The Handoff: Your Week in Neurology News – 6/29/17

The Handoff is a weekly roundup of neurology news covering various developments in subspecialties, the pharmaceutical industry, and the overall state of health care as it affects neurologists.

— Researchers found that deletions in the NRXN1 gene or duplications in the CNTN6 gene were associated with an increased risk of developing Tourette syndrome.

— Properly treating sleep apnea may benefit the heart and improve blood sugar, according to researchers from John Hopkins University in Baltimore.

— China has stated it will ban the designer drug U-47700 as well as 3 other synthetic opioids following pressure from the US to do more to prevent overdose deaths.

— Researchers from the University of Eastern Finland have found that Finnish men with the protective mutation A673T have, on average, 28% less plasma Aβ compared with those without the gene, lending support to the amyloid hypothesis.

— In a controversial trial run by Philadelphia-based Bioquark, researchers are injecting stem cells into the spinal cords of brain dead patients to try and reverse brain death.

— UK regulators will provide early access to Raxone (idebenone) for treating Duchenne muscular dystrophy symptoms.

— The Ontario Epilepsy Care Network in Canada has streamlined the process for appropriately referring epilepsy patients to care and to surgery, shortening wait lists, increasing EMU volumes, and increasing surgical volumes over a short period of time.

— Researchers at Thomas Jefferson University have found a molecule, LRP4, which plays a role in creating excitatory synapses. This discovery may shed light on synaptic imbalances that can lead to epilepsy and other brain disorders.

— Watch the video below to learn more about the NIH’s BRAIN Initiative® and its Promise for Neuroscience: