I came into the Neurochemistry class not knowing what to expect. I thought that it would be like all the other classes I have enrolled in at Concordia College, where the teacher would come in dumping all this information on us, expecting us to take lots of notes and then test us on what we could cram into our brains. Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised and relieved that it wasn’t like any class I have taken. Starting each week with a new topic and new questions led me to think about things that I would not normally take time to think about. Alzheimer’s, Diabetes, Concussions, Bipolar, Obesity, Ethanol and lastly Autism, all topics that I knew very little about until we discussed them in class. Coming in Mondays having read the article and going through the things that didn’t make sense to us or needed further explanation than what the paper gave. Then dividing out these topics among the class to return Wednesday being “The Expert” in the topic given that Monday. Wednesday was devoted to presenting our topic to the class to help everyone have a more full understanding of the paper for the week. Then came Friday, the day where we assign discussion leaders and take the topic for the week and discuss everything from ways we think we could treat the disorder to the morals of certain treatment methods to how the things presented in the paper applied to everyday life. This day was devoted to expressing our opinions, stories, and hypotheses and seeing what the other people in the group had to say. The discussion was not structured in any way and tangents were taken many times and that was encouraged because it kept us attentive and listening to others ideas. It is all these things above that made this class a welcome relief to the hectic life of a college student. It was a very intensive course that didn’t feel intensive.
I have learned many things in this class. I have learned so much about the diseases and disorders we discussed and now have become more educated in the effects certain actions in my life have. I feel better capable of expressing my ideas to others even though I still am very frightened to speak in front of a group as many people are. I have become familiar with the basics of neuro- and biochemistry with regard to neurological related diseases and disorders and I feel that I can use this understanding to appreciate how the diseases and disorders are researched and treated. I feel that even though I may not go into a field relating to Neurochemistry or Biochemistry after I graduate from Concordia, I can use all the information that I have gained from this class to help make informed decisions in my life.
The reason we have the Capstone course is to provide a class where you can discuss your experiences over the last 4 years and apply it to topics that pertain to the brain. I believe that Neurochemistry has accomplished just that and more. It provided an environment in which we could express our ideas and see what others thought as well. Even though we may have had very differing ideas, the discussion never deviated into the realm of arguing and things like that. Ultimately, what this final post is saying is that I am glad that I decided to take this course and experience discussion on such a wide variety of topics and be able to publish my thoughts on the internet for people to read and reply to.
Autism and the Boy with the Incredible Brain
This week, in our final discussion for the year, we talked about a topic that has gained more and more attention as the years have gone by. This topic is autism, the developmental disorder that affects children at a very young age. This disorder is considered a spectrum disorder that ranges from Classical Autism to Asperger’s Syndrome to Childhood Disintegrative Disorder. In children who develop autism, it isn’t noticed right away that anything is wrong. It isn’t until the child gets to the stage where they should be developing social skills such as babbling and reacting to their name. It isn’t until they fail to develop those skills at certain ages that the parents notice something is off and take their child to the doctor.
A hypothesis that has been suggested is that the child is born normal with no signs of anything wrong, then a little while later the brain grows larger than normal. The body, noticing that the brain is larger than it should be, starts “pruning” down the number of neurons, causing a type of stress in the brain. This stress isn’t the “Oh no, I have a test tomorrow and I have yet to study” type of stress. This stress is referred to as oxidative stress, which means that cells have too many reactive species and they can’t keep up in getting rid of them. This causes many processes to be activated or inhibited that causes a change in how the brain should develop and manifests in the impaired social development we see in autistic kids. Another that can arise from autism is that the kid has extreme focus when it comes to certain things and almost no focus for pretty much everything else. While this is not usually a good thing, good things can arise from this very specialized focus.
