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 Norol Bil D 2004:21(3) July-September

Neuro-libido

In the classical period, Paris, the young prince of Troy had to choose "the fairest" of the three goddesses. Hera presented him richest and dominion over mankind, Athena offered him wisdom and reputation as the bravest of heroes. Then Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, whispered with a soft, caressing voice, "Choose me and I will give you love and the most beautiful woman in the world for your wife." Without further hesitation, Paris chose Aphrodite; therefore she presented him the cutest of the all women, Helen, who was the wife of the King of Sparta.

In those times, it was believed that love had four subdivisions; libido, eros, philia, and agape. Freud's psychoanalytic techniques have also accepted this categorization of love. Therefore love is not a special instinct to a certain culture, but an essential human characteristic, identified by a specific set of chemicals, so-called "love chemicals.” As soon as the idea of "love chemicals" was accepted, scientists commenced to question "what it is that makes your knees go weak, causes your palms to sweat, creates the sensation of butterflies in your stomach, and makes you stammer when you fall in love." As a result of their research, they found out the formula of love: Love = dopamine + oxytocin + norepinephrine + vasopressin + testosterone.

Symbol for the love may be the heart as misdiagnosed but brain is the mastermind.

Nicoli & Nicoli in their article of the “Biochemistry of Eros”  stated that the study of those many exoactones in both sexes; hormonomediation, leading to the intervention of the hypotalamo-adeno-hypophyso-(cortico)-gonadal axis, with such effectors as sexosteroids, the hypothalamo-adenohypophyseal with the prolactin, the neuro-hypopheseal level (vasopressin, ocytocyne), and the epiphyseal level (melatonin), the terminal effector agents appearing either as libido (androgens, P-Rih), or counter-libido (oestrogens, prolactin) with the involvement of two systems of vertical and horizontal libidinization; neuromediation, with the intervention of the catecholaminergic, cholinergic, indolaminergic (serotonin); neuromodulation, with a rise in the endorphin rate when there is an orgasm; very precise enzymatic phenomena (depolymerases appearing in the vaginal content when there is an orgasm), which cannot be ignored any longer.

Neurotransmitters are molecules that is used to communicate messages from a transmitting nerve cell to a receiving nerve cell. If the receptor is clogged, one will have trouble communicating. There are several different neurotransmitters. The main ones are called Noradrenaline (NA), which is sometimes referred to as "norepinehprine", Dopamine (DA), Serotonin (5HT), and GABA.

No one has been able to isolate an area of the brain responsible for libido. Loss of libido may be a symptom of depression.

Hypersexuality in men or women is a rare but well-documented complication of neurologic disease. Kleist pointed out that lesions of the orbital parts of the frontal lobes may remove moral-ethical restraints and lead to indiscriminate sexual behavior, and that superior frontal lesions may be associated with a general loss of initiative which reduces all impulsivity, including sexual. Hyposexuality, on the other hand, meaning loss of libido, is most often due to a depressive illness. Certain chemical agents - notably antihypertensive, anticonvulsant, serotoninergic antidepressant and neuroleptic drugs - may cause a loss of libido. A variety of cerebral diseases may also have this effect.

The arousal of libido in men and women may result from a variety of stimuli, some purely imaginary. Such neocortical influences are transmitted to the limbic system and thence to the hypothalamus and spinal centers.

The difference aspects of sexual function may be affected separately. Loss of libido may depend upon both psychic and somatic factors. It may be complete, as in old age or in medical and endocrine diseases, or it may occur only in certain circumstances or in relation to a certain situation or individual.

The autonomic nervous system functions outside of voluntary control and is influenced by external events (for example, stress, drugs) and internal events (hypothalamic, limbic, and cortical stimuli). It is not surprising, therefore, that erection and orgasm are so vulnerable to dysfunction.

A vast array of neurotransmitters are produced by the brain. They include dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, and serotonin. All have effects on sexual function. For example, an increase in dopamine is presumed to increase libido. Serotonin produced in the upper pons and mid-brain is presumed to have an inhibitory effect on sexual function.

Within the central nervous system (CNS), androgen receptors are heavily located in specific places. Androgens and other steroid hormones are able to penetrate the blood brain barrier and interact with their appropriate CNS cytosolic receptors. The hypothalamus and anterior pituitary gland are particularly dense in androgen receptors, and here they help regulate the secretion of androgens as well as other hormones that control a wide variety of biological functions. Androgen receptors are also located in parts of the cerebral cortex, medulla, and amygdala. Here their specific functions are not as well characterized.

The processes of androgen action that involve receptor binding and DNA translation are known as receptor mediated, or "genomic", hormone actions. However, there are also lesser known actions of steroid hormones that are non-genomic in mechanism. Non-genomic activities are particularly key in the central nervous system where they combine with genomic activities to produce specific effects.

Non-genomic actions of steroid hormones differ in a very important way from genomic actions. Genomic effects are manifested over a relatively long period of time (days) because they require a complex cascade of events (binding, translation, transcription, accumulation of active enzyme products) before the actual physiology of the target organ is altered. On the other hand, genomic actions are extremely rapid (<1 minute). They are rapid because their effects involve an immediate modulation of the membranes of cells (particularly neural cells). These modulations may include changes to the permeability of the membrane, as well as effects on the opening of vital ligand gated ion channels. The end result is a quick and significant influence upon the activities of key areas of the brain, and the relevance of this to the medicinal use of androgenic hormones or prohormones should not be overlooked.

A group of former East German scientists performed what is probably the most elaborate "practical" research on the psychological benefits of androgens. Their research did not center much on the prosexual effects of androgens, but rather on what they termed the "psychophysical" properties.

The psychophysiological capacity, as the researchers describe it, is the ability of an individual to handle stress (physical, mental, and emotional). This capacity is determined by one's ability to activate appropriate centers in the central nervous system. Psychophysiological capacity can be evaluated by applying stressful stimuli and measuring shifts in the alpha-frequency of an encephalogram. Specifically, the researchers found that physical or psychic stresses lead to increases of approximately 4 to 6 Hertz compared to the starting value in individuals possessing the psychophysiological capacity to handle the particular stress. If the stress becomes excessive for an individual, the alpha frequency decreases after passing through the 4-6 Hertz optimum, and can then sink to levels below the original baseline. Now keep in mind that the matter of this research is not just applicable to athletes, but also to any one with decreased psychophysiological capacity (i.e. elderly), or who have to handle large amounts of stress (i.e. university, college exam studiers).

Libido’s switch is in the brain, as having a mastermind role in love.

Editor

Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D.

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

REFERENCES

Adam’s and Victor’s Principals of Neurology by Victor, and Ropper, Seventh Edition, 2001; McGraw-Hill, pp 574

Altin Ceren: First learn the secret formula and then you may fall in love Kingdom Robertea April 2002

Kaplan & Sadock’s Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, Volume I, Seventh Edition, by Sadock BJ and Sadock VA, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins, 2000

Mattern C, Hacker R, "Method for Nasally Administering Aerosols of Therapeutic Agents to Enhance Penetration of the Blood Brain Barrier", German Patent Application DE9300442A1

Mattern C, Hacker R, "Medicament for Influencing the Degree of Activation of the Central Nervous System", German Patent Application DE9300473A1

Mooradian AD, et.al. "Biological Actions of Androgens", Endocr Rev 1987, 8(1): 1-28

Poisson M, et.al., "Steroid Receptors in the Central Nervous System. Implications in Neurology", Rev Neurol 1984, 140(4): 233-248

Roselli CE, et.al., "The Distribution and Regulation of Aromatase Activity in the Central Nervous System", Steroids 1987, 50(4-6): 495-508

Norol Bil D 2004:21(2) April-June

Open access publishing and our e-journal in a nutshell

Electronic publication is obviously attractive for its speed, easy global access and low cost. All these are considerable advantages over print, and seen as the most desirable factors in professional publishing by all interested: authors, readers and publishers. However, it remains unclear how to assess the credibility of new online only journals. The key role in this process seems to be given to international bibliographical databases, such as Medline, EMBASE or Index Copernicus, which can certify the bona fides of an electronic publisher. The role of such indexing sites will evolve in time into complex bibliographical information sites, and they will eventually become ports of meta-journals. There are a lot of such journals which declares these benefits [Aqil , Banks , Mayor , Pandey et al., Savla , Varki ].

In our opinion it is not fair to shift publication costs to authors or readers. Research funds should share equitably by authors, publishers and even readers during the publication period. A “fair access publishing” system should be designed in a way that allows, scientist living in developing countries to fully participate in the true development of science on a global scale [Momen , Delamothe et al.].

Since we have published electronically we documented the submitted materials to our journal. In the evaluation and peer-review process 20% of the manuscripts found not suitable for the e-publication by our consultant editors and referees. Majority of the source of the scientific materials comes from Turkish authors. Meanwhile we evaluate and published 29 articles between 1998 till this last issue of 2004(2), which were submitted to us from abroad (Table 1). Turkish authors concerning the source of provinces are given in Table 2. 

We started open review opportunity to all our readers from the beginning of this year. Peer-review process will continue just beside.

We all thank to our authors, readers, peer or open-reviewers for their contribution to our world of neurological sciences as we gradually join to more esteemed scientific databases.

REFERENCES

Aqil M.: Open access publishing: A boon for scientific community. Med Sci Monit. 2004 May 1;10(5):LE5-LE5. Epub 2004 Apr 28.

Banks M.: Connections between open access publishing and access to gray literature. J Med Libr Assoc. 2004 Apr;92(2):164-6.

Delamothe T, Smith R.: Open access publishing takes off. BMJ. 2004 Jan 3;328(7430):1-3.

Graczynski MR. , Moses L.: Open access publishing- Panacea or Trojan horse. Med Sci Monit. 2004; 10(1): ED-3

http://www.MedSciMonit.com/pub/vol_10/no_1/4457.pdf

 Mayor S. Open access could reduce cost of scientific publishing.BMJ. 2004 May 8;328(7448):1094.

Momen H.: Equitable access to scientific and technical information in health. Saudi Med J. 2004 Jan;25 Suppl:S39.

Pandey M, Heys SD , Lowenfels AB.: World J Surg Oncol. 2004 May 12;2(1):14. World Journal of Surgical Oncology: One year of Open Access publishing.

Savla U. : Open access already exists. Science. 2004 Mar 5;303(5663):1467.

Varki A.: Open access: the JCI has already shown it works. Nature. 2003 Nov 27;426(6965):383.

Editor

Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D.

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2004:21:(1) January-March

Mind the Brain

The mind-body problem has lain at the heart of the way we think about human nature throughout modern thought. It became a problem for science in the early nineteenth century when efforts were first made to provide systematic observations on the relationship between mind and brain (16).

Today we are witnessing a revolution in neuroscience, as researchers chart the circuitry of memory, cognition, and emotion, offering the promise of a chemically based medicine of the mind (5) But these same words would have been use as apt over 300 years ago, when neurology first emerged as an experimental science (3,17)

From the Greeks came the speculation that the mind is made up of a series of innate powers or faculties which were localized in the hollow ventricles of the brain: Sensation and Imagination in the anterior chamber, Reason in the middle, and Memory in the posterior. When attention shifted to the solid parts of the brain, the faculties were speculatively localized in different areas by different schools. When the innateness of the faculties was challenged by the belief that there is nothing in the intellect that was not first in the senses, it was not the classification of the faculties which was questioned, but their origin. The question of the mind's role in the economy of the organism in its intercourse with the environment was not a central issue. Attention was diverted from this by the separation of the mind from the brain and from the external world, and the related separation of man from other organisms.

