ֱ̽ of Cambridge - Jenny Morton /taxonomy/people/jenny-morton en High doses of ketamine can temporarily switch off the brain, say researchers /research/news/high-doses-of-ketamine-can-temporarily-switch-off-the-brain-say-researchers <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/neonbrainbydierkschaeferonflickrmodified.jpg?itok=qj4ibGDm" alt="Neon brain by Dierk Schaefer on Flickr (modified)" title="Credit: Neon brain by Dierk Schaefer on Flickr" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>In a study aimed at understanding the effect of therapeutic drugs on the brains of people living with Huntington’s disease, researchers used electroencephalography (EEG) to measure immediate changes in the animals’ brain waves once ketamine - an anaesthetic and pain relief drug - was administered. Low frequency activity dominated while the sheep were asleep. When the drug wore off and the sheep regained consciousness, the researchers were surprised to see the brain activity start switching between high and low frequency oscillations. ֱ̽bursts of different frequency were irregular at first, but became regular within a few minutes.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“As the sheep came round from the ketamine, their brain activity was really unusual,” said Professor Jenny Morton at the ֱ̽ of Cambridge’s Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience, who led the research. “ ֱ̽timing of the unusual patterns of sheep brain activity corresponded to the time when human users report feeling their brain has disconnected from their body.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>She added:  “It’s likely that the brain oscillations caused by the drug may prevent information from the outside world being processed normally,”</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽findings arose as part of a larger research project into Huntington’s disease, a condition that stops the brain working properly. ֱ̽team want to understand why human patients respond differently to various drugs if they carry the gene for this disease. Sheep were used because they are recognised as a suitable pre-clinical model of disorders of the human nervous system, including Huntington’s disease. </p>&#13; &#13; <p>Six of the sheep were given a single higher dose of ketamine, 24mg/kg. This is at the high end of the anaesthetic range. Initially, the same response was seen as with a lower dose. But within two minutes of administering the drug, the brain activity of five of these six sheep stopped completely, one of them for several minutes - a phenomenon that has never been seen before. </p>&#13; &#13; <p>“This wasn’t just reduced brain activity. After the high dose of ketamine the brains of these sheep completely stopped. We’ve never seen that before,” said Morton. Although the anaesthetised sheep looked as though they were asleep, their brains had switched off. “A few minutes later their brains were functioning normally again - it was as though they had just been switched off and on.” </p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽researchers think that this pause in brain activity may correspond to what ketamine abusers describe as the ‘K-hole’ - a state of oblivion likened to a near-death experience, which is followed by a feeling of great serenity. ֱ̽study is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66023-8">published today</a> in the journal <em>Scientific Reports</em>.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ketamine abusers are known to take doses many times higher than those given to the sheep in this research. It is also likely that progressively higher doses have to be taken to get the same effect. ֱ̽researchers say that such high doses can cause liver damage, may stop the heart, and be fatal.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>To conduct the experiment sheep were put into veterinary slings, which are commonly used to keep animals safe during veterinary procedures. Different doses of ketamine were given to 12 sheep and their brain activity recorded with EEG.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ketamine was chosen for the study because it is widely used as a safe anaesthetic and pain-relief drug for treating large animals including dogs, horses and sheep. It is also used medically, and is known as a ‘dissociative anaesthetic’ because patients can appear awake and move around, but they don’t feel pain or process information normally - many report feeling as though their mind has separated from their body. </p>&#13; &#13; <p>At lower doses ketamine has a pain-relieving effect, and its use in adult humans is mainly restricted to field situations such as frontline pain-relief for injured soldiers or victims of road traffic accidents.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Our purpose wasn't really to look at the effects of ketamine, but to use it as a tool to probe the brain activity in sheep with and without the Huntington’s disease gene,” said Morton. “But our surprising findings could help explain how ketamine works. If it disrupts the networks between different regions of the brain, this could make it a useful tool to study how brain networks function - both in the healthy brain and in neurological diseases like Huntington’s disease and schizophrenia.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Ketamine has recently been proposed as a new treatment for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Beyond its anaesthetic actions, however, very little is known about its effects on brain function.