An example that comes to mind is Daniel Tammet, who has been called the Boy with the Incredible Brain. Daniel is in his 30’s and was diagnosed with autism and then Asperger’s at age 25. Even though he has Asperger’s, he is incredibly smart and his “focus” that he has is with languages and numbers. He has been studied all over the world by many scientists that aim to unlock this power that Daniel has. The power that he has is that he can memorize and calculate extremely complicated things. For instance, he learned Icelandic in a week and was put on TV to see if he could sustain a conversation live with the newspeople. For those of you who don’t know, Icelandic has been said to be one of the hardest, if not the hardest languages to learn as a second language. And he did it in a week, where an average person would take months even years of training to get to where he did. Another fixation that Daniel has is with numbers. He sees numbers differently than the average person. He has what is called synesthesia, which means that two or more senses you have combine and you experience both at the same time even though one of the senses shouldn’t be activated. For Daniel, when he hears a number, he sees shapes and colors that go with that number and no 2 numbers are the same. Also on the topic of numbers, Daniel has memorized over 22,000 digits of pi and recited them back after only 1 reading.
Anyway, why I bring up Daniel is because we think of autism as a developmental disorder that ruins the life of the child and they will be behind other kids in development. Daniel is an example of how, yes you can have autism (or any disorder on the spectrum), but you can also take that disability and turn it into a good thing. For Daniel, he took the obsessive nature he had with numbers and memorizing and turned it into a reason to help people by writing books and allowing himself to be researched. As a side note, I recommend watching the documentary on Daniel Tammet called The Boy with the Incredible Brain.
Alcohol: How Much Is Too Much?
When you think of alcohol what do you think of? A glass of wine with dinner? A beer after work with colleagues? Or maybe a Saturday night out with friends? You probably do not, however, think of alcohol as a drug similar to nicotine. Whatever your thoughts are of alcohol there is some important information you must know when choosing your drink.
Alcohol is a drug and can have many negative effects on your body. Also, because it is a drug, alcohol abuse can lead to addiction. But what exactly are the negative effects of alcohol and how might alcohol abuse be treated?
Alcohols Negative Effects
The alcohol that we drink is made from a chemical compound called ethanol. When introduced to the body, ethanol produces many outward side effects which are commonly known. These include: improved mood, increased self-confidence and sociability, decreased anxiety and attention span, flushed skin, and impaired judgment. Ethanol consumption also has effects on the brain that cannot be outwardly seen. Ultimately, it ends up interrupting many signaling pathways and kinase cascades. Ethanol effects things like protein kinase A, protein kinase C and NMDA receptors which all play roles in controlling a wide spread range of things from memory to digestion. These interactions in the brain are responsible for alcohol reinforcement and reward. The specific methods in which ethanol produces these effects are still unknown.
Treatment of Alcohol Abuse
Because alcohol effects neuronal factors, it is possible that alcohol abuse could be treated through drug therapy. One specific area which has been researched is using a drug that will inhibit PKC. This could work because in animal models, inhibition of PKC cause a decrease in self-administration of alcohol. Meaning if PKC was inhibited in humans, it is possible that the desire for alcohol would be lowered causing less alcohol consumption. Currently there is no drug treatment for alcoholism.
How Much Is Too Much?
One of the things I found most interesting about this week’s discussion was talking about what qualifies a person as an alcoholic. This topic came up when someone questioned whether someone who had a glass of wine every night with dinner or went out for one beer every day after work was considered an alcoholic. I had never really thought about what I defined alcoholism as. Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an alcoholic as “a person affected with alcoholism.” Alcoholism is defined as “continued excessive or compulsive use of alcoholic drinks.” Although that seems straightforward, who gets to decide what is excessive. As a class we came up with ideas such as when it is affecting your daily life or when having wine with dinner is a ‘have to’ thing rather than a ‘want to’ thing you might have problems with alcoholism. I think the definition that we discussed that appealed to me the most was that if a person is hiding their drinking or drinking alone they are likely ashamed of how much alcohol they are consuming and aware that it is not healthy. I think that the definition of alcoholism is a personal thing and the question of how much is too much has a different answer for each person.
If you think you or someone you know may have problems with alcohol abuse please talk to someone about possible treatment options.
Is There An Easy Solution To Your Growing Waistline?
Obesity: a rising epidemic in American culture. But what is the solution? Diet and exercise clearly come to mind as well as possible surgery in some cases, but if you could take a prescription to help you lose weight, would you?