Both the empirical study of cerebral localization and the attempt to determine a set of functions which could explain the thought and behaviour of men and animals in their natural environments began with the work of Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828). While remaining agnostic on the philosophical mind-body problem, he thought he had discovered a method for demonstrating the correlation of innate faculties and identifiable brain areas. With the assessment of one of the major figures in the development of evolutionary psychology, G. H. Lewes, who said, Gall rescued the problem of mental functions from Metaphysics, and made it one of Biology.(16)

One of the seven Da Vincian principles, “corporalita” expresses the balance of body and mind. The cultivation of grace, ambidexterity, fitness, and poise. Leonardo’s extraordinary physical gifts complemented his intellectual and artistic genius. He was familiar with his body. Walking, riding, swimming, and fencing were his preferred forms of regular exercise. Also, he believed that we should accept personal responsibility for our health and well-being. (4) The brain is the body's first line of defence against illness, and the mind is the emergent functioning of the brain. This mind-body approach incorporates ideas, belief systems, and hopes as well as biochemistry, physiology, and anatomy. Changing thoughts imply a changing brain and thus a changing biology and body. Belief systems provide a baseline for the functioning brain upon which other variables act and have their effects. (10)

Steno, a far more conservative student of the brain, castigated Willis and Descartes for their unwarranted certainty, “I frankly and openly confess that I know nothing about it [the function of the brain],” he declared and warned that it would be many generations before the brain was deciphered (7,16)

A fundamental goal in neuroscience is to link mind and brain, connecting changes in behaviour with changes in the brain. State-of-the-art brain mapping technologies allow non-invasive measures to be made across the lifespan. Both brain and behaviour are measured in the same individuals and across time. Scientists have discovered that learning is not equivalent over the lifespan. In many domains, young children learn more quickly and efficiently than adults, demonstrating "windows of opportunity" for learning. Humans are exquisite learning machines. Our brains are wired to learn in interaction with the world, re-programming them over time. Computers, on the other hand, do not readily learn by experience. This opens an exciting interface between computer and child learning. Life-span learning processes arise and continuously develop in a dynamically complex body, brain, and the mind they support as essential features of development and aging over the life course. Life-span learning processes are established by evolutionary adaptive mechanisms, enriched by challenging environments, and continuously developed in supportive social structures. These ideas are derived from evolutionary biology and psychology, the cognitive sciences, life-span development and aging research, and adult development and learning studies. It is argued that life-span learning activities that challenge the body-mind-brain nexus are indispensable to optimize individual development and aging. (14)

Evidence from developmental psychology suggests that understanding other minds constitutes a special domain of cognition with at least two components: an early-developing system for reasoning about goals, perceptions, and emotions, and a later-developing system for representing the contents of beliefs. Neuroimaging reinforces and elaborates upon this view by providing evidence that (a) domain-specific brain regions exist for representing belief contents, (b) these regions are apparently distinct from other regions engaged in reasoning about goals and actions (suggesting that the two developmental stages reflect the emergence of two distinct systems, rather than the elaboration of a single system), and (c) these regions are distinct from brain regions engaged in inhibitory control and in syntactic processing. The clear neural distinction between these processes is evidence that belief attribution is not dependent on either inhibitory control or syntax, but is subserved by a specialized neural system for theory of mind.(11) There is also an attempt at mapping the mind-brain-self relationship from a uniquely Jungian perspective.(15)

The frontomedian cortex (FMC) has been shown to be important for coherence processes in language comprehension, i.e., for establishing the pragmatic connection between successively presented sentences. The same brain region has a role during theory-of-mind processes, i.e., during the attribution of other people's actions to their motivations, beliefs, or emotions. The findings support the view of this cortex having a domain-independent functionality related to volitional aspects of the initiation and maintenance of nonautomatic cognitive processes.(2)

Specifically, person judgments were expected to activate cortical areas associated with theory of mind (ToM) reasoning. The results supported this prediction. Whereas action-related judgments about dogs were associated with activity in various regions, including the occipital and parahippocampal gyri; identical judgments about people yielded activity in areas of prefrontal cortex, notably the right middle and medial frontal gyri.(6) Theory of mind (TOM), or "mentalizing," refers to the ability to attribute mental states to self and others. Inferring what people are thinking and feeling is an important aspect of human social interaction, and it is also an important aspect of both psychiatric diagnosis and treatment.(1)

The ability to attribute mental states to others, and therefore to predict others' behaviour, is particularly advanced in humans. A controversial but untested idea is that this is achieved by simulating the other person's mental processes in one's own mind. If this is the case, then the same neural systems activated by a mental function should re-activate when one thinks about that function performed by another. Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Rammani and Miall tested whether the neural processes involved in preparing one's own actions are also used for predicting the future actions of others. They provide compelling evidence that areas within the action control system of the human brain are indeed activated when predicting others' actions, but a different action sub-system is activated when preparing one's own actions. (9)

Bimanual coordination, a prototype of a complex motor skill, has recently become the subject of intensive investigation. Whereas past research focused mainly on the identification of the elementary coordination constraints that limit performance, the focus is now shifting towards overcoming these coordination constraints by means of task symbolization or perceptual transformation rules that promote the integration of the task components into a meaningful 'gestalt'. The study of these cognitive penetrations into action will narrow the brain-mind gap and will facilitate the development of a cognitive neuroscience perspective on bimanual movement control.(13)

Posner believes that the study of neuroimaging has supported localization of mental operations within the human brain. Most studies have shown a small number of widely distributed brain areas that must be orchestrated to carry out a cognitive task. Although, as in all sciences, there are disagreements, the convergence of results in areas of attention and language in particular seem impressive. Moreover, the anatomical data has helped us to specify the computations that are used by the brain to carry out cognitive tasks. Building upon localization of cognitive operations, imaging methods are being applied to studies of the circuitry, plasticity and individual development of neural networks. Working together with cellular and genetic methods, there is movement towards a more unified view of the role of the human brain in supporting the mind. (8)

Strumwasser proposes the existence of four unique behavioural characteristics that distinguish Homo sapiens from its nearest evolutionary kin, the great apes. These are inventiveness, capacity for language, curiosity, and self-reflection or self-analysis. Some would counter argue that none of these features are "unique" to humans. For those in the mental health field, one would hope that this overview of the most highly evolved systems in human brain may provide a useful framework where creative therapeutic processes can be applied to the ultimate beneficiary, the client or patient. (12)

As you often heard the announcement of “mind the gap” while travelling in London Underground subway system, nowadays neuroscientists may recommend “mind the brain” during the journey throughout humankind evolution.

REFERENCES

1.Calarge C, Andreasen NC , O'Leary DS. Visualizing how one brain understands another: a PET study of theory of mind. Am J Psychiatry. 2003 Nov;160(11):1954-64.[MedLine-Abstract]

2.Ferstl EC, von Cramon DY. What does the frontomedian cortex contribute to language processing: coherence or theory of mind? Neuroimage. 2002 Nov;17(3):1599-612[MedLine-Abstract]

3.Finger S: The Minds Behind the Brain Oxford Univ.Press, New York , 2000

4.Gelb MJ:How to think like Leonardo da Vinci Delacorte Press 1998 pp192-219

5.Kandel ER, Squire LR Neuroscience: breaking down scientific barriers to the study of brain and mind. Science 2000; 290: 1113[MedLine]

6.Mason MF, Banfield JF, Macrae CN. Thinking about actions: the neural substrates of person knowledge. Cereb Cortex. 2004 Feb;14(2):209-14.[MedLine-Abstract]

7.Neuburger M: The Historical Development of Experimental Brain and Spinal Cord Physiology before 8.Flourens E.Clarke, Transl. And Ed., John Hopkins Univ.Pres.,Baltimore, 1981

8.Posner MI. Imaging a science of mind. Trends Cogn Sci. 2003 Oct;7(10):450-453.[MedLine-Abstract]

9.Ramnani N, Miall RC. A system in the human brain for predicting the actions of others. Nat Neurosci. 2004 Jan;7(1):85-90. Epub 2003 Dec 21.[MedLine-Abstract]

10.Ray O. How the mind hurts and heals the body. Am Psychol. 2004 Jan;59(1):29-40[MedLine-Abstract]

11.Saxe R, Carey S, Kanwisher N. UNDERSTANDING OTHER MINDS: Linking Developmental Psychology and Functional Neuroimaging. Annu Rev Psychol. 2004;55:87-124[MedLine-Abstract]

12.Strumwasser F. The human mind: building bridges between neuroscience and psychiatry. Psychiatry. 2003 Spring;66(1):22-31.[MedLine-Abstract]

13.Swinnen SP, Wenderoth N. Two hands, one brain: cognitive neuroscience of bimanual skill. Trends Cogn Sci. 2004 Jan;8(1):18-25.[MedLine-Abstract]

14.Thornton JE. Life-span learning: a developmental perspective.Int J Aging Hum Dev. 2003;57(1):55-76.[MedLine-Abstract]

15.Wilkinson M. The mind-brain relationship: the emergent self. J Anal Psychol. 2004 Feb;49(1):83-101[MedLine-Abstract]

16.Young RM: Mind, Brain and Adaptation in the Nineteenth Century: Cerebral Localization and Its Biological Context from Gall to Ferrier Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1970; reprinted New York: Oxford University Press, History of Neuroscience Series, 1990 Pp. xxiv+278

17.Zimmer C: Beyond the ivory tower:A distant mirror for the brain. Science 2004;303:43-4[MedLine]

Editor

Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D.

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2003:20:(4) October-December

Nanobiotechnology: A new world of nanomaterials

Nanoparticles, nanospheres, and other nanostructrured materials are products of the current interest in nanomaterials. While they may not yet have revolutionized our daily life, nanomaterials are set to become key components in future high technology markets. Nanotechnology is the science, engineering, and manufacturing of nano-sized systems (1 nm = 1billionth of a meter) that perform specific electrical, mechanical, biological, chemical, or computing tasks. Nanotechnology is based on the phenomena that nano-structures, devices, and systems exhibit novel properties and functions as a result of their small size, typically 1-100 nanometers. The development of nanotechnologies has created great interest in the worlds of materials and life sciences. Nanobiotechnology is the application of nanotechnology to the life sciences (Figure 1). The attraction of nanosciences can be explained by two principal reasons. On the one hand, nanotechnologies have been shown to be at the root of the process of miniaturization, which underpin many current industrial developments. In addition, it is likely that many completely new applications can be exploited since it has been shown that materials can have completely different properties in the world where dimensions are less than 100nm.

Figure 1.

Leading segments in nanobiotechnology

The physical sciences offer tools for synthesis and fabrication of devices for measuring the characteristics of cells and sub-cellular components, and of materials useful in cell and molecular biology; biology offers a window into the most sophisticated collection of functional nanostructures that exists.More recently, over the last couple of years, the science of “nanobiotechnology” has come into vogue. From the life sciences view some of the examples are; DNA microchip, nanocrystal materials in the medical imaging market, nanospheres in the development of the new drug delivery systems, nanostructures for more sensitive biosensors, monorobots for cancer cells and so on…

Nanotubes, also known as buckytubes, consist of C60 (Carbon-60) molecules and are characterized by graphene cylinders closed at either end with caps containing pentagonal rings. Nanotubes are simply hollow, straw-like tubes with single atom-thick walls. Perhaps the most widely known nanomaterial, nanotubes are currently manufactured in laboratories worldwide. Sumio Iijima, the Japanese electron microscopist, discovered them in 1991. Later, Iijima’s colleagues, Thomas Ebbesen and Pulickel Ajayan, found that nanotubes can be produced in bulk quantities by varying the conditions during arc-evaporation synthesis. This discovery was followed by expansive worldwide research into the chemical and physical properties of nanotubes. Nanotubes are commonly used in tandem with the Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) for the directed-assembly of polymers. Nanotubes are expensive to make. However they are lighter and stronger than steel, making them a highly desirable nanomaterial (Figure 2).

Figure 2.

Nanotubes

Using a smaller measuring device makes it possible to measure smaller objects. Thus, using nanotechnology in measuring devices allows for resolution at or below the nanometer scale. One goal for such instrumentation is the measurement of molecular activity at specific locations within a cell. Using an atomic force microscope (AFM) with a carbon nanotube tip, it is possible to penetrate a cell membrane with only the nanotube tip, for the purpose of obtaining imagery from the inside of the cell.

