whoa -- medical discovery

[ljgeoff]

This is some of the biggest news I've heard in ... years, maybe. Researchers Johnathan Kipnis, Antoine Louveau, and Tajie Harris at the University of Virginia School of Medicine have discovered lymph vessels that service the central nervous system. This means that research on diseases such as Alzheimer's, MS, autism, will explode.

The unexpected presence of the lymphatic vessels raises a tremendous number of questions that now need answers, both about the workings of the brain and the diseases that plague it. For example, take Alzheimer's disease. "In Alzheimer's, there are accumulations of big protein chunks in the brain," Kipnis said. "We think they may be accumulating in the brain because they're not being efficiently removed by these vessels." He noted that the vessels look different with age, so the role they play in aging is another avenue to explore. And there's an enormous array of other neurological diseases, from autism to multiple sclerosis, that must be reconsidered in light of the presence of something science insisted did not exist.

Maps of the lymphatic system: old (left) and updated to reflect UVA's discovery.
Credit: University of Virginia Health System

There are significant links between head injury and Alzheimer's and a type of dementia called chronic traumatic encephalopathy. Additionally, according to a huge study published in 2014 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, those with head injuries were 65% more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, 59% more likely to develop a depression, 28% more likely to be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and a huge 439% more likely to suffer from organic mental disorders.

Article here. Thanks to wcg for the heads up.