Our article this week was on the way obesity is affected by leptin. You may be asking, what is leptin and how is it used in the body? Leptin is a hormone naturally found in the body that plays a role in making you feel full. Certain sugars that are commonly found in processed foods, like high fructose corn syrup, slow down the release of leptin. This means that if your diet is high in leptin suppressing sugars, you will not feel full as fast and will therefore eat more. So the question is, would a supplementing leptin into the body as well as cutting back on foods that cause leptin suppression help with weight loss?
Based on the basic knowledge I just provided, you are probably thinking “yes that sounds like an excellent idea!” However, it has been tested and unfortunately, the tests failed. In essence what happens when adding leptin into the body, is the body becomes immune. Meaning the leptin therapy will work for a while, but higher and higher dosages will be necessary over time in order to continue getting weight loss results. Also, upon discontinuing leptin therapy, the person will end up binge eating as their body will not recognize the natural level of leptin in the body and will therefore not signal that the person is full.
Unfortunately what I am saying is there is no miracle solution. Diet and excersise are still the healthiest and most effective ways of dealing with obesity. As I have discussed already, however, research shows that there may be more than just a poor diet and exercise plan contributing to the obesity epidemic. And just because supplementing leptin does not appear to be a miracle fix, there is nothing to say that further research will not find a way to aid in weight loss.
Something that can be effective is cutting back on highly processed foods that contain high fructose corn syrup as these slow the release of leptin as I stated earlier. Not only does high fructose corn syrup cause leptin suppression, it can also be hard to digest. Fructose is a sugar found naturally in many foods, especially fruits. However, many people have problems digesting even the natural form of fructose and eventually need to cut all fructose out of their diet. High fructose corn syrup is a highly processed form of fructose that is found in close to every processed food available for purchase from cereals to fruit juices. For this reason, as you can imagine, developing fructose intolerance can be very difficult to deal with.
So what can you do to help achieve your weight loss goals? For now, eat healthy and exercise daily and maybe one day there will be an easier fix to your growing waistline.
For more information on the biggest sources of high fructose corn syrup in your diet see: http://www.fitday.com/fitness-articles/nutrition/healthy-eating/5-sources-of-high-fructose-corn-syrup-in-your-diet.html
What if we cured the societal plague that is obesity? Would it really benefit us, or would it hurt us?
Paralleling the advancement of society and increasing level of civilization has been the rise of obesity and overnutrition. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention more than one third (35.7%) of adults in the United States are obese. Obesity is a source of many health-related problems including heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes and certain types of cancer, some of the leading causes of preventable death. There have been many efforts to cure this societal plague but mostly in vain. These efforts have included new diets coming out every year, new and easier exercises, and even pills that claim to shed the pounds for you. It is true that when you exercise and diet that this is one of the most effective ways to lose weight but in today’s fast-paced society people are no longer making time to exercise or construct a new diet. It is much easier to take a pill and let something else do the work for you. Recent studies have been moving toward this venue of treatment for obesity. It seems that we are getting close to something that could lose weight for us allowing a freedom of lifestyle not burdened by diet and exercise. But, what would this mean to society and the way we live? Would it truly be a benefit or could it burden us further?
Over the past decade researchers have found that the hormones insulin and leptin are possible regulators of body fat levels (body adiposity). These two hormones are very independent of one another within our bodies but they show overlapping themes in energy homeostasis. Defects in either of these may result in a poor ability to manage energy homostasis and glucose metabolism. There is a hypothesis that the two are subject to “cross-talk,” both activating the phosphatydalinostitol 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling pathway. Identification of the key early molecular events mediating the action of insulin and leptin could result in new insight into obesity treatment. One of the more promising treatments coming from this research is the fact that leptin is able to reduce food intake. If more was understood about this process we could potentially prescribe leptin treatment reducing the amount of food intake of a patient. We could eventually really have something here.
But what would this mean for society? If a “cure” for obesity were to be found it could drastically change how our world works. This treatment would potentially place the majority of the population at a healthy weight allowing them to increase their productivity in society. These people will most likely be happier, have more energy, have a higher self-esteem, etc. As lifespan increases as a result of the healthy body-weight productivity of these citizens would also be longer. These people would be less likely to get heart disease and therefore be healthier, longer. The amount of unhealthy people would potentially drastically decrease as those with higher weights were allowed an easy way to lose their weight. Despite its appeal, this may create a world that we might not like. Even though productivity would be expected to increase, would we become lazier people since all we would have to do is take a pill and be skinnier? Many would relish in the ability to opt out of working out to maintain a healthy body weight. What would become of the food industry? This could likely go either way. Would food industries’ income drastically increase because people are no longer afraid of what they eat? It could go the other way and the leptin treatment would cause people to eat much less leading to the food industry losing money. It would be very interesting to observe what direction they would go with the change in societal obesity.