Nanobiotechnology is predicted to provide a means for earlier and improved diagnosis of illnesses, leading to better treatment. It also shows promise in increasing the efficiency of the drug development process. The relatively well understood manufacturing processes of liposome and other lipid-based vesicles have made them the leading nanobiotechnology for drug delivery along with nanoparticle technology. However, polymer-based carriers constructed with unique properties and silicon based nanomembranes are in development for the drug delivery. market.

References

Front Line Strategic Consulting, Inc.; National Institutes of Health; Techtarget.com; Space.com; Nanobiotechnology Center; National Science Foundation: Nanobiotechnology: Opportunities and Technical Analysis For Sample Pages 2003

Galvin P: A nanobidtechnolog roadmap for high-throughput single nucleotide polymorphism analysis. Psychiatr. Genet. 2002; 12:75-82[MedLine-Abstract]

Haruyama T: Micro-and nanobiotechnology for biosensing cellular responses. Adv Drug Deliv Rev 2003; 55:393-401[MedLine-Abstract]

Lowe CR: Nanobiotechnology: the fabrication and application of chemical and biological nanostructures. Curr. Opin. Struct Biol. 2000; 10:428-34[MedLine-Abstract]

Paris A, Pessey V: The future of nanomaterials and nanobiotechnology. LabPlus International 2003; 17: 14-18

Whitesides GM:The “right” size in nanobiotechnology. Nat. Biotechnol. 2003; 21(10):1161-5 [MedLine-Abstract]

Editor

Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D.

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2003:20:(3) July-September

Brain asymmetry, sleeping, dreaming, and REM

Brain asymmetry is the main subject in this issue by in coincidence submitted review and research articles both from Gunturkun et al. and Sürekli. I would like to focus on the sleeping, dreaming and REM from the brain asymmetry aspect.

Asymmetry of waking electroencephalography (EEG) alpha power in frontal regions has been correlated with waking emotional reactivity and the emotional content of dream reports [1]. Little is known regarding alpha asymmetry during sleep. Recent studies of sleep in cetaceans ( dolphins, whales, and porpoises ) marked asymmetry of the EEG was observed during behavioral sleep posture [10]. The different interhemispheric asymmetries in non-REM and REM sleep suggest that the two sleep states may subserve different functions in the brain [11, 12]. Alpha power was highest during slow-wave sleep and lowest during REM sleep [2]. The present findings in awake and sleeping dogs confirm the early observations in anesthetized cats, and more recent studies in awake and sleeping humans, that suggest an asymmetry in pattern of respiratory motoneuron and muscle activation by central and peripheral chemoreceptor stimulation, with central chemoreceptor stimulation driving both inspiratory and expiratory mechanisms, and peripheral chemoreceptor stimulation driving inspiratory and inhibiting expiratory mechanisms. Because REM sleep inhibits the nondiaphragmatic muscles, which include the expiratory muscles, there is a reduction in CO2 response during this sleep stage. In contrast because the response to hypoxia is mediated predominantly by the diaphragm, which is not generally inhibited by REM sleep, there is less effect of REM sleep on the overall response to hypoxia [9]. The peculiarities of sleep in water and on land were investigated in four adult Northern fur seals (Callorhinus ursinus) of both sexes. The electrocorticogram of both hemispheres, the neck electromyogram, the electrooculogram and electrocardiogram were recorded with implanted electrodes. The interhemispheric asymmetry of EEG during slow wave sleep was observed in all the animals sleeping in water and on land. The relative amount of interhemispheric slow wave asymmetry was higher during the sleep in water comparing to that on land. The fur seals maintain their special sleep posture on the water surface by moving only one of their front flippers. The asymmetric EEG in fur seals sleeping in the water may be attributed to the asymmetric motor activity of their flippers [7]. Bicoherence is generally an invisible feature: one cannot usually recognize the responsible form of non-linearity or any obvious correlate in the raw EEG. During stage II/III sleep overall mean bicoherence is generally higher than in the waking state. During seizures the diverse EEG patterns average a significant elevation in bicoherence but have a wide variance. Maximum bispectrum, maximum power spectrum, maximum and mean bicoherence, skewness and asymmetry all vary independently of each other [3]. As we learn from Chiron et al. about the right brain hemisphere is dominant in infants [4], some stimulating areas in the field of neuropsychological research on sleep-wake behaviour are presented in Cluydts’s introductory paper using recent publications by eminent researchers. In the first part the cerebral asymmetry theory proposed by Ornstein is presented. Do the rhythmic oscillations of the sleeping brain go together with different forms of cognitive information processing? In the second part the work of some Italian researchers on dreaming experience in neurological patients is presented and commented. At a moment when the emphasis in sleep research is on medical-biological aspects, psychologists are challenged to produce some creative ideas in the field of neurocognition of sleep-wake behaviour [5]. The dreams of 103 children and adolescents, aged 10-17 years, have been studied by Russian authors. They believe that the left hemisphere seems to provide dream origin while the right hemisphere provides dream vividness, figurativeness, and affective activation level [6].

References

1.Achermann P, Finelli LA, Borbely AA.:Unihemispheric enhancement of delta power in human frontal sleep EEG by prolonged wakefulness. Brain Res. 2001 Sep 21;913(2):220-3.[MedLine-Abstract]

2.Benca RM, Obermeyer WH, Larson CL, Yun B, Dolski I, Kleist KD, Weber SM, Davidson RJ.: EEG alpha power and alpha power asymmetry in sleep and wakefulness. Psychophysiology. 1999 Jul;36(4):430-6.[MedLine-Abstract]

3.Bullock TH, Achimowicz JZ, Duckrow RB, Spencer SS, Iragui-Madoz VJ.: Bicoherence of intracranial EEG in sleep, wakefulness and seizures. Electroencephalogr Clin Neurophysiol. 1997 Dec;103(6):661-78.[MedLine-Abstract]

4.Chiron C, Jambaque I, Nabbout R, Lounes R, Syrota A, Dulac O. The right brain hemisphere is dominant in human infants. Brain. 1997 Jun;120 ( Pt 6):1057-65[MedLine-Abstract]

5.Cluydts RJ.: The neuropsychological investigation of sleep: practical and methodological aspects. Acta Psychiatr Belg. 1994 Mar-Apr;94(2):68-72[MedLine-Abstract]

6.Korabel'nikova EA, Golubev VL.:[Dreams and interhemispheric asymmetry] Zh Nevrol Psikhiatr Im S S Korsakova. 2001;101(12):51-4.[MedLine-Abstract]

7.Liamin OI, Mukhametov LM, Poliakova IG.: [Features of sleep in the water by the northern fur seal Callorhinus ursinus] [Article in Russian] Zh Vyssh Nerv Deiat Im I P Pavlova. 1986 Nov-Dec;36(6):1039-44[MedLine-Abstract]

8.Sekimoto M, Kato M, Kajimura N, Watanabe T, Takahashi K, Okuma T. Asymmetric interhemispheric delta waves during all-night sleep in humans. Clin Neurophysiol. 2000 May;111(5):924-8[MedLine-Abstract]

9.Phillipson EA, Yasuma F, Kozar LF, England SJ.: Respiratory muscle activation by chemical stimuli in awake and sleeping dogs. Prog Clin Biol Res. 1990;345:201-11; discussion 211-3[MedLine-Abstract]

10.Ridgway SH.: Asymmetry and symmetry in brain waves from dolphin left and right hemispheres: some observations after anesthesia, during quiescent hanging behavior, and during visual obstruction. Brain Behav Evol. 2002;60(5):265-74.[MedLine-Abstract]

11.Vyazovskiy V, Borbely AA, Tobler I. Unilateral vibrissae stimulation during waking induces interhemispheric EEG asymmetry during subsequent sleep in the rat. J Sleep Res. 2000 Dec;9(4):367-71[MedLine-Abstract]

12.Vyazovskiy VV, Borbely AA, Tobler I. Interhemispheric sleep EEG asymmetry in the rat is enhanced by sleep deprivation. J Neurophysiol. 2002 Nov;88(5):2280-6.[MedLine-Abstract]

Editor

Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D.

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2003:20:(2) April-June

Stimulated repairing nerves, laser beam guide and progenitor cells of human brain

Using a mix of two standard serums, Masato Nakafuku of Japan Science and Technology Corporation and his group stimulated new nerve cells to grow in the animals' injured hippocampus, a region involved in storing memories⁴. The mice did not develop some of the learning difficulties usually associated with such an injury. Researchers had assumed that the brain was unable to repair these cells, called pyramidal neurons. Patients who suffer stroke in this area have severe and irreversible memory problems.

"It's really quite remarkable," says Sally Temple, who studies nerve regeneration at Albany Medical College in New York. Temple warns that the results need to be repeated before she is fully convinced.

The findings add to growing evidence that treatments might one day coax people's brains into repairing themselves after stroke³, Parkinson's disease or other disorders.⁶ "I'm extremely confident," says neuroscientist Steven Goldman of Cornell University in New York.

Several areas of the adult brain spontaneously make new cells throughout life. Recently, researchers have begun to alter the type or number of new cells using certain growth promoters.

Hippocampal pyramidal neurons, however, were thought unable to regenerate. "It's surprising," says Goldman, "but I don't think anyone had bothered to look."

Nakafuku's team starved mice of oxygen, damaging their brains. Then they infused the animals' brains for three days with two proteins that trigger cell division. They found that cells outside the hippocampus made new nerve cells that migrated into the damaged area, and appeared to form normal connections with other cells.

It is unlikely that the same serums could be used as human drugs, however, as they could trigger other cells into becoming tumours. Researchers will need to find new drugs that stimulate cells to make very specific cell types that travel to a damaged area. They also have to work out an efficient way to deliver these drugs to brain cells. This work is "at a pretty primitive stage", says Goldman.

A laser beam can guide nerve cells to grow in a particular direction, researchers have shown. The technique might help damaged nerves to regrow or could connect them to electronic implants, such as artificial retinas and prosthetic limbs.¹

Rat and mouse nerve cells growing over a glass plate take the path pointed out by a red laser, report Allen Ehrlicher, of the University of Leipzig in Germany, and colleagues². The cells move towards the spot of laser light, travelling as if down a gentle slope, they think.

Moreover, the laser does not harm the cells, the researchers report, even if it leads them along a zigzag. Normally, cells don't like making sharp turns; forced to do so, they soon try to straighten out. Previous attempts to guide cells in channels or on adhesive tracks damaged their delicate walls.

To repair spinal-cord injuries, say, nerves on either side of a rupture must be guided to join up. Researchers have had some success, using tubular plastic channels, for example. But they haven't been able to make joins good enough to restore movement to paralysed patients. The new study hints that fibre optics might help the ends of damaged nerves to meet and merge.

Nerve cells grow by extending a finger called a lamellipodium. Stiff filaments of the protein actin push the lamellipodium forwards. The filaments lengthen as new blobs of actin are added - this polymerization process prods the cell membrane like a pole pushing up the roof of a tent.

Lasers have been used to manipulate microscopic objects such as cells since the 1970s. Normally, focused laser beams are used like tweezers to trap an object and drag it.

One way to guide a nerve cell's growth would be to pinch the tip of its lamellipodium between optical tweezers and pull. But this approach could simply rip the cell. Ehrlicher's team use a laser beam too dim and unfocused to create a light trap. They aim the spot so that it overlaps the tip of the lamellipodium. As they move the beam slowly, the cell's finger follows. They can thus alter the direction of nerve growth by angles of up to 90°. Laser guidance also makes the lamellipodium grow about five times faster than normal, the team reckons.

Ehrlicher and colleagues admit that they don't know why the laser has this effect. They suggest that light may marshal actin molecules, enhancing filament growth.

