Is schizophrenia a disorder of glutamate hyperactivity or hypoactivity?

 The predominant hypothesis for many years was that schizophrenia is a glutamate deficit disorder but there is evidence of glutamate hyperactivity as well.  A new study by Karlsson et al., appearing in the November 1st issue of Biological Psychiatry, reinforces this point with new data about the impact of deleting the gene for the glutamate transporter EAAT1.   EAAT1, implicated in schizophrenia, plays a critical role in inactivating glutamate by removing it from the synaptic and extracellular spaces. 

No one talks about John McCain's religion, though conservative Christians are supposed to be Republican.   Democrats are the more secular, liberal party, it is said, yet they have defended Barack Obama's link to his  controversial pastor.

During the campaign of 1960, when Catholic John F. Kennedy was running on the Democratic ticket, religion became an important voting issue, and it comes up again from time to time.   Voters in 1960 were concerned about a President who might listen to The Pope while John Kerry's Catholicism was barely worth a mention in 2004.  More often today, the discussion is on 'values.'

So, hyperbole from both sides notwithstanding, how much influence does religion have on values?

If we gave you data from NASA's 1976 Viking landing on Mars, could you read it?   No, and neither can anyone else.   Some of the data collected is already unreadable and lost forever.  According to the National Archives Web site, by the mid-1970s only two machines could read the data from the 1960 U.S. Census: One was in Japan, the other in the Smithsonian Institution. 

We're in the digital dark ages, we just don't know it.   Left alone, a framed photograph will fade and yellow over time, but your grandchildren will still be able to see it.   However, a digital photo file of that picture may be unreadable to future computers.

For many women, including the growing number who choose later-in-life pregnancy, predicting their biological clock's relation to the timing of their menopause and infertility is critically important.   Investigators from the University of Michigan say they have new information about hormonal biomarkers that can address the beginning of the menopause transition. 

"In the end, this information can change the way we do business," said MaryFran Sowers, professor in the U-M School of Public Health Department of Epidemiology. "The information provides a roadmap as to how fast women are progressing through the different elements of their reproductive life."

Rosetta Genomics Ltd (Nasdaq:ROSG), a developer of microRNA-based diagnostics and therapeutics, announced today it has launched Rosetta Green, a microRNA-based plant biotechnology project. Rosetta Green will leverage the extensive knowledge gained at Rosetta Genomics in microRNAs, as well as its proprietary technologies and strong IP position, to develop a wide range of plant-based applications. The company has recently completed a financing round from private investors exclusively for this project.

"Since our founding in 2000, we have maintained that small non-protein coding RNA - what we now know are microRNAs - play a critical role in many cellular processes," said Amir Avniel, CEO of Rosetta Genomics.

People tend to want to correlate more money to better results?  It doesn't matter if it's education or science or highways.   But it isn't always the case.   Expensive new medicines plus more patients have caused American to double spending on diabetes care in six years - rising from $6.7 billion in 2001 to $12.5 billion in 2007 according to a study in the Oct. 27, 2008, issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine  - but the results haven't kept pace with the expense.  

Since 2002, over 10 percent of all health care expenditures in the United States were attributable to diabetes so it's time to think about whether the higher cost actually translates into improved care.