Medical hypotheses
-
Editorial Historical Article
Measuring revolutionary biomedical science 1992-2006 using Nobel prizes, Lasker (clinical medicine) awards and Gairdner awards (NLG metric).
The Nobel prize for medicine or physiology, the Lasker award for clinical medicine, and the Gairdner international award are given to individuals for their role in developing theories, technologies and discoveries which have changed the direction of biomedical science. These distinctions have been used to develop an NLG metric to measure research performance and trends in 'revolutionary' biomedical science with the aim of identifying the premier revolutionary science research institutions and nations from 1992-2006. I have previously argued that the number of Nobel laureates in the biomedical field should be expanded to about nine per year and the NLG metric attempts to predict the possible results of such an expansion. ⋯ The University of Oxford, UK, was the only institution outside of the USA which featured as a significant centre of revolutionary biomedical science. Long-term success at the highest level of revolutionary biomedical science (and probably other sciences) probably requires a sufficiently large number of individually-successful large institutions in open competition with one another--as in the USA. If this model cannot be replicated within smaller nations, then it implies that such arrangements need to be encouraged and facilitated in multi-national units.
-
The Thomson Scientific Impact Factor (IF) for Medical Hypotheses has risen to 1.299 for 2006. This means that the IF has more than doubled since 2004, when it stood at 0.607. Using Elsevier's Scopus database; in 2004 there were 437 citations to Medical Hypotheses papers published in the previous two years--by 2006 this had trebled to 1216 citations. ⋯ Since Medical Hypotheses is performing adequately by such criteria, this provides a powerful answer to those who fetishize peer review and regard any other system of evaluation as suspect. Journal review procedures are merely a means to the end, and the end is a journal that serves a useful function in the dynamic process of science. Medical Hypotheses can now claim to perform such a role.
-
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing neuroscience at the dawn of the 21st century is understanding the relationship between mind, consciousness and the brain. Editorials in recent years have highlighted the difficulties faced by cognitive neuroscience in attempting to answer questions regarding the nature, as well as the mechanism by which subjective experiences and our sense of consciousness may arise through neuronal processes. Current scientific views regarding the origin of consciousness vary widely and range from an 'epiphenomenon' arising from neuronal networks, to neuronal quantum processes, to a separate undiscovered scientific entity. ⋯ This is despite the well demonstrated finding that cerebral functioning as measured by electrical activity of the brain ceases during cardiac arrest, thus raising the possibility that human mind and consciousness may continue to function in the absence of brain function. In this article the broad theories for the causation of consciousness are reviewed as well as a novel method to study consciousness during cardiac arrest. This may provide a unique experimental method to determine the nature of human mind and consciousness as well as its relationship with the brain.
-
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia in developed countries. AD is characterized pathologically by the presence of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs), the major constituents of which are amyloid beta protein (A beta) and tau protein, respectively. Based on the disease pathology, numerous blood and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) tests have been proposed for early detection of AD. ⋯ In human AD brains, AGEs are distributed in the cytosol of neurons in the hippocampus and para-hippocampal gyrus. In this paper, we discuss the pathophysiological role for toxic AGEs (TAGE) in AD. We further review here the possibility that serum or cerebrospinal fluid levels of TAGE could become a promising biomarker for early detection of AD.
-
Voltage-dependent calcium channels (VDCCs) are heteromultimeric complexes that mediate calcium influx into cells in response to changes in membrane potential. The alpha1A subunit, encoded by the CACNA1A gene, is the pore-forming subunit specific to the neuronal P/Q-type VDCCs. These are implicated in fast excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmission. ⋯ These drugs improve ataxia in cases of CCA, olivopontocerebellar atrophy and ataxia-telangiectasia. On the basis of the neuropathological identity of SCA 6 with CCA, and given the capacity of gabapentin and pregabalin to decrease P/Q-type VDCCs inactivation, in this paper the authors put forward the hypothesis that the administration of gabapentin and pregabalin might prove beneficial in SCA 6 as the ataxia caused by this disease would be expected to improve. The authors hope that researchers working with this illness will be inspired and encouraged to undertake the appropriate clinical and experimental work.