The subcortical white matter of the adult human brain harbors a pool of glial progenitor cells. These cells can be isolated by fluorescence-activated cell sorting (FACS) after either transfection with green fluorescent protein (GFP) under the control of the CNP2 promoter, or A2B5-targeted immunotagging. Although these cells give rise largely to oligodendrocytes, in low-density culture Goldman et al. observed that some also generated neurons. They thus asked whether these nominally glial progenitors might include multipotential progenitor cells capable of neurogenesis. They found that adult human white-matter progenitor cells (WMPCs) could be passaged as neurospheres in vitro and that these cells generated functionally competent neurons and glia both in vitro and after xenograft to the fetal rat brain. WMPCs were able to produce neurons after their initial isolation and did not require in vitro expansion or reprogramming to do so. These experiments indicate that an abundant pool of mitotically competent neurogenic progenitor cells resides in the adult human white matter.⁵

A distinct population of white matter progenitor cells (WMPCs), competent but not committed to generate oligodendrocytes, remains ubiquitous in the adult human subcortical white matter. These cells are present in both sexes and into senescence and may constitute as much as 4% of the cells of adult human capsular white matter. Transduction of adult human white matter dissociates with plasmids bearing early oligodendrocytic promoters driving fluorescent reporters permits the separation of these cells at high yield and purity, as does separation based on their expression of A2B5 immunoreactivity. Isolates of these cells survive xenograft to lysolecithin-demyelinated brain and migrate rapidly to infiltrate these lesions, without extending into normal white matter. Within several weeks, implanted progenitors mature as oligodendrocytes, and develop myelin-associated antigens. Lentiviral tagging with green fluorescent protein confirmed that A2B5-sorted progenitors develop myelin basic protein expression within regions of demyelination and that they fail to migrate when implanted into normal brain. Adult human white matter progenitor cells can thus disperse widely through regions of experimental demyelination and are able to differentiate as myelinating oligodendrocytes. This being the case, they may constitute appropriate vectors for cell-based remyelination strategies.⁷

References

1. Ball P.: Laser leads nerve growth: Beam could help repair spine damage or wire up implants.Nature News:Science Update 27 November 2002
2. Ehrlicher, A. et al. Guiding neuronal growth with light. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA, Publshed online, doi:10.1073/pnas/252631899, 2002. |Article|
3. Kondziolka D, WechslerL, Tyler-Kabara E, Achim C: The role of cell therapy for stroke. Neurosurg Focus 2002; 13(5):Article 1
4. Nakatomi, H. et al. Regeneration of hippocampal pyramidal neurons after ischaemic brain injury by recruitment of endogenous neural progenitors. Cell, 2002; 110, 429 - 441
5. Nunes MC, Roy NS, Keyoung HM, Goodman RR, McKhann G, Jiang L, Kang J, Nedergaard M, Goldman SA.: Identification and isolation of multipotential neural progenitor cells from the subcortical white matter of the adult human brain. Nat Med 2003; Apr;9(4):439-47
6. Pearson H.: New nerves from old: Brain cells stimulated to repair stroke damage Nature News:ScienceUpdate 23 August 2002
7. Windrem MS, Roy NS, Wang J, Nunes M, Benraiss A, Goodman R, McKhann GM 2nd, Goldman SA.: Progenitor cells derived from the adult human subcortical white matter disperse and differentiate as oligodendrocytes within demyelinated lesions of the rat brain. J Neurosci Res 2002; Sep 15;69(6):966-75

Editor

Prof. Nezih Oktar M.D.

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2003:20:(1) January-March

After 50 years beyond DNA and improving human brain intelligence

On February 28, 1953 Francis Crick walked into an English pub to announce that he and James Watson had discovered the secret of life. Almost 50 years after Watson and Crick made their discovery -- determining the structure of DNA -- the question remains: What will we do with our genetic knowledge?

In a year when many will celebrate Watson and Crick's discovery I believe that we should use it to improve ourselves in a sense of intelligence. (Table 1.) "Thanks to genetic engineering and other anticipated capabilities such as nanotechnology and artificial intelligence, we will be able to finish the job that evolution started, and attain unprecedented levels of human flourishing." says WTA Chair Nick Bostrom. The discovery of DNA's structure allowed for the Human Genome Project, which mapped the human genetic code. Researchers are now working to determine each gene's responsibility, as well as to relate diseases with genetic mutations. According to Gregory Stock, author of Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future, this work will lead to techniques and technologies that within 10 to 15 years allow us to alter our biology. We can then begin to "write a new page in the history of life, allowing us to seize control of our evolutionary future," writes Stock.

But the promise of genetic technology can only be realized with wider public awareness of its potential to prevent the public backlash that commonly confronts new science. Watson has expressed concern about society being too scared to make people as good as possible, and his fears are shared.

Table 1.

Determine Intelligence

People of low intelligence who do not have a recognised mental disability are suffering from an inherited disorder as real as cystic fibrosis or haemophilia, Mr Watson told a TV program that is to air next month in Britain.

In the series, Mr Watson, 75, is sceptical of theories that blamed learning disabilities or poverty for poor intellectual performance and says the true cause of poor intelligence and achievement is more likely to be genetic. "If you really are stupid, I would call that a disease," he said. Mr Watson says it is unfair some people receive less opportunity and warns that some will resort to genetic means. "Those parents who enhance their children, then their children are going to be the ones who dominate the world," he said. Turning to beauty, Mr Watson says this too could be engineered. "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great," he says.

Oliver James, a clinical psychologist and author, accused Watson of "ropy thinking" about the balance between nature and nurture, saying the ideas were "science fiction".

Tom Shakespeare, a bioethics expert at the University of Newcastle, told The Times newspaper: "He is talking about altering something that most people see as part of normal human variation, and that, I think, is wrong." Sir John Sulston, who ran Britain's contribution to the Human Genome Project, said Watson was exploring an "extremely dangerous area", but was not wrong to speak out. "It is foolish to put our heads in the sand," he said.

Watson, Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins jointly shared the Nobel prize for Medicine in 1962, almost 10 years after their discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA was published in April 1953. The discovery came on February 28 that year. "It was simple; instantly you could explain this idea to anyone -- you didn't have to be a high-powered scientist to see how the genetic material was copied," he said.

In the 1950's we had our first glimmerings of the structure of DNA, and dreamed of being able to read the genetic code. Today we can sequence a DNA strand - if not yet a routine process, it soon will be. Today we have a rudimentary ability to scan human brains and understand the neuron structure and the way that experience and learning is stored. Perhaps in another 50 years our ability to scan and understand brain structures will be similar to today's ability to understand DNA.

 References

DNA: In the Next 50 Years, What Will We Do with Our Genetic Knowledge? WILLINGTON, Ct., January 20, 2003 http://www.prweb.com/releases/2003/1/prweb55296.php

THE WORLD TRANSHUMANIST ASSOCIATION http://www.transhumanism.org 

Creature Generation Chart http://cc.oulu.fi/~count/sm/files/creature%20generation.doc

DNA 'clue to stupidity' http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/printpage/0,5481,6059313,00.html 
02mar03© Herald and Weekly Times

Double Helix With a Twist osulibrary.orst.edu/specialcollections/coll/pauling/dna/index.html  

Editor

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2002:19:(4) October-December

Bioterrorism and scientific freedom arguments

Faced with requests by investigators to withhold crucial details in papers that could be related to bioterrorism, American Society for Microbiology (ASM) President Ronald Atlas is calling for the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to convene a meeting to discuss the handling of such articles.

In a 23 July letter to NAS President Bruce Alberts, Atlas said that a meeting of publishers in the life sciences is urgently needed to "initiate discussions about the possible development of common publication policies in today's atmosphere, where there is increasing concern that technical articles may inadvertently aid those engaged in acts of terrorism."

Atlas, who publishes 11 journals through the ASM, made this request because he has been asked by several investigators to publish articles lacking certain critical details for fear that such details could be "misappropriated or misused." Atlas said in an interview with The Scientist that honoring such requests would set a bad precedent and that omitting data would alter the fundamental tenets of scientific research.

The letter comes as UK academics secure an amendment to the much-criticized export control bill. The amendment should protect researchers' freedom to publish new data and share their findings.

University of Pennsylvania bioethicist Arthur Caplan finds the notion of keeping scientific publishing blindly open "puzzling." Some information should obviously not be made public, according to Caplan. Rather than having a strict policy of classifying such information, which history shows has led to overly restrictive policy, Caplan sees the solution as a blue-ribbon panel representing the interests of the researchers and government to vet publications.

Against the backdrop of the nation's current war on terrorism, AAAS will sponsor a symposium this December to consider the delicate balance between the demands of national security and the need to protect scientific freedom and human rights. While many of the new security measures are clearly necessary, it is essential that the scientific community be engaged in evaluating them and their impacts on the environment for research," says Al Teich, director of the AAAS Directorate for Science and Policy Programs. "Scientists and engineers must also carefully consider their own professional and personal roles in this very dynamic and highly charged political environment."The symposium, entitled "The War on Terrorism: What Does It Mean for Science?," is scheduled for 18 December

The symposium will raise several questions regarding how scientists should respond to the new climate:
--What responsibilities do scientists and engineers have for the uses of their discoveries?
--What responsibilities do scientists and engineers have to contribute to national security? Do they have a responsibility to avoid or suppress research or findings that can be used by hostile powers, including terrorists?
--What principles of conduct should guide scientists and engineers in their work on matters that pose potentially high risk to human life?

It is clear the war on terrorism will be different than past wars due to the new technologies that are available. Dr. Gerald Yonas, Vice President and Principal Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, stressed that point along with the importance of understanding how technologies that can affect the mind can be used against terrorism and the need for a body of rules governing "just war" in the future of mind war.

We wish you a happy 2003 year without any terrorism or war at all.

Editor

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr  

References

*Bioterrorism papers under scrutiny: American Society for Microbiology president calls for meeting to discuss withholding of critical data by journals | By Laura DeFrancesco; http://www.biomedcentral.com/news/20020729/03%20 

*Coimbra Sirica: Maintaining the Balance Between Scientific Freedom and National Security http://www.aaas.org/news/releases/waronterror.shtml 

*The war on Terrorism:What does it mean for science? A symposium: Tuesday, December 18, 2001American Association for the Advancement of Science,Washington, DC http://www.aaas.org/spp/scifree/terrorism/ 

*http://www.aaas.org/spp/scifree/terrorism/report.shtml 

*AAAS Directoraten for Science & Policy, Scientific freedom, responsibility & law; http://www.aaas.org/spp/sfrl/about.htm 

*Wendy A. Laurin : Scientific freedom vs terrorism: Bioinformatics International Sept 2002 Vol:9No:7pp.8

Norol Bil D 2002:19:(3) July-September

Quantum mechanics and Brain

Kuantum mekaniği ve Beyin

Geçen yüzyılın en önemli bilimsel gelişmeleri sıralansa genel görecelik , kuantum mekaniği , big-bang kozmolojisi , genetik kodların çözümlenmesi , evrimsel biyoloji v.b. gibi konular ön sıraları alır kuşkusuz. Bunların içinde kuantum mekaniği köklü dayanağı ile oldukça ayrıcalıklıdır. Öyle ki bu durum gerçeklerle ilgili fikirlerin yeniden şekillenmesine, en derin seviyede doğasal olayların yeniden düşünülmesine, pozisyon ve hız olgularının gözden geçirilmesine ve hatta neden-sonuç ilişkilerine değin uzanmaktadır. Atomik dünyayı tanımlayan bir kuram olan kuantum mekaniği günlük yaşamımızdan ne kadar uzak gibi görünse de özellikle kimya, biyoloji ve tıptaki şaşırtıcı gelişmeler kuantum mekaniği sayesinde gerçekleşmiştir. Bilgisayar çağı kuantum mekaniğinin çocuğudur. Foton devrimi bizi bilgi çağına ulaştırmıştır. Kuantum mekaniği tek bir sıçrama basamağı atlanarak ortaya çıkmamıştır. Bir çok dahinin belli bir süreçte katkıları ile öncelikle 1900’lerde kuantanın babası sayılan Max Planck’ın kuantum kavramını ortaya atışı ile başlamıştır. Termal radyasyon konusundaki bir yazısında titreşim halindeki bir sistemin total enerjisinin sürekli olarak değişmeyeceği hipotezi ile enerjinin bir basamaktan diğerine bir kuanta değeri enerji olarak sıçraması gerektiğini ortaya atmıştır. Bu kuanta enerjisi fikri o derece radikal idi ki Planck bu savı bir süre nadasa bırakacaktı. Ta ki Einstein’ın 1905 yılında ışık için kuantizasyon göstergesinin tamınına kadar. O zaman fizikçiler arasında bile çok tuhaf karşılanan bu kavram fazla gelişme göstermedi. 

Modern kuantum teorisinin yaratılması için yirmi yıl sonra gelen yeni bir fizikçi generasyonu gerekti. 1913’te Niels Bohr kuantum fiziğini atom dünyasına uyarladı. 1923’te Louis de Broglie partiküllerin de ışık gibi dalgalar halinde davrandığını gösterdi. 1924’te Albert Einstein ve Satyendra Nath Bose kendi adlarında anılan (Bose-Einstein) istatistiği ile kuantum partiküllerini ölçen yeni bir yöntem geliştirdiler. Böylece son derece soğuk atomların yoğunlaşarak tek bir kuantum evresine ulaştığı durum daha sonraları Bose-Einstein kondansatörü olarak adlandırıldı. 1925’te kuantum mekaniğinin ilk versiyonu olan matriks mekaniğini Werner-Heisenberg geliştirerek kuantum alan teorisinin temelini atmış oldu. 1926’da Erwin Schrödinger kuantum fiziğinde ikinci bir tanımı geliştirerek buna “dalga mekaniği” adını verdi. Bu tanım daha sonra fen alanında en ünlü formüllerden biri olan Schrödinger denklemi olarak adlandırıldı. Paul Dirac’ın çalışmaları kuantum alan teorisine önderlik ettiği gibi “anti-madde” gibi buluşlarına da neden oldu. 1960’da Theodore Mainman ilk pratik laseri yapılandırdı. Laser üreten halkaların kesişme yerlerinde dolaşan fotonların kuantumu paylaşan partiküllerin oluşturulması, yeni kuantum bilgisayarların gelişmesine neden oldu. 1995’de Bose-Einstein kondansatörü pratiğe geçirilerek atom laseri ve süperakışkan gazlar bulundu. 

İlki 1999’da Kuzey Arizona’da yapılan “Kuantum ve Zeka” konferansı sonrası kuantum ölçümü, kuantum kriptografisi, kuantum teleportasyonu gibi devrimsel bilgi teknolojilerinin ışığında bilinç düzeyi, kuantum fiziği ve beyin ile ilgili toplantılarda kuantum bilgisi ile beyin arasında bir sentez amaçlanmakta. Beynin sinaptik bağlantıları çalışmaları nöral-ağların yapısının, biyolojik kuantum bilgisi de kuantum bilgi teknolojilerinin gelişmesine yardımcı olacaktır. Nöronlar-arası birleşkede elektronların kuantum tüneli 1970’de Evan Harris Walker tarafından ileri sürülmüştü. Dendritler arasındaki sıkı bağlantılar da kuantum tünelleşmesini olanaklı kılmaktadır. Hafıza, nöral ağlarda bilginin saklanması, anımsanması, kuantum bilincinin birleştirici tubulin elektron olayı ile tanımlanmaktadır. Biyojenik ferrimanyetik maddenin beyindeki fonksiyonu, iyon kanalları, hangi boyuttaki beyin bilinci yaşar? sorularına yanıt aranmaktadır kuantum bilgileri ışıgında. Kuantum bilinç durumu ile biyolojik siklus süperpozisyonu, nöronları birleştiren sinapsın her iki tarafındaki mikrotubulinlerin kuantum siklüsünü sürdürmesi çalışmaları ön planda gözükmektedir. Nöro-kuantolojinin diğer ilgi alanları ise görsel dikkat, fotonlardan fenomolojiye vizyon, gama ossilasyon, ayrık beyin, kaos ve beyin, v.b. gibi bilimsel gizemini koruyan konulardır. 

Geçen yüzyılda fiziksel dünyayı tanımamız amprikti. Kuantum fiziği, madde ve alan teorileri bilgileri ile dünyamızı değiştirdi. Önümüzdeki yüzyıl kuantum mekaniği temel nörolojik bilimler yanı sıra tüm bilim dallarında temel bir kavram ve asal bir araç olarak önemini sürdürecektir.  En iyi dileklerimle  Editör

KAYNAKLAR

Kleppner D, Jackiw R.: One hundred years of quantum physics. Science. 289:893-8, 2000

www.timeline.aps.org/APS/index.html

www.britannica.com

Manoharan, Lutz, Eigler Nature 403:512-515, 2000

Consiousness, Quantum physics and Brain- Quantum Mind 2003 http://www.consciousness.arizona.edu/quantum-mind2 

Neuro-Quantology Journal

Norol Bil D 2002:19:(2) April-June

Malpractice in Neurological Sciences

Türkiye'nin Avrupa Birliği ile ilişkileri gözden geçirilirken gündeme geç te olsa gelen tıpta kötü uygulama (malpractice) yasa tasarısı tartışılıyor. Türk Tabipler Birliğinin (TTB) bu konudaki girişimlerini http://www.ttb.tr/malpractice.html (4)  URL adresindeki Tıbbi Hizmetlerin Kötü Uygulanmasından Doğan Sorumluluk Kanun Tasarısı bölümünden ayrıntıları ile inceleyebilirsiniz. Hazırlanan bu yasa tasarısı ile ilgili görüş ve eleştirilerinizi lütfen bu siteye bildirin. 

Bu yasa gereği mesleki sorumluluk sigortası uygulamasında en yüksek prim ödeyecek uzmanlık dalları olarak jinekoloji ve nöroşirürji gelmektedir. TTB Yüksek Onur Kurulunda 1986-2002 tarihleri arasında 704 dosya görüşülmüştür. Ayrıca 1990-2000 arasındaAdli Tıp Kurumu'na hekim hatası iddiası ile 636 dava dosyası gelmiştir. Yüksek Sağlık Şurası dosyalarında da büyük çoğunluğunun tıp doktorları için yapılan başvurular olduğu göz önüne alındığında bu sayılar her 30 hekimden birinin yasal şikayete uğradığını göstermektedir. Bu oran, şikayetlerin bazı toplumsal mekanizmalar ve meslekler tarafından kışkırtıldığı ABD’de yaklaşık 12’de bir olup, diğer ülkeler Türkiye ile benzerlikler göstermektedir. Amerikalı bir nöroşirürjiyene kariyeri sırasında ortalama on kez dava açılır ve genel pratisyene göre bu nedenle malpraktis sigorta primi on kez daha yüksektir (3). Bazı İskandinav ülkelerinde mahkemeye dava açmanın ekonomik boyutu zorunlu hasta sigorta yasaları ile azaltılmaya çalışılmaktadır. Bu ekonomik boyut hastaneler tarafından karşılanmakta ve hataya-bağlı olmayan komplikasyonlar kısmen makul ücretlerle uzman bir kurul tarafından incelenerek çözüme gidebilmektedir. Bununla birlikte Avrupa'da mahkemeye dava açmak giderek yaygınlaşmakta ve bu durum her zaman her iki tarafa da acı veren bir deneyim olmaktadır. Bu durum modern bir toplumda tamamen ortadan kaldırılamaz, hastaların da hakları mevcuttur (1).

Pratik olarak, dava açılmasını önlemek üzere, yapılan önerileri şöylece sıralayabiliriz:

-Meslektaşınızı gereksiz yere, özellikle de yazılı olarak, eleştirmekten sakınınız ve dikkatli olunuz.

-Hastanızı ve yakınlarını işlem öncesi ve sonrasında çok iyi bilgilendiriniz.

-Her olan olayı hasta kayıtlarına geçiriniz.

-Tedavi kalitesini her zaman yüksek düzeyde tutunuz.

Mahkemede sizi bir uzmanlar kurulu sınamayacaktır. Unutmamak gerekir ki hukuk dili medikal dilden tamamen farklıdır (2).

References

1-Loew F: Ethics in Neurosurgery ACTA NEUROCHIR (Wien) 116:187, 1992

2-Mayfield FH: Historical vignette "perjury is not a crime" SURG NEUROL 31:71-75, 1989

3-Quam L, Dingwall R, Fenn P: Medical malpractice in perspective. The American experience. BMJ 294:1529-32, 1987

4- http://www.ttb.org.tr/malpractice.html

Editor

Nezih Oktar M.D.

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2002:19:(1) January-March

Neurolinguistics and the language gene

Human language is a unique faculty of the mind. It has been the ultimate mystery throughout the history of neuroscience. Despite many aphasia and functional imaging studies, the exact correlation between cortical language areas and subcomponents of the linguistic system has not been established. One notable drawback is that most functional imaging studies have tested language tasks at the word level, such as lexical decision and word generation tasks, thereby neglecting the syntactic aspects of the language faculty. As proposed by Chomsky, the critical knowledge of language involves universal grammar (UG), which governs the syntactic structure of sentences. Recent studies on functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study intended to identify cortical areas specifically involved in syntactic processing. A study of sentence processing that employs a newly developed technique, optical topography (OT), proposing a modular specialization of Broca's area, Wernicke's area, and the angular gyrus/supramarginal gyrus [6].

The FOXP2 gene, located on human 7q31 (at the SPCH1 locus), encodes a transcription factor containing a polyglutamine tract and a forkhead domain. FOXP2 is mutated in a severe monogenic form of speech and language impairment, segregating within a single large pedigree, and is also disrupted by a translocation in an isolated case. Several studies of autistic disorder have demonstrated linkage to a similar region of 7q (the AUTS1 locus), leading to the proposal that a single genetic factor on 7q31 contributes to both autism and language disorders [2]. But in some studies as Newbury et al. coding-region variants in FOXP2 do not underlie the AUTS1 linkage and that the gene is unlikely to play a role in autism or more common forms of language impairment [3].
Developmental dyslexia is a neurofunctional disorder characterised by an unexpected difficulty in learning to read and write despite adequate intelligence, motivation, and education. Previous studies have suggested mostly quantitative susceptibility loci for dyslexia on chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 6, and 15, but no genes have been identified yet [5].

Neurolinguistics (NLP) is the study of subjectivity; it looks at the way people think, learn, communicate and act. It is learning the components of language, perception, and behavior that not only determine our experiences, but make understanding one another possible [4]. "The application of NLP techniques and strategies ... will revolutionize the way you think about teaching and learning says van Nagel and et al.in their book of Mega-Teaching And Learning gives parents and educators new diagnostic models that will help them understand how students develop learning blocks and disabilities. With step-by-step instructions in the concepts of Neurolinguistics, you can learn methods for remediating these blocks [7].

The genes and brains of unusually gifted linguists, people who can speak many different languages fluently, for example, might also reveal other genetic contributions to language learning [8] and even faciliated by the disappearance of a linguistic barrier between them [1].

The current direction of research in neuroscience is beginning to establish the existence of distinct modules responsible for our knowledge of language.

