Leaky Blood–Brain Barrier: A Double Whammy for the Brain

Varitint-waddler: a double whammy for hearing.

T varitint-waddler (Va) mutant mouse must be the prettiest mouse I have ever seen. The mutation shows semidominant inheritance, and mice carrying one copy of the Va mutation are tricolored, as its name suggests, with variable patches of fur in white, pale gray, and the rich chestnut color agouti (1). It is also deaf and has the classic head-bobbing and circling behavior typical of mice with def...

Natural products: DNA double whammy.

Double whammy: a tale of two malignancies.

Sharma A, Yesudian PD. BMJ Case Rep 2017. doi:10.1136/bcr-2017-221148 Description A 61-year-old woman was referred to the dermatology clinic with multiple skin lesions on her scalp and central back. They were relatively asymptomatic but had increased in size over the previous few months. Her medical history was significant as she had a cerebellar medulloblastoma when she was 19 years old that w...

A leaky blood–brain barrier, fibrinogen infiltration and microglial reactivity in inflamed Alzheimer’s disease brain

This study has used immunohistochemical examination of tissue obtained from Alzheimer's disease (AD) brains and rat hippocampus injected with Abeta(1-42) peptide to determine effects of induced inflammatory reactivity on integrity of blood-brain barrier (BBB) and viability of neurons. Tissue from AD, but not non-demented, brains exhibited a diffuse pattern of staining for fibrinogen and immunog...

Comorbid depression and diabetes mellitus: a double whammy

Depression is commonly found as a comorbid condition in chronic medical illnesses in general, and diabetes mellitus in particular. Patients with diabetes are twice as likely to suffer from depression as compared to the general population. The relationship between depression and diabetes has been argued to be essentially bi-directional. Coexistence of diabetes and depression is associated with p...