Researchers have implicated epigenetic mechanisms in the earliest stages of the cognitive decline that is perhaps the most feared aspect of Alzheimer's disease, and they have shown that inhibiting the epigenetic enzyme HDAC2 can reverse some of the damage of the disease.

Polyglutamine stretches in proteins underlie a whole family of neurodegenerative diseases – the so-called poly-Q diseases. Huntington's disease is the most common member of the group, but it also includes less frequent disorders like spinocerebellar ataxia.

Currently, FDA approval is pretty much an all-or-nothing deal. Drugs are approved for specific indications, of course. But once a drug is approved, if a patient can find a way to pay for it, with rare exceptions any doctor can prescribe it off-label for any reason.

By focusing on protein translation, scientists have gained surprising insights into the control of prostate cancer metastasis, linking it to dysregulation of the protein kinase mTOR.

The virus in the 2011 movie Contagion ‑ about a rapidly spreading, highly lethal virus and the panic that ensues ‑ is based partly on the H5N1 bird flu virus. Scientists have lauded Contagion for its scientific accuracy in showing how a highly lethal respiratory virus pandemic might play out. But the movie’s tag line is also worth keeping in mind: “Nothing spreads like fear.” Another round of alarming news has brought the real H5N1 back into the headlines in recent weeks. Experimental findings that it only takes a few mutations for the virus to become highly contagious via human-to-human...

Monoclonal antibodies are big business. According to a report published by Deloitte, global sales of just the top 10 monoclonal antibodies amounted to $3.6 billion in 2009. That report asserted that "monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) have become one of the most valuable and rapidly growing segments of the worldwide pharmaceutical industry."But with their current extracellular reach, antibodies may literally have just scratched the surface of what is possible for them. Researchers, and a few intrepid companies, are working on ways to get antibodies into cells.

Researchers have been able to rapidly repair peripheral nerves after injury in rats, in part through treatments that prevent the body's own repair mechanisms from taking hold.

There’s a story, sometimes used to illustrate the difference between counseling and research psychology, about a man who pulls out one, then a second, then a third drowning person out of a river. When he sees a fourth, he starts walking upstream, prompting a bystander to ask “Aren’t you going to pull that one out, too?” Our hero answers “No, I’m going upstream to figure out what’s pushing all these people in.” In the Harry Potter books, Hogwarts headmaster Albus Dumbledore reacts the opposite way to a similar conflict as he comes to care for Harry Potter in ways that...

Researchers identified a drug which, in animals, rapidly decreases both plaque area and soluble amyloid beta levels in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. And it's FDA-approved.

In its last issue of the year, Science – one of the premier journals for peer-reviewed scientific research – published both what it considers to be the biggest breakthrough of the past year, and areas to watch for the next year. For 2012, one of those hopeful areas was "treating intellectual disability."