References

1-Di Benedetto G, Erguven A, Stenico M, Castri L, Bertorelle G, Togan I, Barbujani G.
DNA diversity and population admixture in Anatolia.
Am J Phys Anthropol 2001 Jun;115(2):144-56

2-Lai CS, Fisher SE, Hurst JA, Vargha-Khadem F, Monaco AP.:A forkhead-domain gene is mutated in a severe speech and language disorder. Nature 2001 Oct 4;413(6855):519-23

3-Newbury DF, Bonora E, Lamb JA, Fisher SE, Lai CS, Baird G, Jannoun L, Slonims V, Stott CM, Merricks MJ, Bolton PF, Bailey AJ, Monaco AP.: FOXP2 Is Not a Major Susceptibility Gene for Autism or Specific Language Impairment. Am J Hum Genet 2002 Mar 13;70(5)

4-Neurolinguistics (NLP) www.leadinc.com/new_page_8.htm

5-Nopola-Hemmi J, Myllyluoma B, Haltia T, Taipale M, Ollikainen V, Ahonen T, Voutilainen A, Kere J, Widen E.: A dominant gene for developmental dyslexia on chromosome 3. J Med Genet 2001 Oct;38(10):658-64

6-Sakai KL, Hashimoto R, Homae F.: Sentence processing in the cerebral cortex. Neurosci Res 2001 Jan;39(1):1-10

 7-Van Nagel C. , Siudzinski R, Reese M and Reese E: Mega-Teaching And Learning: Neurolinguistic Programming in Education http://www.metamodels.com/meta/bks/edu3.htm

8-Whitfield John: Language gene found Nature 4 October 2001

Editor

Nezih Oktar M.D.

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2001:18:(4) October-December

Neuroelectronics: Combines nerve cells and microchips

Peter Fromberz and Gunther Zeck of the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Munich placed pond snail ( Lymnaea Stagnalis) neurons on a silicon chip, fencing them in place with microscopic plastic pegs. Neighbouring cells grew connections with each other and with the chip (1) (Figure 1*). A stimulator beneath each nerve cell created a change in voltage that triggered an electrical impulse to travel through the cell. Electrical pulses applied to the chip passed from one nerve cell to another, and back to the chip to trip a silicon switch. The circuit literally went live.

Figure 1. Electronmicrograph, after fixation, of neuron from the cluster of the pedal ganglia in L.stagnalis in a picket fence after 3 days in culture (Scale bar=20µm) [*with permission from "Copyright (2001) National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A." "Noninvasive neuroelectronic interfacing with synaptically connected snail neurons on a semiconductor chip." by, Zeck, G. & Fromherz, P. published in PNAS, August 28, 2001;98,10457-10462.]

Eve Marder who studies neural networks at Brandies University in Waltham, Massachusetts says that by letting us create nerve-based circuits at will, the technique is a lovely way to probe the workings of the nervous system, for example to investigate how memories are formed (2). The main obstacle to neuroelectronics is the difficulty of reliably connecting devices and living tissue. Fromherz and Zeck solved this problem by using silicon means electronic devices can be built into a standard chip. Biosensors for testing toxic or pharmaceutical substances on nerve cells and neuroprosthetics are among the ambitious applications for such chips. For example, chips could bridge a damaged section of the spinal cord. But such projects are still the realms of science fiction, as are "neurocomputers with living neurons or brains", says Fromherz. The method is suitable for long-term studies on synaptic modulation in small networks of intervertebrate neurons that are connected by chemical synapses. Meanwhile nerve networks will hopefully teach us how to mimic the brain's properties.

References

1. Zeck G, Fromherz P: Noninvasive neuroelectronic interfacing with synaptically connected snail neurons on a semiconductor chip. Prooceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 98; 10457-10462, 2001

2. Pearson H: Nerve chip goes live. First nerve cell-silicon microchip built. Nature 28 August 2001 http://www.nature.com/nsu/010830/010830-7.html

3. Tarlaci S: Nöroelektronik aglar: Bir hayale dogru. Bilim ve Teknik Aralik 2001

Nöroelektronik: Nöron ile yongalarin birlesimi

Münih'teki Max Planck Enstitüsünden Peter Fromberz ve Günther Zeck'in gecen aylarda silikon yonga (microchip) üzerine havuz salyangozu (Lymnaea Stagnalis) nöronlarini basari ile yerlestirme ve islevsel olarak birbirleri ile baglanti kurmalarini göstermeleri nöroelektronik devrenin ilk adimi sayilmaktadir (1) (Şekil 1*). Her nöronun altindaki uyaran voltajda bir degisiklik olusturmus ve hücre boyunca iletisim saglamistir. Yongaya uygulanan elektriksel uyarim bir nörondan digerine nakledilmis ve yongaya geri dönerek silikon salterli bir yolculuk yapmistir. Bu devre genel anlamda canli bir devredir.

Sekil 1. L.Stagnalis’in ayak ganglionundan alinan her bir nöronun mikro-yonga ile kültüründeki üç gün sonraki elektromikrografisi; hücre gövdelerinde yer değiştirme olmadan dokunma yerlerinde uzantılar, sinir hücrelerinde filizlenmelerin olusumu (ölcek: 20µm) [*Bu resim "Copyright (2001) National Academy of Sciences, U.S.A." "Noninvasive neuroelectronic interfacing with synaptically connected snail neurons on a semiconductor chip." by, Zeck, G. & Fromherz, P. published in PNAS, August 28, 2001;98,10457-10462.izni ile elektronik ortamda yayimlanmaktadir. Kendilerine tesekkur ederim]

Nöral aglar ile ugrasan Waltham'daki Brandeis Üniversitesinden Eve Marder bu nöron-kaynakli devrelerin sinir sisteminin nasil calistigini gözlemleyebilecegimiz bir arastirma araci olacagi, örnegin bellegin nasil olustuguna iliskin bilgilerimizi gelistirebilecegimiz düsüncesinde. Nöroelektronikte ana engel güvenli bir sekilde yongalar ile yasayan dokulari birlestirebilmek. Bu sorunu Fromherz ve Zeck silikon kullanarak asmislar ve elektronik aygitlari standard bir yonga içinde kurmuslardir. Bu nöronal yongalarla ilk olarak hedeflenenler toksik ve farmakolojik maddelerin nöronlar üzerindeki etkilerini deneyecek biyolojik sensörler ve nöroprotezler gibi projelerdir. Bu heyecan verici projelerden bir örnek olarak medülla spinalisin hasarli bölgesini onarmada bir köprü görevi görmeleri olabilir. Ancak bütün bu projeler bilim kurgu alaninda Fromherz'e göre "beyin ya da nöronlarla yasayan nöro-bilgisayarlar" olarak adlandirilmaktadirlar. Bu yöntem kimyasal sinapslarla baglanmis kücük nöronal-aglarin   sinaptik modülasyonunun uzun etkilerini irdelemek icin uygundur. Ayni zamanda bu sinir-aglari ile beynin özelliklerini taklit ederek nasil calistigini ögrenmeyi de umut edebiliriz.

Saygilarimla

Editor

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2001:18:(3) July-September

The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (The CONSORT statement)

Increased number of randomised clinical trials in all aspects of medical research has prompted the introduction of guidelines that are intended to improve the quality of the research and of the published papers derived from such investigations. The Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials ( the CONSORT statement) were set forth by a group of journal editors, statisticians, biomedical investigators. The CONSORT statement's critical value to researchers, health care providers, and health policy makers is its commitment to integrity in the reported results of randomized controlled trials (RCTs). It provides users with consistent, high quality data that they can rely upon for making treatment decisions.

The CONSORT statement has been published in several major medical journals and is likely to have a major impact on editorial policies as well as the design of such investigations.

CONSORT is an evidence-based research tool that provides authors with a standard way to report RCTs through the use of a 21-item checklist and a flow diagram. The CONSORT statement can also be used by readers, peer-reviewers and editors to identify reports with inadequate description of trials and those with potentially biased results.

To incorporate new evidence and improve on the original effort, the CONSORT group has revised the CONSORT statement as you may download with new checklist and flow diagram which is available at http://www.cosort-statement.org . Now on our e-journal support the CONSORT statement for randomized controlled trials as we stated in our instructions for authors.

Best regards.

Editor

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Schulz KF: The quest for unbiased research: Randomized clinical trials and the CONSORT reporting guidelines. CONSORT reporting guidelines [from American Neurological Association] 1997 [Download PDF file - 110K]

Norol Bil D 2001:18:(2) April-June

Book review enthusiasm

As we peer-review the submitted articles in our e-journal we should consider to review books, as well. We received two precious books for "book review" last month.

Ilhan Elmaci MD, in his recent book, has done a remarkable job presenting, both biographically and scientifically, an important personage in Neurosurgery: Hami Dilek MD was indeed a pioneer in the history of Neurosurgery in Turkey. As Elmaci's previous work on an historical article published in Neurosurgery concerning Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu (AD 1385-1468) who was the author of Cerrahiyyetü'l-Haniyye (Imperial Surgery), which was written in Turkish in 1465. It was the first illustrated textbook of surgery in the Turkish medical literature, containing color illustrations of surgical procedures, incisions, and instruments.(1)

It is my fervent hope that other biographical vignettes will be published with meticulous work exposing more "documented stories" from the younger generation, like this out as under-scope in "book review" section of this electronic issue.

"Computing the Brain" is another contemporary work by a distinguished author of computing: Michael A. Arbib (2). His epistomology breaks new ground in an undiscovered globes of brain. From USC, edited by Arbib & Grethe "Computing the Brain- A guide to Neuroinformatics (3)" provides with an integrated view of current informatics research related to the field of neuroscience.

Now with our new committed editorial staff we are keen on "book review" sharing the excitement of the authors fraught with arduousness while creating their "world of books".

(1) Elmaci I: Color illustrations and neurosurgical techniques of Serefeddin Sabuncuoglu in the 15th century.Neurosurgery. 2000 Oct;47(4):951-4; discussion 954-5.
(2) Micheal A. Arbib
(3) Computing the Brain- A guide to Neuroinformatics: Edited by Arbib & Grethe, Academic Press, 2001

Editor

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2001:18:(1) January-March

The Nobel Prize & Neuroscientists

In the year of 2000, the Nobel Committee awarded the Prize for Physiology or Medicine to three distinguished neuroscientists, Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard, and Eric R. Kandel. Their contributions opened a molecular window onto the brain*. However, neurologist Oleh Hornyhiesicz of Vienna University Medical School discovered in the 1960s that the neurotransmitter dopamine was the underlying deficit in Parkinson's disease and designed the first replacement treatment using a dopamine precursor*. Carlsson by identifying dopamine as the first brain neurotransmitter found uniquely in the brain, Greengard by illuminating the molecular cascade triggered inside the neuron by dopamine, and Kandel by recognizing that the molecular basis of cognitive processes such as learning must first be worked out in simpler systems before they can be understood in the brains of complex mammals such as ourselves.

In this first issue of JNS[T], while entering to the third millenium we had the privilege of publishing the original paper from the owner of Nobel prize, Eric R. Kandel. I thank on behalf of readers of our e-journal to Kandel & Mayford for contributing such a valuable paper on "The genetic basis of memory storage" to our e-journal.

* L.Orlando, Nobel objections, Trends in Neurosciences 2001, 24:4:202

Editor

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2000:17:(4) October-December

Neurological aspects of entering to a new millenium

As a result of our latest monthly poll we're going to review the subjects of gene therapy, epilepsy & surgery, and hydrocephalus treated by neuroendoscopy in our early millenium issues.

While entering to a new millenium I would like to mention some aspects and expectations of the neurological sciences. The use of computers in medicine will revolutionize the current methods of diagnosing neurological diseases. Data from patients will be compared with other patient information compiled in large databases to more accurately select differential diagnoses and therapeutic programs. Computer simulation of various therapeutic approaches to the treatment of diseases, based on the compilation of a large amount of data, including patient information, will be commonplace and will eliminate the need to conduct randomized clinical studies because each individual treatment will be tailored specifically to the patient (1).

The advances in biology will be keyed by a continued understanding to the genetics of the nervous system. Genetic abnormalities will be detected in utero, thereby averting developmental problems. The genetic basis of malformations, tumor, degenerative diseases, and a variety of other problems will be discovered. These discoveries in genetics will eventually lead to genetic manipulation, treatment, or reversal of the disease processes mentioned herein. Neurosurgeons will become more specialized and work in teams with neurologists and basic scientist in academic centers to provide detailed multidisciplinary approaches to problems.

