Brain and nerve = Shinkei kenkyū no shinpo
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Brain histamine is involved in a wide range of physiological functions such as regulation of sleep-wake cycle, arousal, appetite control, cognition, learning and memory mainly through the 4 receptor subtypes: H1, H2, H3 and H4. Neurons producing histamine, histaminergic neurons, are exclusively located in the tuberomammillary nucleus of the posterior hypothalamus and are transmitting histamine to almost all regions of the brain. Roles of brain histamine have been studied using animals including knock-out mice and human subjects. ⋯ Nowadays, H3 receptors have been thought to be a new target of drug treatment of various neuropsychiatric disorders. There are still many research topics to be investigated regarding molecular imaging of histamine and histamine receptors. The authors hope that this line of research contributes more for the promotion of QOL in patients and people in daily lives.
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Despite advances in radiation and chemotherapy along with surgical resectioning, the prognosis of patients with malignant glioma is poor. Therefore, the development of a new treatment modality is extremely important. There are increasing reports demonstrating that systemic immunotherapy using peptide is capable of inducing an antiglioma response. ⋯ Peptide-based immunotherapy strategies appear promising as an approach to successfully induce an antitumor immune response and increase survival in patients with glioma. Peptide-based therapy of glioma seems to be safe and without major side effects. Biotherapy for malignant glioma with peptide will open a novel reality now.
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"Placebo" is Latin for "I shall please". The placebo effect has been widely documented by randomized placebo-controlled drug studies. One of the best examples of placebo effectiveness is that have been shown in clinical trials of anti-parkinsonian drugs. ⋯ Although both mechanisms may contribute to placebo effects, the placebo effect in PD may be attributed more to cognitive mechanisms such as expectation of improvement, because the placebo effect can be obtained in de novo PD patients. There have been accumulating findings that suggest a functional relationship between dopamine and the expectation of clinical improvement (reward). Further basic studies are required to clarify the complex link between dopamine and the reward system, but such findings will contribute to a better understanding of the pathophysiological mechanism underlying the placebo effect in PD.
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Ten newer antiepileptic drugs have been developed since 1990s. These drugs have wider therapeutic spectra, fewer side-effects, and lesser drug-to-drug interactions compared with the older typical antiepileptic drugs. Among them, zonisamide was developed in Japan and has been used from 1989. ⋯ Many of these newer drugs (gabapentine, lamotrigine, levetiracetam, oxycarbazepine, etc.) have effects on chronic neuropathic pain. Some newer drugs show mood stabilizing effects (lamotrigine, oxycarbazepine, etc.), or antianxiety effect (gabapentin, topiramate, levetiracetam, pregavalin, etc.). Wide range of action to central nervous system of these newer antiepileptic drugs may serve not only for clinical seizure suppression, but also for neuroprotection.