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“We think of anaesthetic drugs as just slowing everything down. That's what it looks like from the outside: the animals basically go to sleep and are unresponsive, and then they wake up very quickly. But when we looked at the brain activity, it seems to be a much more dynamic process,” said Morton. </p>&#13; &#13; <p>This research was funded by CHDI Inc. It was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee of the ֱ̽ of Cambridge.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em><strong>Reference</strong></em><br /><em>Nicol, A.U. &amp; Morton, A.J. ‘<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66023-8">Characteristic patterns of EEG oscillations in sheep (Ovis aries) induced by ketamine may explain the psychotropic effects seen in humans</a>.’ Scientific Reports, June 2020. DOI: 1038/s41598-020-66023-8</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p> </p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Researchers have identified two brain phenomena that may explain some of the side-effects of ketamine. Their measurements of the brain waves of sheep sedated by the drug may explain the out-of-body experience and state of complete oblivion it can cause.</p>&#13; </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">We think of anaesthetic drugs as just slowing everything down. That&#039;s what it looks like from the outside...but when we looked at the brain activity, it seems to be a much more dynamic process.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jenny Morton</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dierkschaefer/2961565820" target="_blank">Neon brain by Dierk Schaefer on Flickr</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width:0" /></a><br />&#13; ֱ̽text in this work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. Images, including our videos, are Copyright © ֱ̽ of Cambridge and licensors/contributors as identified.  All rights reserved. We make our image and video content available in a number of ways – as here, on our <a href="/">main website</a> under its <a href="/about-this-site/terms-and-conditions">Terms and conditions</a>, and on a <a href="/about-this-site/connect-with-us">range of channels including social media</a> that permit your use and sharing of our content under their respective Terms.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-license-type field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Licence type:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/taxonomy/imagecredit/attribution">Attribution</a></div></div></div> Thu, 11 Jun 2020 09:03:43 +0000 jg533 214982 at Sheep are able to recognise human faces from photographs /research/news/sheep-are-able-to-recognise-human-faces-from-photographs <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/sheepwatson.jpg?itok=jIolMOES" alt="Sheep correctly identifying face" title="Sheep correctly identifying face, Credit: Jenny Morton" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p> ֱ̽study, published today in the journal <em>Royal Society: Open Science</em>, is part of a series of tests given to the sheep to monitor their cognitive abilities. Because of the relatively large size of their brains and their longevity, sheep are a good animal model for studying neurodegenerative disorders such as Huntington’s disease.</p> <p> ֱ̽ability to recognise faces is one of the most important human social skills. We recognise familiar faces easily, and can identify unfamiliar faces from repeatedly presented images. As with some other animals such as dogs and monkeys, sheep are social animals that can recognise other sheep as well as familiar humans. Little is known, however, about their overall ability to process faces.</p> <p>Researchers from Cambridge’s Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience trained eight sheep to recognise the faces of four celebrities (Fiona Bruce, Jake Gyllenhaal, Barack Obama and Emma Watson) from photographic portraits displayed on computer screens.</p> <p>Training involved the sheep making decisions as they moved around a specially-designed pen. At one end of the pen, they would see two photographs displayed on two computer screens and would receive a reward of food for choosing the photograph of the celebrity (by breaking an infrared beam near the screen); if they chose the wrong photograph, a buzzer would sound and they would receive no reward. Over time, they learned to associate a reward with the celebrity’s photograph.</p> <p>After training, the sheep were shown two photographs – the celebrity’s face and another face. In this test, sheep correctly chose the learned celebrity face eight times out of ten.</p> <p>In these initial tests, the sheep were shown the faces from the front, but to test how well they recognised the faces, the researchers next showed them the faces at an angle. As expected, the sheep’s performance dropped, but only by about 15% - a figure comparable to that seen when humans perform the task.</p> <p>Finally, the researchers looked at whether sheep were able to recognise a handler from a photograph without pre-training. ֱ̽handlers typically spend two hours a day with the sheep and so the sheep are very familiar with them. When a portrait photograph of the handler was interspersed randomly in place of the celebrity, the sheep chose the handler’s photograph over the unfamiliar face seven out of ten times.</p> <p>During this final task the researchers observed an interesting behaviour. Upon seeing a photographic image of the handler for the first time – in other words, the sheep had never seen an image of this person before – the sheep did a 'double take'. ֱ̽sheep checked first the (unfamiliar) face, then the handler’s image, and then the unfamiliar face again before making a decision to choose the familiar face, of the handler.