recluse” for a reason. The creepy arachnids rarely come out, and even when they do bite, they usually don’t emit venom.

via Brown Recluse Spider Bite: Nikki Perez Almost Blinded In Texas.

Semen-Tainted Yogurt Gets Anthony Garcia 2 Years In New Mexico Prison

A grocery store worker accused of handing out a semen-tainted yogurt sample has been sentenced to two years in prison.

Anthony Garcia pleaded guilty in the case in October, admitting he contaminated a sample of the yogurt he was handing out at an Albuquerque Sunflower Market in January 2011. He was sentenced Thursday.

Garcia also admitted putting some of his semen on a plastic spoon that he placed with the yogurt. The 32-year-old then approached a female customer and offered her a sample.

The woman told police that after tasting the sample, she spit on the floor several times and wiped her mouth on the garment she was wearing to get the taste out of her mouth.

Federal prosecutors called the allegations “sickening and appalling.”

Garcia had faced up to three years in prison.

via Semen-Tainted Yogurt Gets Anthony Garcia 2 Years In New Mexico Prison.