NINDS News Articles

Studying neurodegenerative diseases can be like investigating a crime. Scientists inspect damaged nervous tissue, or “the scene”, for suspicious molecules and then work backwards to explain how the suspects may have killed nerve cells. Recently two research groups, one in the United States and the other in the United Kingdom, collaborated to develop a new way to quickly round up many more suspects and test their “alibis”. Their results may lead to more effective treatments for Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and a variety of other neurodegenerative disorders.

Adolescence is inarguably a vulnerable time of life, but a new study suggests that spending it living in the southeastern United States region known as the “Stroke Belt” adds an extra hazard: It raises one’s risk of stroke later in life.
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Upon the recommendation of the ARUBA Data and Safety Monitoring Board, the NINDS has stopped enrollment of patient volunteers into the trial. Under the experimental conditions in this trial, the interim analysis of data collected to date shows that medical management is superior to intervention in patients with unruptured brain arteriovenous malformations (AVMs). The DSMB further recommended extended follow-up to determine whether the disparity in event rates will persist over time.

NIH researchers used the popular anti-wrinkle agent, Botox®, to discover a new and important role for a group of molecules that nerve cells use to quickly send messages. This novel role for the molecules, called SNARES, may be a missing step scientists have been searching for as a way to fully understand how brain cells communicate under normal and disease conditions.

Four research centers will develop high-impact culturally tailored interventions aimed at lowering stroke risk among racial and ethnic minorities in the United States. Together the centers are expected to receive $40 million in funding over five years, contingent on the availability of funds from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health.