</p> <p>“Anyone who has spent time working with sheep will know that they are intelligent, individual animals who are able to recognise their handlers,” says Professor Jenny Morton, who led the study. “We’ve shown with our study that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and monkeys.</p> <p>“Sheep are long-lived and have brains that are similar in size and complexity to those of some monkeys. That means they can be useful models to help us understand disorders of the brain, such as Huntington’s disease, that develop over a long time and affect cognitive abilities. Our study gives us another way to monitor how these abilities change, particularly in sheep who carry the gene mutation that causes Huntington’s disease.”</p> <p>Professor Morton’s team recently began studying sheep that have been genetically modified to carry the mutation that causes Huntington’s disease.</p> <p>Huntington’s disease affects more than 6,700 people in the UK. It is an incurable neurodegenerative disease that typically begins in adulthood. Initially, the disease affects motor coordination, mood, personality and memory, as well as other complex symptoms including impairments in recognising facial emotion. Eventually, patients have difficulty in speech and swallowing, loss of motor function and die at a relatively early age. There is no known cure for the disease, only ways to manage the symptoms.</p> <p> ֱ̽research was supported by the CHDI Foundation, Inc., a US-based charitable trust that supports biomedical research related to Huntington’s disease.</p> <p><em><strong>Reference</strong><br /> Knolle, F et al. <a href="https://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/11/171228">Sheep recognize familiar and unfamiliar human faces from two-dimensional images.</a> Royal Society Open Science; 8 Nov 2017; DOI: 10.1098/rsos.171228</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Sheep can be trained to recognise human faces from photographic portraits – and can even identify the picture of their handler without prior training – according to new research from scientists at the ֱ̽ of Cambridge.</p> </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">We’ve shown that sheep have advanced face-recognition abilities, comparable with those of humans and monkeys</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jenny Morton</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-media field-type-file field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><div id="file-132642" class="file file-video file-video-youtube"> <h2 class="element-invisible"><a href="/file/132642">Sheep can recognise human faces from photographs</a></h2> <div class="content"> <div class="cam-video-container media-youtube-video media-youtube-1 "> <iframe class="media-youtube-player" src="https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/7a7MqMg2JPY?wmode=opaque&controls=1&rel=0&autohide=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> </div> </div> </div> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank">Jenny Morton</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sheep correctly identifying face</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width:0" /></a><br /> ֱ̽text in this work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. For image use please see separate credits above.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Wed, 08 Nov 2017 01:16:01 +0000 cjb250 192942 at Studies begin on first Huntington’s disease sheep imported to UK /research/news/studies-begin-on-first-huntingtons-disease-sheep-imported-to-uk <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/sheep2.jpg?itok=xXABC5Ks" alt="" title="Merino sheep, Credit: ֱ̽ of Cambridge" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Huntington’s disease affects more than 6,700 people in the UK. It is an incurable neurodegenerative disease. It is typically an adult-onset disease, although there is a juvenile form. Initially, the disease affects motor coordination, mood, personality and memory, but then leads to difficulty in speech and swallowing, loss of motor function and death at a relatively early age. There is no known cure for the disease, only ways to manage the symptoms.</p> <p> ֱ̽disease is caused by a mutation in the genetic code in the huntingtin (HTT) gene. Genetic information is coded in DNA that is made up of a repeated string of four molecules known as nucleotides, or bases – A, C, G and T. ֱ̽HTT gene contains a repeated string of CAG bases: in healthy individuals, the CAG repeat is around 20 CAGs long, but if the repeat has 36 or more CAGs, an individual will develop Huntington’s disease.</p> <p> ֱ̽Huntington’s disease sheep were developed in 2006 by a team led by Professor Sir Richard Faull and Professor Russell Snell from the ֱ̽ of Auckland, New Zealand. Together with colleagues in Australia, they successfully bred a strain of Merino sheep carrying the human genetic mutation that causes Huntington's disease in patients. While mice and rats are used in the vast majority of disease studies in the UK, the sheep is an important new animal model for Huntington’s disease. Not only do sheep live much longer than rodents, but also sheep brains are larger and closer in size and structure to humans.</p> <p> ֱ̽Cambridge research will be led by Professor Jenny Morton from the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience. “Even though we’ve known for decades now exactly which genetic mutation causes Huntington’s disease, we’re arguably still no nearer a cure – the best we can do is manage the symptoms,” she says.  “Even those treatments are limited to some of the motor symptoms.”