The 21st century looks very exiting for neurological sciences.

Please do not hesitate to contact us for a better on-line e-journal of the neurological sciences.

For the foreseeable events in the new millenium we wish the best on in minds coming earliest to all of us in the year of 2001.

(1) Ausman JI: Achivement of the last century in Neurosurgery and a view to the 21st century. Surg Neurol 2000;53:301-2

Editor

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2000:17:(3) July-September

Progenitor & Stem Cell Research

The biomedical community is moving quickly to take advantage of new guidelines from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for use of human pluripotent stem cells. The U.K. goverment leaped into an ethical minefield recently, endorsing a report it had commissioned that calls for an expansion of research on human embryos. The report advocates tapping embryos for their stem cells, unspecialized cells that may ultimately serve as seed material for growing tissues to treat diseases. It also opens the door to cloning human embryos for research- an activity that has triggered sharp debate. Legislation implementing the recommendations will go to parliament for a vote this fall. If passed, the new U.K. regulations would likely be more permissive than guidelines expected out shorthly from the US NIH. With Canada, Germany, and Japan also hammering out guidelines, says stem cell researcher John Gearhart of the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, "you'll soon see other players in the field." (Table 1)(4)

TABLE 1.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) are multipotential progenitor cells that have self-renewal activities. A single NSC is capable of generating various kinds of cells within the CNS, including neurons, astrocytes, and oligodendrocytes. Because of these characteristics, there is an increasing interest in NSCs and neural progenitor cells from the aspects of both basic developmental biology and therapeutic applications for damaged brain. By understanding the nature of NSCs present in the CNS, extracellular factors and signal transduction cascades involved in the differentiation and maintenance of NSCs, population dynamics and localization of NSCs in embryonic and adult brains, prospective identification and isolation of NSCs, and induction of NSCs into particular neuronal phenotypes, it would be possible to develop a feasible strategy to manipulate cells in situ to treat damaged brain.(3) Endogenous oligodendrocyte progenitor cells for example, may represent a viable target for future therapies intended to enhance remyelination in MS patients. (1)

Current U.K. rules allow research on human embryos only for studies aimed at improving infertility treatment, devising better contraceptives, and screening for genetic abnormalities before implantation. Nearly all embryos used in such studies are leftovers from in vitro fertilization clinics, and research is limited to embryos less than 2 weeks old, before neural development occurs.

But recent advances in stem cell research prompted the U.K. Department of Health to ask its chief medical officer, Liam Donaldson, to appoint an independent panel to review the science and ethics of human embryo research. The panel delivered its report in May, and last week the Department of Health unveiled both the report and the government's response. The department is now discussing with the research councils, which dole out much of the government's science funding, how to fund more human embryo research.

Topping the panel's list of recommendations is a call for allowing researchers to extract embryonic stem cells, which can be coaxed to form various cell types. Culled from 5- to 6-day-old embryos, such cells might be grown in the test tube into tissues suitable for transplantation. The hope is that embryonic stem cells would serve as a stopgap until scientists learn to reprogram adult cells to serve as stem cells. "Winding the clock back on adult cells is very much the Holy Grail of stem cell research," says Donaldson. But scientists shouldn't count on adult cells, warns Peter Andrews of the University of Sheffield, who studies human embryonal tumor cells. "In the end," he says, "the therapeutic approach will be the one that's easiest to follow."

The final guidelines, issued last week, allow NIH- funded researchers to derive pluripotent stem cells from fetal tissue, but not from embryos. Scientists may also work with embryonic stem cells, but may obtain them only from private sources and must ensure that derivation meets certain ethical conditions. (Table 2)(5).

TABLE 2.

There is reason for the scientific community to be mildly pleased by the recent NIH rules, but unconfined joy is not in order. The political terrain is well planted with land mines--and the new guidelines, welcome though they are, fall short of perfection. The forces that have placed stem cell research in peril are powerful, and they are among a number of voices challenging science, whether the issue is research on embryos, reproductive biology, or the teaching of evolution in the schools.(2)

Literature

1-Chang A, Nishiyama A, Peterson J, Prineas J, Trapp BD: NG2-Positive Oligodendrocyte Progenitor Cells in Adult Human Brain and Multiple Sclerosis Lesions. J Neurosci 2000 Sep 1;20(17):6404-6412[MedLine-Abstract]

2-Kennedy D: Two cheers for new stem cell rules SCIENCE Sept. 1; 2000; 289:1469

3-Okano H: Neural stem cells: the basic biology and prospects for brain repair NIHON SHINKEI SEISHIN YAKURIGAKU ZASSHI 2000; Feb; 20(1): 21-6[MedLine-Abstract]

4-Stone R: U.K. Backs use of embryos, sets vote. SCIENCE Aug. 25; 2000; 289; 1269-70

5-Vogel G: Researchers get green light for work on stem cells SCIENCE 1 Sept. 2000; 289:1442-3

Editor

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 2000:17:(2) April-June

Gene Therapy for Neurological Disorders

As gene transfer technology has evolved, its applicability to a wide range of disease has become apparent. Attribution of many neurological diseases to single gene defects has made these diseases attractive candidates for gene therapy. The progress in developing gene therapies for lysosomal storage diseases, muscular dystrophy, and Parkinson disease are well-known.

Latest developments achieved by complete coding of chromosomes 22 and 21 of humankind by human genome project on the one course, also an unpredictable death of a patient during a gene therapy using an adenovirus vector in Philadelphia on the other end , willy-nilly to cease to care for gene treatment clinically for a while.

Laboratory and technical improvements are well ahead on clinical studies and therapies if you considered gene therapy. Ethical issues on one side, demoralizing clinical results achieved on malignant brain tumor gene therapies using viral vectors on the other side for example.

All efforts are now mobilized for a vaccine for cancer or searching reliable other forms of vectors and to be more strict on clinical protocoles in general terms, before attempting for a realistic, safe and effective gene therapy for all of our patients.

Best regards

Editor

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Literature

MA Eglitis: Gene therapy for neurodegenerative diseases. In. The molecular basis of neurosurgical Disease.Concepts in Neurosurgery Vol.8 Ed.(s) Raffel C, Harsh GR Williams & Wilkins 1996 pp.374-84

E. Marshall: Gene therapy death prompts review of adenovirus vector SCIENCE 17 Dec. 1999; 286(5448):2244-5

Norol Bil D 2000:17:(1) January-March

Optical Coherence Tomography

Optical coherence tomography ( OCT ) continues to be one of the few light-based technologies gaining a commercial foothold in the medical field. And if Coherent Diagnostic Technology ( CDT; Westford, MA) is successful in its efforts to commercialize technology licensed from Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT; Cambridge, MA), OCT could well become a standard diagnostic tool for multiple medical applications.

OCT offers several advantages over existing diagnostic technologies. It is optically based, noncontact, and achieves resolution in the 2-10µm range - one to two orders of magnitude greater than ultrasound or other tomographic imaging technologies such as computed tomography or magnetic resonance. In addition, it precludes the need for surgical biopsies.

Simply put, OCT involves directing infrared light waves onto an object, organ, or tissue specimen and measuring how long it takes for the light to return. The basic OCT system works by gating out the reflections from different depths in the tissue or material using an interferometer [Fig.1].

Fig.1

Basic OCT system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA), and being commercialized by Coherent Diagnostic Technology, works by gating out the reflection from different depths in a tissue or material using an interferometer. These data are then recompiled into a computerized image within seconds.

By moving the mirror once the interferometer has extracted the optical signals from the reflected light, the data are processed and high-resolution, cross-sectional (that is, 3-D) digital images of microstructures are produced on an attached computer monitor - all in a matter of seconds. And, because the resolution is so high, the process reveals an enormous amount of data, with the possibility of imaging at the cellular level [Fig.2].

Fig. 2

Images of brain tissue from a frog (with the skull removed) were obtained in real time (12 frames/s) with a resolution of 15 µm in the range dimension and 25 µm in the lateral dimension.

This is an revolutionary system combining the radiological and pathological diagnostic fields as a single new tool.  Initially, CDT will target three medical markets: cardiology, gastroenterology, and microscopy. Additional medical applications on the horizon include dermatology and dentistry; potential nonmedical uses include nondestructive testing and on-line process control for manufacturing. Coherent Diagnostic Technology's first commercial product will likely be a nonsurgical microscopy OCT device, primarily because it does not require US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) clearance. Initially designed for use in genetic analysis and similar applications, this product is also being developed for microscopic surgery.

Literature

K. Kincade: OCT moves closer to broad-based commercialization LASER FOCUS WORLD Dec. 1999; 35(12):47-8

http://www.optoelectronics-world.com

Norol Bil D 1999:16:(4) October-December

Being a Neurosurgeon of the Century

Yüzyılın Beyin-cerrahı olmak

Yeni bir yüzyılın eşiğinde benim de yanında kısa bir süre bulunma şansım olduğu Gazi M. Yaşargil tüm dünya saygın nöroşirürjiyenleri arasında yapılan bir seçim sonucu 1900-50 yılları için Nöroşirürjinin kurucusu Cushing'in ardı sıra 1950-2000 arasına vurduğu inanılmaz damgası ile tartışmasız olarak seçildi. "Neurosurgery" dergisi son sayısında 30 sayfaya yakın yer verdiği Yaşargil, nöroşirürjide devrim yaratan sisternal cerrahi, mikronöroşirürji, nöral dokuya saygı v.b. yöntemleri ile yeni ve imkansızı olanaklı kılan genç bir nörolojik cerrah generasyonunun ülkemizde olduğu gibi tüm dünyada yetişmesinde öncülük etti. 

Yaşargil nörolojik cerrahide bir usta olmasının yanı sıra insani değerlerin ürünleri, sanat ve yaşam ile ilgili olarak da yaşantısında ortaya koyduğu değerlerle onu yakından tanıma olanağı olanlara yön vererek etkili olmuştur. Emekli olmasına karşın halen ABD'de kopamadığı Nöroşirürji ile içiçedir ve hala ameliyat yapmaktadır.

Adam olmak kolay değildir. Hele hele yüzyılın adamı olmak hiç kolay değildir. Geçmişte bırakacağımız yüz yılda devrimci bir devlet adamımız büyük Atatürk'ün Dünyada yankılandığı izleri yaşıtlarının fikirlerinin teker teker tükendiği dönemde, Yaşargil'in nöroşirürjideki devrimleri de yaşıtlarının koyduğu cerrahi ilkelere göre daha uzun ömürlü olacağı hatta önümüzdeki bir yüz yıl daha yaşayacak güçte olması bizlere ancak onur vermektedir.

Daha nice bir yüz yıla sığmayacak "yüzyılın adamlar"ına...    

En iyi dileklerimle

Editör

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 1999:16:(3) July-September

Brain-quake

Beyin-depremi

17 Ağustos 1999 günü yaşanan deprem felaketi ardından AKUT örneğinde kanıtlanan bilinçli, gönüllü, yürekli, sivil örgütlenmenin gücü yanı sıra bilimsel verilere duyulan aymazlık, ahlaksızlık ve dinsel ağırlıklı içgüdüsel propagandalar, uluslararası hele komşumuz Yunanistan'ın ulaştırdığı insani yardımlar altında umarım ezilmiştir. Bu felaket umarım yine beyinlerde de bir depreme neden olarak çürük, temelsiz, insani olmayan, bilim dışı düşünceleri de sarsarak yerle bir etmiştir. Science dergisinin domino-taşları örneği olarak körfezdeki bu son deprem konusu ile ilgili bir yazısı sitemizden link edilerek okurlarımıza sunulmuştur. EARTHQUAKES:
In Turkey, Havoc From a Falling-Domino Fault by Tim Appenzeller  from Science Izmit depremine ilişkin daha da yeni bir makale Aykut Barka tarafından yine aynı dergide bu hafta yayımlandı. The 17 August 1999 Izmit Earthquake by Aykut Barka

Dergimizin nöro-radyolog ve nöro-patologlarla ortaklaşa düzenledikleri kış toplantımızı 18 Aralık 1999 tarihinde Fransa'dan konuk konuşmacılarımız sayın Prof.Daumas-Duport ve Prof.Meder'in katılımları ile gerçekleştireceğiz. Konularında şu anda bir numara olan bu değerli meslektaşlarımızı İzmir'de ağırlayacagız.