Despite the desire to “cure” obesity allowing many to live out more comfortable and healthier lives, there are potentially many consequences. If we were to come up with a miracle pill to end obesity would it be ethical to withhold it from society out of fear of change or should we embrace the change and adapt?
The Factors of Autism Increases
The prevalence of autism has increased dramatically over the past few decades, along 
with the rise of fast food, food processing, and pharmaceuticals. With this rise in autism rates, there has been a deeper delve into what could be causing it, which has been mostly attributed to environmental factors, such as xenobiotics and heavy metals contained in elevated levels within autism patients’. Just as well, there are still rare genetic cases of autism that rely on purely genetic factors to lead to autism. Environmental factors play little to no role in these cases, so raising autism patients correctly is vital. With little research funds pushed towards autism currently relative to other diseases, where would these endowments be better served? Obviously, researching both sides would be optimal, but when faced with funding environmental factors with genetic risk factors versus genetic cases and better social environments, one will be funded more than the other.
The case with heavy metals and xenobiotics in autism patients is a combination situation. Genetic predispositions, but not a pure autism gene alone, are present that react in a manner with environmental factors that have changed over time, such that autism arises. Causation of these includes heavy metals and xenobiotics in patients in levels higher than non-autistic persons. These elevated levels have been attributed to cause oxidative stress in the brain, which, in particular pathways, leads to greater risks of developing autism in genetically prone individuals. Prevention of these could be to lower exposure to heavy metals and xenobiotics. Risks can be lowered by avoiding xenobiotics, which are any chemicals not normally found in the body, such as from pharmaceuticals and food toxins, and heavy metals, like aluminum, lead, and others, that are found in almost every possible processed product in America. Prevention of the heavy metal exposure would obviously be to place stricter regulations on products that contain these heavy metals, such that they would be produced with lesser amounts. Trying to avoid pharmaceuticals, foods, and chemicals that lead to autism could aid in xenobiotic avoidance. The vital role of understanding oxidative stress in the brain would also be of extreme use, because a safer pharmaceutical could be developed to aid in treating combination autism so that prevalence could be lowered in those vulnerable to environmental factors.
Another method of going about treating would be to examine healthy methods of living for those with genetic autism, or even combination-factored autism. Currently, there are no restrictions or real guidelines for parents with autistic children to raise their children. While parents have every legal right to bring up their children however they choose, for those with physical or mental illnesses, medical advice should be taken into serious consideration as well. School programs help autistic students to maintain a schedule and enforce guidelines as reminders for socially acceptable behaviors. They also inform parents of these methods they have carried out, typically, in hopes that parents will also carry them out. This is up to the parents whether or not they will carry them out, and unfortunately, some parents of autistic students choose to take the easy way out and negate the advice from special needs professionals at these schools. This is a purely personal interpretation of this information, but I feel that it would be well advised for parental guidelines to be legally implemented so that severely autistic children could be raised with acceptable behaviors that are non-harmful to those around them. Whether one method will be carried out or another, I feel that there are certain steps that could be taken to better the lives of families with autistic children, and the autistic patients themselves.
Is alcoholism a forever problem in the U.S.?
Alcohol and the problem of alcoholism has been a problem for years and this problem is definitely not on the decline. Our society today in the U.S. seems to be adopting alcohol consumption as a major part of social interactions, making it socially expectable for individuals to consume copious amounts of alcohol and act silly. Throughout the past week our neurochemistry class has been diving deep into a paper that talks about just what alcohol does in the body and also yields new information on some possible ways to fix this growing problem of alcoholism.
