NIH launches tool to advance Down syndrome research

from the NIH:

The National Institutes of Health has launched a subsite of DS-Connect: The Down Syndrome Registry for researchers, clinicians, and other professionals with a scientific interest in Down syndrome to access de-identified data from the registry. This Web portal will help approved professionals to plan clinical studies, recruit participants for clinical trials, and generate new research ideas using information gathered from the registry participants.
“DS-Connect is a centralized, secure website where people in the Down syndrome community can store their health information related to Down syndrome. Participation in the registry is completely voluntary and can be withdrawn at any time,” said Melissa Parisi, M.D., Ph.D., of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which funded and developed the registry. “It’s also a valuable resource for professionals in health care and science, who can use the de-identified data from the registry to better understand the health characteristics and needs of people with Down syndrome.”

Lithium restores cognitive function in Down syndrome trial

by Paul Hamaker from the Examiner.com:
Researchers led by Laura Gasparini at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia in Genova Italy are the first to report the restoration of cognitive functions in Down syndrome mice using lithium in the December 3, 2012, issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.
Lithium has been shown to be useful in the treatment of several mood disorders in humans and is particularly affective in the treatment of bipolar disorder.
Mice are used in human brain disease studies because mouse brain chemistry is very close to human brain chemistry.
The Down syndrome mice were tested in tasks measuring contextual learning, spatial memory, and object discrimination before and after being treated with lithium. The mice demonstrated a marked improvement in memory function after treatment with lithium.
Remarkably the Down syndrome mice also showed restored neurogenesis (regrowth and rebirth of nerve cells) in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is directly associated with learning and memory.
Not ready for humans yet, this first success implies a significant improvement in the treatment of Down syndrome using a drug that is known to be safe for most people.
The most recent statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that considered cases of Down syndrome in Alabama indicate an increased number of Down syndrome births by 8.4 percent. No defined cause has been found for the increase.
The research was reviewed at the Eureka Alert website the date of publication.