</p> <p> ֱ̽sheep model is particularly important, because until recently, scientists have been unable to model the disease in longer-living animals. This matters because the symptoms of Huntington’s rarely appear before adulthood; sheep can live for at least 10-12 years, which gives a much wider window of opportunity for studying the disease than is possible in mice.</p> <p>“It has taken our collaborators in Australia years of research to develop these sheep, but we’re already beginning to get insights into how the disease progresses, particularly before symptoms become apparent,” says Professor Morton.</p> <p> ֱ̽Huntington’s disease sheep are already proving their value. Although even up to the age of nine years they look completely normal, the researchers have observed some interesting progressive behavioural changes. In addition, a study led by Professor Morton published earlier this year in Scientific Reports used the Huntington’s disease sheep in Australia to identify early biomarkers of disease: changes in metabolites in blood taken from sheep at a pre-symptomatic stage of the disease showed that Huntington’s disease affects important metabolic processes in the body prior to the appearance of physical symptoms.</p> <p>Until 2014, it was not possible to import live sheep from Australia to the UK. However, changes in regulations allowed Professor Morton to import the Huntington’s disease sheep. ֱ̽first sheep were imported earlier this year, but have only just been released from quarantine.</p> <p>“We have done many experiments using the sheep in Australia over the past seven years, and we will continue to use them there,” says Professor Morton. “However, we cannot do some of the more technically demanding experiments, or behavioural studies that take a long time, on field trips. We have excellent animal facilities in Cambridge and so are in a good position to do the long term behavioural monitoring that will help us understand how the neurological symptoms develop.”</p> <p> ֱ̽imported sheep will be used to study brain and behavioural changes that cause Huntington’s disease, with a particular emphasis on understanding the cognitive decline. Professor Morton has developed a number of tests that can be used for measuring learning and memory in sheep. These have been based on the tests used for monitoring symptom progression in patients with Huntington’s disease. By using tests similar to those used in patients, she hopes that the findings from the sheep studies can be ‘translated’ directly back to humans. Once they have the basic measures established, they will begin testing novel therapies in the Huntington’s disease sheep.</p> <p>“These sheep will be invaluable to us in our search for a better understanding of Huntington’s disease, so we are grateful to the authorities for allowing them to be imported,” says Professor Morton. “We hope in future to be able to breed these sheep here, rather than having to import them, but we know that even getting to the stage of breeding them in Australia has been a challenge for the team there.”</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Scientists at the ֱ̽ of Cambridge will this week begin studying sheep that have been genetically modified to carry the mutation that causes Huntington’s disease. ֱ̽sheep are believed to be the first Merinos to have been imported into the UK from Australia for about 50 years.</p> </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Even though we’ve known for decades now exactly which genetic mutation causes Huntington’s disease, we’re arguably still no nearer a cure – the best we can do is manage the symptoms</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jenny Morton</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank"> ֱ̽ of Cambridge</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Merino sheep</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width:0" /></a><br /> ֱ̽text in this work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. For image use please see separate credits above.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Sun, 09 Jul 2017 07:17:05 +0000 cjb250 190152 at New study identifies possible early warning signs of Huntington’s disease /research/news/new-study-identifies-possible-early-warning-signs-of-huntingtons-disease <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/best1.jpg?itok=FdNIIshL" alt="Sheep" title="Sheep, Credit: Marco Marcegaglia" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Researchers from the ֱ̽ of Cambridge and ֱ̽ of Surrey have identified early biomarkers of disease during examinations of Huntington’s disease sheep still at a pre-symptomatic stage of the disease.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Up until this point, the five-year-old sheep had displayed no signs of the illness, but the comprehensive study identified clear metabolic changes in the animals carrying the genetic variant. These new findings reveal that Huntington’s disease affects important metabolic processes in the body prior to the appearance of physical symptoms.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Huntington’s disease affects more than 6,700 people in the UK. It is an incurable neurodegenerative disease: patients typically die 10-25 years after diagnosis.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽disease is caused by a mutation in the huntingtin gene. Genetic information is coded in DNA that is made up of a repeated string of four molecules known as nucleotides, or bases – A, C, G and T. Changes in the genetic code of the huntingtin gene leads directly to disease. ֱ̽gene contains a repeated string of CAG bases: in healthy individuals, the CAG repeat is around 20 CAGs long, but if the repeat has 36 or more CAGs, an individual will develop Huntington’s disease. ֱ̽sheep model of Huntington’s disease, which carries a CAG repeat in the disease-causing range, has been developed to increase knowledge about the condition.