The main point of the alcohol review that we dissected regarding the neurochemical systems involved talked about the two separate waves of responses due to alcohol consumption. The first hit of the alcohol acts on specific targets in the brain resulting in the stimulating properties of the drug triggering the intoxication signals such as sedation and hypnosis. The second wave of the alcohol consumption comes with effects on a variety of neurotransmitters and neuropeptide systems such as NMDA receptors and GABA, causing NMDA receptors to be inhibited and GABA to be increased. This second wave primarily involves monoamines, opioids, and endocannabinoids. The second wave is the main one that is responsible for alcohol reinforcement and reward. Another very common piece that is important in the effects of alcohol is PKCa. It is proven that by inhibiting this PKCa it is possible to decrease self-administration of alcohol.
Now that we know a bit about how alcohol works in the body and brain we can understand what scientists are looking at when trying to develop a therapy for alcoholism. One of the main targets is the PKCa that I mentioned before. There is a possibility that by creating a drug to inhibit this PKCa it would be possible to counteract the want for alcoholics to self-administer alcohol. This would be a revolutionary therapy as making it possible for alcoholics to not want to consume alcohol would be very beneficial in stopping alcoholism.
Although the thought of developing a drug to treat alcoholism sounds very appealing, I feel as if there are better options out there for decreasing our growing problem of alcoholism. In one of our discussions in class we talked with a couple students that studied abroad in Ireland about the differences in alcohol consumption. Even though Ireland consumes more alcohol per capita than the US these students felt as if the style of consumption was much different in Ireland and that the US creates a sort of attitude toward alcohol that makes it seem as if we have to drink to get drunk rather than casually drinking socially. This was a very interesting point that we discussed thoroughly trying to figure out why this is. The only thing we could narrow down was that the drinking age in Ireland is much lower so it isn’t such a big deal when young adults can finally drink in Ireland, making it feel as if it isn’t near as big a thing. I’m not saying that lowering the drinking age in the US would decrease the alcohol problem but it is a very interesting topic.
All in all it will be very interesting to see if scientists will in fact be able to come up with a drug to counteract alcoholism and whether or not the rate of alcoholism in the US will continue to rise in years to come.
Alcoholism: Is there a way to control it?
Alcohol has been around since before the rise of the ancient Egyptian and was used for various reasons which include pleasure, nutrition, medicine rituals, and funerals. However, even in ancient Egypt there are accounts of alcohol abuse being a problem.1 Now fast-forward to today and you can see drinking alcoholic beverages is still popular in society but there are still many problems associated with alcohol abuse. Through school programs, like Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE), we are taught about alcohol abuse however education does not seem to be slowing down the number of cases of alcoholism. Could there be a pharmaceutical approach to help people with alcohol abuse? This is what the paper in last week’s neurochemistry class examined.
Although alcohol has been around a long time, researching the effects of alcohol on the nervous system is very complicated. Currently researchers think alcohol is acting as a “two wave” system. The first part of the wave occurs when alcohol molecules (ethanol) hit specific targets in the brain. These are believed to include NMDA and GABA receptors which are common receptors in the brain. Once these receptors are activated the “second wave” hits with indirect effects on a variety of neurotransmitter and neuropeptide systems. Scientists believe endocannabinoids, opioids, and monoamines are important molecules responsible for the feelings of reward and reinforcement from alcohol consumption and they act through these neurotransmitter and neuropeptide systems. Although this information is a good start, much is still unknown about how alcohol affects the brain.
Since scientists are still trying to unravel the mystery of how alcohol is directly and indirectly affecting the brain it is unrealistic to expect an affective anti-alcohol abuse drug soon. So what can be done to slow down alcohol abuse today? Personally, I believe drinking, especially at younger ages, normally occurs in settings which promote large amounts of alcohol to be consumed. Examples of these settings include parties and bars with drink specials. Now I’m all for social drinking but I think the best solution for the US is to create a more relaxed drinking culture where people are more interested in socializing rather than trying to drink one’s fill. I studied abroad in Ireland last semester and the drinking society is very relaxed there. It was more common to go to a pub for one or two drinks with friends instead of going into situations where I felt pressured to drink more because of the environment. However, daily socializing should not always take place in these setting like in Ireland. Another idea is to make drinking legal in situations where you are with family before the age of 21. I feel like people would be less likely to drink excessively if they are introduced that drinking from family who can show when and how to drink. Instead people are given the power to legally drink and they are unfamiliar with how and when one should drink. I know all people are not this way but I know many have encountered this problem. Although these suggestions are probably unrealistic, alcohol abuse is still a problem which should receive more attention than it does. However by looking at the past and today one thing is for sure, alcohol consumption will continue to be popular in distant future.