Robot-Medline adı altında şu anda İsrail Devlet Başkanı olarak görev yapan, aslında temel bilimlerde saygın bir bilim adamı niteliği de olan meslektaşımız sayın Weizmann'ın öncülüğünde haftalık MEDLINE taraması ile ilgili size devamlı bir bilgi akışı sağlayacak araştırıcılar için yararlı ve tamamen ücretsiz bir inter-net programını da sitemizin "editor's link" bölümünden bulabilirsiniz. Böyle devlet başkanlarını tüm dünya ülkelerinin başında görmek acaba olası olacak mıdır?

Yerküremizi sarsan depremler hiç bir zaman son bulmayacaklardır. Umarım beyin fonksiyonlarımızı sarsan beyin-depremlerinden de sağlıklı olarak kurtulmak için beyin gücümüzü sağlam tutacak yöntemleri bulma yönündeki çabalarımız da son bulmaz.

En iyi dileklerimle

Editör

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

Norol Bil D 1999:16:(2) April-June

E-biomed proposal and peer-review in indexed biomedical journals

Biyomedikal dergilerde hakemlik işlevi ve E-biomed tasarısı

Amerikan Ulusal Sağlık Enstitüsünün (NIH) önerdiği taslak eğer onaylanırsa yakın bir gelecekte internet üzerinde daha ekonomik boyutta bir biyomedikal yayımcılık devreye girmiş olacak. NIH başkanı Harold Varmus ve arkadaşlarının önerisi ile özgün biyomedikal çalışmaların sunum ve erişimi internetin daha hızlı ve geniş kapsamlı kullanımı ile yaygınlaşacaktır. Zaten sadece mecmualar ve süreli yayınlar için en geniş arşivleme sistemine sahip olan Amerikan Milli Tıp Kütüphanesi’nin PC ve internet servisi MEDLINE yanı sıra her türlü tıbbi yayın (indekslenmeye girmeyen mecmualar, kitaplar v.b.) arşivi de artık internet üzerinden ulaşıma açılmış durumdadır (LOCATORPlus).

Elektronik (On-line) yayımcılık servisi kurma aşamasına gelen ve E-biomed olarak adlandırılan bu yeni sistem için NIH başkanı Varmus’a Ulusal Biyoteknoloji Bilgi Merkezi başkanı David Lipman ve Stanford Universitesi genetik uzmanı Pat Brown’un da yardımları ile 22 Nisan’da tüm ilgililere e-posta ile duyuru yapılmış ve gelecek öneriler ile birlikte bu yeni sistem gözden geçirilerek bir dergide basılı halde yayımlanmış olacaktır. Bu taslağa göre düşünülen yeni sisteme ulaşım birkaç şekilde olabilecektir. Bu sisteme uygun olarak gönderilecek bir çalışma / makale,  eğer yüksek bir kalite seçilecekse büyük olasılıkla şu anda zaten çeşitli dergilerde hakemlik görevi üstlenen bilinen kişilerden oluşan uluslararası bir network ağına girecek ve gizli-hakemlik işlevi yürütülecektir. Warmus’a göre bu yol güncel, geçerli ve düzenli olacak. Eğer bu yolla gönderilen yazı red olursa, yazar bu kez çalışmasını daha az prestiji olan web-değerlendirme site alanına kaydıracaktır. Ancak yazarların aynı zamanda hiç bir editör ya da hakemlik işlevine girmeden basit bir yol seçim hakkı da olacaktır. Bunun için yazar ya da yazarların geniş bir bilimsel kadro panelinde yer alan en az iki üyeden yazısı ile ilgili “geçerlilik” notu alması koşulu aranacaktır.

Öte yandan saygın bir adı olan “Index medicus”ta arşivlenen mecmualar arasında gizli-hakemlik işlevinin irdelendiği 1994 yılında sonuçlanan bir araştırmada makalelerin ancak %56 ila %65’inin gizli konsültan editörlük sürecinden geçtiği ve şaşırtıcı olarak yayımlanan makalelerin yarısına yakın bir bölümünde hakemlik işlevinin editörlerce çeşitli nedenlerle yürütülemediği ortaya konmuştur. (JAMA 1994, 272:156-158) Klasik yöntemlerle yürütülen hakemlik işlevinin bu düzeyde aksaklık göstermesi son derece düşündürücüdür.

Bu çarpıcı sonuçlar ve önerilen yeni sistemler, bana göre,   yayımcılıkta bilimsel etik ve hakemlik işlevi sorunlarını çözmeye yönelik yeni bir boyutta daha sağlıklı bir yaklaşım sürecine girmekte olduğumuzun habercileridir.

Bu sayımızda epilepsi cerrahisi, nöroendoskopi ve spinal enstrüman kullanımı ile ilgili özgün yazılar yanı sıra yine ilginç, güncel araştırma, derleme  ve olgu sunumları ile karşınızdayız.

Elektronik olarak yayımlanan bu son sayımız ile internet dergicilikte bir yılımızı doldurduk. Önümüzdeki sayılar ile ilgili bazı özel hazırlıklarımız ve 2000 yılı için bazı özel sürprizlerimiz olacak; her zaman olduğu gibi eleştiri ve önerilerinizi beklemekteyiz.

En iyi dileklerimle

Editör

Kaynaklar

Colaianni LA. Peer review in journals indexed in Index Medicus JAMA 1994; 272:156-8

LocatorPlus

Marshall E. Scientific publishing: Varmus Circulates Proposal for NIH-backed online Venture Science

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

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Norol Bil D 1999:16:(1) January-March

Scientific fraud

Until a few decades ago, fraud in science was generally believed to be uncommon and, when it happened, it was perceived as the action of the deranged. Science is supposedly self-correcting, and so the discovery of fraud was seen as inevitable. However, as laboratory life has become more competitive, and especially where experiments are difficult to replicate, fraud and other types of serious misconduct have become less rare. As one of our e-journal's peer-reviewer Prof.Ertekin quoted on his speech which had been held  on 5th of February, at the Winter Meeting of our journal , in Izmir that there was an about 0.1 to 0.4% of scientific misconduct has been found in biomedical research all over the world . (As published in this week's of CBT) The extent of scientific misconduct of the 'fabrication-falsification-plagiarism' type is hotly - and usually rather unscientifically - debated in both the United States and Europe. Some scientists fear that publicized cases are merely the tip of an iceberg. Others remain convinced that the overall incidence remains low, and even those with direct experience of misconduct cases are often optimistic. I also recommend to you to read over the briefing written by Alison Abbott with additional reporting by Rex Dalton and Asako Saegusa in the last issue of Nature: Science comes to terms with the lessons of fraud

   The other area of argument among the journal editors is in now on developing for misconduct watchdog. The all for a fraud-busting body comes from the authors of a report published 2 weeks ago by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), an alliance of journal editors. This and similar organizations, alarmed at the rising number of misconduct accusations and the lack of any mechanism for investigating them, believe that Britain needs a national watchdog body, along the lines of the US Office of Research Integrity or the Danish National Committee for scientific dishonesty. “It should have the power to investigate, which we don’t have” says Richard Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal (BMJ). Smith et al. first met 12 months ago to discuss growing concerns about the lack of clear guidelines on how to deal with breaches of research and publication ethics. The group founded COPE, and since then it has heard of numerous dubious studies sent by researchers to medical journals.

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

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Norol Bil D 1998:15:(4) October-December

Uniforming electronic material

The uniform requirements for submission of medical manuscripts (URM) as indicated for the members of the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) http://www.wame.org/rsources.htm recently revised also in French and in Portuguese. As guidelines of the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors style of references for the electronic material http://www.ama-assn.org/public/journals/jama/sc6336.htm#electronic has proposed for journal article in electronic format as : the name of the author(s). Title of the manuscript. Name of the e-journal [serial online]. Publication date (as month,year) and the URL address.

We should uniform the style and format of the electronic publications in the act of referring which appearing widely as a seamless scientific cyberlibrary. My proposal will be as follows: Name of the author(s). Title of the article. Name(official abbr.) of the e-journal [URL address] / year of the publication / archive code of the file (as .htm, .html, or .pdf) as we use in our on-line publication of Turkish Neurological Sciences ( http://www.med.ege.edu.tr/~norolbil )

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

(This editorial note has sent to "Science"- Letters to the editor- on 11^th of December, 1998)

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Norol Bil D 1998:15:(3) July-September

Journal of Neurological Science (Turkish) and "electronic linking" plan

A vision of the Web as a seamless scientific cyberlibrary has just come a step closer to reality. Many scientific publishers have endorsed an "electronic linking" proposal under which the National Library of Medicine (NLM), home of the online MedLine biomedical abstracts, would create a new data   base so that electronic citations could be linked across all scientific and engineering fields from astronomy to zoology.

PubRef, as it has been dubbed, would not be directly searchable and would in fact be invisible to users, says Kenneth Fulton, executive director of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), which is spearheading the plan. Instead, behind the scenes, PubRef would supply hyperlinks for references in online articles. The result would be that for someone reading, say, an astrophysics paper in Science, a referenced paper or its abstract in Physical Review Letters would be just a mouse click away. (Depending on the journal, viewing the paper might require a subscription or fee.) "This is something that's clearly going to be very useful for the community, and we can do it at minimal cost," says NLM's David Lipman.

More than 40 scientific publishers and societies (including AAAS, which publishes Science) and other groups have signed on to a 31 July letter from NAS president Bruce Alberts to NLM director Donald Lindberg describing the plan. Lipman says it's now up to journals to submit citation URLs, but once that happens PubRef could be up and running in 5 months.

Journal of Neurological Sciences (Turkish) has been started as an "electronic link" since June, 1998. With a further step converting to PDF (portable downloadable format) with hyperlinking to URL address of the references in published on-line articles, if available in Inter-Net starting from the next issue. 

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

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Norol Bil D 1998:15:(1-2) January-June

Future of scientific e-journals

Recently there have been different arguments about the electronic journals appeared in inter-net and spread widely all across the planet. I would like to discuss the advantages of electronic journals to be gained from saving time for their preparation while printing and for their publication. Besides that, this new method seems to be particularly advantageous to the publisher with respect to the quality of presentation (with video, sound, etc.) without any problems of postage or distribution and without any cost of printing. These are crucially important issues in a developing country. I have been an editor of a locally published scientific journal (Turkish Journal of Neurological Sciences) for 15 years. Now we have an URL address (http://www.med.ege.edu.tr/~norolbil) and decided to carry on as an e-journal. As Einstein said "Imagination is more important than the knowledge", the simplest and easiest way of accessing to knowledge has been through the inter-net (think of Med-line). For example, I can get the opportunity to read "SCIENCE" two weeks before I receive the hard-copy.

Yet, as Y.Poumay (Science no.5367, May 22, p.1171) indicated, there are some questions about the functions of the e-journals; such as "will the peer-reviewed e-journal material be admitted as a published article?"; "how can we store them?"; "how can we rely on authors and editors?"; "how can we classify the sources of literature?" and so forth. In order to protect our scientific credibility, we should not ban anything but just imagine more profoundly with the help of any kind of scientific knowledge.

noktar@med.ege.edu.tr

(This editorial note has sent to "Science"- Letters to the editor- on 31^st of May, 1998)

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