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>During this study, researchers took blood samples from the normal and Huntington’s disease animals every two hours over a 24-hour period and assessed their metabolic profiles using a targeted metabolomics approach established at the ֱ̽ of Surrey. Unlike previous research in this area, which was affected by to external environmental factors that impacted upon metabolic profiling, sheep in this study were monitored in a well-controlled setting, negating any outside influences.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Blood measurements found startling differences in the biochemistry of the sheep carrying the disease-causing variant, compared to the normal sheep. Significant changes were observed in 89 of the 130 metabolites measured in their blood, with increased levels of the amino acids, arginine and citrulline, and decreases in sphingolipids and fatty acids that are commonly found in brain and nervous tissue.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽alterations in these metabolites, which include key components of the urea cycle and nitric oxide pathways (both vital body processes), suggest that both of these processes are dysregulated in the early stages of Huntington’s disease, and that the illness affects the body long before physical symptoms appear.</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽identification of these biomarkers may help to track disease in pre-symptomatic patients, and could help researchers develop strategies to remedy the biochemical abnormalities.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Professor Debra Skene from the ֱ̽ of Surrey said: “Metabolic profiling has revealed novel biomarkers that will be useful to monitor Huntington’s disease progression.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“Our research shows that this disease affects the body in a number of ways before the tell-tale signs of Huntington’s disease become visible.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Professor Jenny Morton from the ֱ̽ of Cambridge said: “Despite its devastating impacts on patients and their families, there are currently limited treatments options, and no cure for Huntington’s disease.  ֱ̽development of objective and reliable biomarkers that can be rapidly measured from blood samples becomes immeasurably important once clinical trials for therapies begin.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“ ֱ̽more we learn about this devastating illness the better chance we have of finding a cure.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽research was funded by the CHDI Foundation and the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council.</p>&#13; &#13; <p><b><em>Reference</em></b><br /><em>Skene,  DJ et al. <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/srep43030">Metabolic profiling of presymptomatic Huntington’s disease sheep reveals novel biomarkers.</a> Scientific Reports; 22 Feb 2017; DOI: 10.1038/srep43030</em></p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Adapted from a press release by the ֱ̽ of Surrey.</em></p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Early warning signs of Huntington’s disease have been uncovered in a sheep carrying the human disease-causing genetic variant, providing new insights into this devastating illness, a new study in <em>Scientific Reports </em>has found.</p>&#13; </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Despite its devastating impacts on patients and their families, there are currently limited treatments options, and no cure for Huntington’s disease</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jenny Morton</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank">Marco Marcegaglia</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sheep</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width:0" /></a><br />&#13; ֱ̽text in this work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. For image use please see separate credits above.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Thu, 23 Feb 2017 11:15:23 +0000 cjb250 185322 at Counting on sheep /research/features/counting-on-sheep <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/features/150610-sheep.jpg?itok=yF3cpzPK" alt="Sheep" title="Sheep, Credit: ֱ̽District" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>“Shall we take one of the sheep for a walk?” asks Professor Jenny Morton before we head down to the farmyard.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>This seems a strange question at first: we’re all familiar with sheep behaving with a flock mentality, unable to think for themselves. So much so, in fact, that ‘follow like a sheep’ is a commonly used, derogatory phrase in the English language.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Yet, on meeting the sheep, it is immediately clear that these are not just dumb animals. ֱ̽individual characters portrayed in the animated film Shaun the Sheep might be closer to the truth. “These animals are really smart,” explains Morton, who leads a team in the Department of Physiology, Development and Neuroscience. “They all have their own personalities.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Morton’s colleague Dr Nicholas Perentos lets Isabella, one of his sheep, out of her pen. She is excited to be out, but doesn’t bound off; rather, she follows Perentos closely at heel, like a Labrador following its master. Once outside, she runs up and down the farmyard, stopping ‘to say hello’ to other sheep before returning expectantly to her handler. “She’s definitely Nic’s sheep,” says Morton. “She knows who I am, but I’m not wearing my usual farm clothes today, so she’s a little wary of me.