Sources:
1) http://urbanbeerhunt.com/images/beertoast.jpg
2) http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/Controversies/1114796842.html
MAPK: The regulator of disease?
Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease and Lou Gehrig’s disease. What do these three diseases have in common? Well, according to recent research, all three may be caused by the MAPK pathway. In order to understand these similarities however we must define a few things. First, what is the MAPK pathway?
MAPK stands for mitogen-activated protein kinase. The classification MAPK actually refers to three different kinds of pathways: ERK, JNK, and p38. These pathways contribute to controlling several extremely complex operations within the human body specifically cell growth and death. In a healthy brain, the MAPK pathways are tightly regulated. However, in the previously mentioned diseases, disruption in the MAPK pathways leads to cell death.
In Alzheimer’s disease, oxidative stress within the brain triggers the MAPK pathways JNK and p38. This activation leads to not only cell death but also the formation of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles that are characteristics of Alzheimer’s disease.
Similarly, in Parkinson’s disease, oxidative stress within the brain contributes to characteristic pathology. Lewy bodies are to Parkinson’s as senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles are to Alzheimer’s. These Lewy bodies build up and activate all three MAPK pathways in the brain leading to cell death and inflammation. It is rather unclear as to how this inflammation and cell death leads to the tremors and rigidity seen in Parkinson’s patients as it a disease still being researched.
In Lou Gehrig’s disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the pathology is caused by the death of motor neurons. This death is thought to be caused by activation of the p38 MAPK pathway. However, in ALS, it is thought that the activation of p38 comes from a mutation in a gene rather than deregulation of the pathways.
As you may have noticed, the relation of MAPK to Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and ALS are still just hypothesis. However, research into the topic may present helpful resources into finding treatments for these detrimental diseases that affect not only the patient, but also their family and friends. While on the surface, these three diseases seem unrelated, it seems that deep down, they may have the controlled by the same, albeit complicated, pathway.
Eating as Positive Reinforcement and Obesity?
Here I am again, writing about food, obesity, and the brain. This article really was about obesity though, and it’s not that surprising that when there has been an connection to weight I have taken the opportunity to write about it in my blog, because like so many Americans I feel like I am constantly thinking about food. The central role of food in our society is undeniable. Holidays, dates, life in general is planned around food. How to get closer to your kids? Eat dinner with them. Food is often used as a reward for good deeds, good grades, even potty training.
Why is this such a big deal? Well, there are a couple of different parts of the brain that are particularly associated with food: the part that tells you when you are hungry or full, and the part that feels the reward, how good a food tastes, etc. Leptin and insulin have been found to play a crucial role in the first part, maintaining food intake homeostasis, making sure that the body receives the appropriate nutrients, and maintaining energy expenditure. At the most basic level, how this works is that leptin and insulin work on the NPY/AGRP and POMC neurons. When there are decreased levels of insulin and leptin it stimulates the NPY/AGRP neuron which in turn stimulates food intake. Decreased levels of insulin and leptin stimulate the POMC neurons, giving your brain the signal that your body is full. Neat stuff, really!
When you enjoy eating food is stimulates the dopaminergic neurons which are associated with reward. This can become a learned behavior when food is used as a reinforcement for a good, or a positive reinforcement which would imply that the consequence increases the frequency of a behavior or maintains the frequency. A child who is rewarded with candy for finishing their homework may get to later years in their education and find that they want candy to do any homework at all. There have been studies that think that food reinforcement may be important to obesity studies (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17907820). Food reinforcement for one good behavior may turn into reinforcement for multiple behaviors and turn into eating often, even when not hungry. Does anyone else ever feel like they can reward themselves for a good workout by eating something they know they shouldn’t eat, like a second piece of cake, or go out to eat for no good reason when you have plenty of delicious things to eat in the fridge? That is an example of learned behavior and using food as a positive reinforcement. So is this a part of what is leading to obesity in America, overeating, emotional eating? Just a few thoughts.