The Times - UK (2022-05-17)

20 Tuesday May 17 2022 | the times

News

Two new inch-long species of fish have

been discovered in the Amazon and

immediately classed as at risk of “immi-

nent extinction” due to deforestation.

The Poecilocharax callipterus, which

lives in a single stream in a habitat of

only 1.5 sq miles, has bright red-orange

fins. The Poecilocharax rhizophilus is

amber-yellow with dark streaks.

Scientists had been searching for new

species in the Madeira Basin, which has

the richest diversity of fish in the world.

New fish species already at risk

The area searched, near the city of

Apui, has one of the highest deforesta-

tion rates in Brazil.

“Losing either of these species would

be like losing priceless masterpieces,”

Murilo Pastana, from the Smithsonian’s

National Museum of Natural History,

said, noting that millions of years of

evolution would come to a dead end.

Pastana hopes that the research,

published in the Zoological Journal of

the Linnean Society, will motivate the

Brazilian government to take steps to

protect the new species.

Kaya Burgess

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PULLOUT

Ultra-strong MRI

can find crucial

brain disease clue

Parkinson’s patients could benefit from

a new generation of super-powerful

MRI machines that can detect a tiny

and crucial part of the brain that was

extremely hard to see with less ad-

vanced scanners, a study has found.

The technology could allow doctors

to diagnose whether this part of the

brain is damaged and prescribe drugs to

slow the deterioration in cognitive

function in some patients with Parkin-

son’s, scientists said.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)

machines with ultra-powerful magnets

can give doctors a glimpse of a part of

the brain called the locus coeruleus,

which produces most of our body’s sup-

ply of noradrenaline, a hormone that

plays a “critical role in brain functions

including attention and arousal, think-

ing and motivation”, researchers said.

Professor James Rowe, from the

Department of Clinical Neurosciences

at the University of Cambridge, led the

study, published in the journal Move-

ment Disorders. He said that the locus

coeruleus was “a devil to see on a nor-

mal scanner”, adding: “Even good hos-

pital scanners just can’t see it very well.”

Most MRI scanners are classed as

1.5-Tesla or 3-Tesla (1.5 or 3T), referring

to the strength of the magnetic field

they create. These can show structures

in the body as small as a grain of rice.

The latest generation of scanners are

classed as 7T, producing a magnetic

field 140,000 times stronger than the

Earth’s. They can show structures as

small as a grain of sand. There are seven

sites in the UK that have operational 7T

scanners. Last year a child with epilepsy

became the first patient to be examined

with a 7T scanner, at Guy’s and St

Thomas’ NHS trust in London.

Parkinson’s disease and a related

condition called progressive supranu-

clear palsy (PSP) are most commonly

associated with motor-related symp-

toms, causing issues with movement.

Dopamine can be prescribed to alle-

viate some of these symptoms, but

dopamine does not alleviate the cogni-

tive symptoms.

In some patients, there are signs that

the locus coeruleus is damaged. One

study showed that some PSP patients

have lost up to 90 per cent of theirs.

Being able to identify which patients

have suffered severe damage to their lo-

cus coeruleus could allow doctors to

prescribe noradrenaline.

Cambridge researchers used a 7T

machine to scan 25 people with Parkin-

son’s, 14 people with probable PSP and

24 healthy people. Those groups with

PSP and Parkinson’s both showed “sig-

nificant locus coeruleus degeneration”.

A release with the study noted: “The

findings offer the hope of new treat-

ments for these symptoms. A number

of drugs that boost noradrenaline have

already been through clinical trials for

other conditions and hence have been

shown to be safe and well tolerated.”

Dr Rong Ye, co-author of the study,

said: “The ultra-powerful 7T scanner

may help us identify those patients who

we think will benefit the most.”

Kaya Burgess Science Reporter

Loverly Amara Okereke stars as Eliza Doolittle

in My Fair Lady at the Coliseum in London

D littl

MARC BRENNER