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Morton and colleagues are studying the cognitive skills and behaviour of these sheep, using experiments adapted from those carried out with humans. A standard task they use is to give the sheep two options and measure their behaviour: choose option A and they receive pellets, choose B and they receive nothing.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Using electroencephalography (EEG), the researchers can measure patterns of electrical activity across the brain to see what is happening when the sheep make decisions. Recently, they have begun making measurements from deep inside the brain. “We can now record from individual neurons as they fire,” says Perentos. “This might be in response to a particular task or a decision they’re making, or it might be cells that ‘fire’ depending on where they are standing or which way they are turning.” ֱ̽discovery of these location-specific cells in mice – so-called ‘place cells’ – last year won Professor John O’Keefe from ֱ̽ College London a Nobel Prize.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Once the animal knows the task, the researchers will reverse the choices: now option B gives the pellets, but nudging the lever for option A offers no reward. Rats, monkeys, sheep and humans all learn to switch; but, compared with rodents, sheep react very differently, explains Morton. “When they don’t get their reward they’ll turn around and walk up to Nic, baa-ing, as though they’re saying ‘ ֱ̽apparatus isn’t working, go and sort it out’.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p> ֱ̽sheep’s intelligence is one reason why Morton believes they are a useful animal to help us understand how the brain works. There are some practical reasons – their docile nature makes them easy to manage and their large body size means they can easily carry equipment such as GPS trackers in a harness on their backs, allowing researchers to measure their natural behaviour – but it is the size and structure of their brains that is key.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Sheep’s brains are much larger than those of rodents, similar in size to the brain of a rhesus macaque, and with the complex folds that are seen in primate brains. Crucially, their brains also have basal ganglia similar to ours – this is the area deep in the brain that, along with the cerebral cortex, is responsible for important functions such as the control of movement and ‘executive functions’ such as decision-making, learning and habit formation. It’s this latter facet that makes sheep a useful model for studying brain diseases such as Huntington’s disease and Batten disease that affect the basal ganglia and cerebral cortex.</p>&#13; &#13; <p align="center"><img alt="" src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/inner-images/150610-sheepbrain.jpg" style="width: 590px; height: 416px;" /></p>&#13; &#13; <p>You may never have heard of Batten disease: it’s extremely rare, and only a handful of infants or children are diagnosed each year in the UK. It is a genetic disease caused when a child carries two copies of an aberrant gene – one copy from each parent. But it is also extremely serious – symptoms include progressive blindness, severe seizures and the loss of language, swallowing and motor skills. Death at a young age is inevitable and there is no cure.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Although Batten disease affects humans, it has never been seen in other primates. It does, however, occur naturally in sheep, though it’s unclear how common it is, as most farmed sheep are killed as lambs for human consumption. ֱ̽disease was identified in sheep in New Zealand, and it is from these sheep that Morton’s animals were bred. Some of her sheep are imported, others are studied in New Zealand.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Batten disease is very similar in sheep and humans. At first, it is difficult to spot a Batten sheep, but after about a year, they begin to lose their eyesight and show unusual behaviour. After 18 months to two years, they show signs of dementia, often standing motionless in space, and can become agitated if handled by someone other than their usual handler.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>Recording brain activity, particularly in areas such as the hippocampus, which is crucial for memory and learning, will give Morton and her team insights into what goes wrong in the disease in sheep. This is one step along the long path towards treating – even curing – the disease in humans.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>With collaborators in Australia, Morton is also studying Huntington’s disease, a more common but equally devastating disease. Unlike those with Batten disease, people – and sheep – with Huntington’s do not begin showing symptoms until adulthood. “We have good mouse models for studying Huntington’s disease, but mice are short-lived animals, whereas sheep can live to at least 12 years. This is another huge benefit of studying the disease in sheep.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p>There is no question that research using animals remains controversial. There are some who believe that animal research can never be justified. Morton has herself encountered extreme examples of such people in the past and has faced death threats because of her work. But she knows that her work is extremely important for the families of children with Batten disease.</p>&#13; &#13; <p>“There’s only one thing worse than being a parent with a child who is blind, losing their motor skills and developing dementia,” she says, “and that’s being a parent with a child who is blind, losing their motor skills and developing dementia, and thinking that no one is asking why. That’s why we have a duty to do our research.”</p>&#13; &#13; <p><em>Inset image: Sheep brain ( ֱ̽District).</em></p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Sheep are smarter than we might think, with brains surprisingly similar to ours. These similarities are helping researchers to study a devastating and incurable infant brain disease.</p>&#13; </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">When they don’t get their reward they’ll turn around and walk up to Nic, baa-ing, as though they’re saying ‘ ֱ̽apparatus isn’t working, go and sort it out’</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Jenny Morton</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank"> ֱ̽District</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sheep</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license"><img alt="Creative Commons License" src="https://i.creativecommons.org/l/by/4.0/88x31.png" style="border-width:0" /></a><br />&#13; ֱ̽text in this work is licensed under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License</a>. For image use please see separate credits above.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Wed, 10 Jun 2015 12:23:05 +0000 cjb250 153032 at Shear brain power - sheep smarter than previously believed /research/news/shear-brain-power-sheep-smarter-than-previously-believed <div class="field field-name-field-news-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><img class="cam-scale-with-grid" src="/sites/default/files/styles/content-580x288/public/news/research/news/sheep.jpg?itok=PgbpBpVZ" alt="sheep" title="sheep, Credit: Didymojo from Flickr" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p>Despite having a comparable brain size to other highly evolved animals, sheep have been historically perceived as unintelligent and were therefore not considered to be good animal models for studying diseases that affect learning and memory.</p>&#13; <p>However, new research recently published in the journal PLoS ONE shows that sheep are indeed smarter than previously believed. ֱ̽researchers are hopeful the animals will prove useful for research into diseases that impair the cognitive abilities of patients, such as Huntington's disease (HD) and Alzheimer's disease.</p>&#13; <p>"A new line of genetically modified sheep developed by researchers in New Zealand and Australia which carries the defective gene for HD has given us some unique opportunities to research treatments for this debilitating disease," said Professor Jenny Morton, a ֱ̽ of Cambridge researcher who specialises in HD. "However, if we are going to test the cognitive function in the HD sheep, first we need to understand how the brain works in a normal sheep."</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽scientists posed a series of challenging tests similar to ones used to assess cognitive impairments of humans suffering from HD. ֱ̽tests for the sheep involved making choices that were cued by different coloured or shaped objects, with feed as an incentive. These were each mastered in turn by the sheep. For example, in the first and easiest trial the sheep was presented with a blue bucket containing food and an empty yellow bucket. After a few trials they went automatically to the blue bucket.</p>&#13; <p>Previous research has shown that sheep not only have good memories for faces. This study shows that they also can discriminate colour and shape as separate dimensions.</p>&#13; <p>" ֱ̽sheep were very amenable to the testing," said Professor Jenny Morton, who conducted the study while she was a Royal Society Leverhulme Senior Research Fellow. "They have an agreeable disposition which lends itself well to being used for such experiments."</p>&#13; <p> ֱ̽next stage of the research will be to test the Huntington's disease sheep, to see if, like human patients, they also have cognitive deficits.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-summary field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><p>Scientists at the ֱ̽ of Cambridge have discovered that sheep are more intelligent than previously believed.</p>&#13; </p></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">If we are going to test the cognitive function in the HD sheep, first we need to understand how the brain works in a normal sheep.</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-content-quote-name field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Professor Jenny Morton</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-credit field-type-link-field field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/" target="_blank">Didymojo from Flickr</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-image-desctiprion field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">sheep</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-cc-attribute-text field-type-text-long field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><p><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/"><img alt="" src="/sites/www.cam.ac.uk/files/80x15.png" style="width: 80px; height: 15px;" /></a></p>&#13; <p>This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">Creative Commons Licence</a>. If you use this content on your site please link back to this page.</p>&#13; </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-show-cc-text field-type-list-boolean field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Yes</div></div></div> Mon, 14 Mar 2011 14:21:41 +0000 ns480 26176 at