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Climate slowdown? Just wait until the wind changes
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This week other antibodies could well be involved. This time Lennox is testing 240 people with schizophrenia for antibodies to their own brain cells. Again, around 6 per cent have known antibodies. But she is also finding that some blood samples test negative for the known antibodies, yet still show an immunological reaction to brain cells in the lab. That suggests they contain unidentified antibodies, she says, which could bring the number of affected cases up to around 1 in 10. Immuno-suppressive treatments, such as removing antibodies from the blood, have successfully been used to treat some cases of schizophrenia caused by an immune response. But only a handful of cases have –Simpler way out– so far been treated in this way, and no randomised trials have been conducted. The antibodies are rarely seen in people who have had schizophrenia for several years, suggesting that immunosuppressive treatment needs to start early to work. Lennox Previous studies had found speculates that after a while the that antibodies that target the antibodies die away but the NMDA receptor on neurons damage persists. trigger brain inflammation, She recommends widespread leading to seizures, comas – and testing for these antibodies. sometimes psychosis (Annals of “Suppressing the immune Neurology, doi.org/fdgnpc). response can cause the In the past few years, these psychiatric symptoms of antibodies have also been found in the blood of people whose only schizophrenia to go away” symptom is psychosis. In 2010, Belinda Lennox at the University Without it, many more cases may of Oxford tested 46 people with be missed, Angela Vincent, at the recent onset of psychosis for University of Oxford, told last antibodies known to target month’s conference. neurons. Three people – about It is still unclear why some 6 per cent – tested positive people develop these immune (Neurology, doi.org/chs532). responses to their own brain cells, “The question is whether a but Lennox is excited by the larger percentage of cases might treatment prospects. have other antibodies which But Chris Frith of University we cannot yet detect,” says College London cautions that Robin Murray at the Institute such antibodies have so far only of Psychiatry in London, who been identified in a small wasn’t involved in the research. proportion of cases. “I’m sure Now Lennox is conducting a schizophrenia has many different larger trial. Early results suggest causes,” he says. n
Immune trigger for schizophrenia Clare Wilson
AS MANY as 1 in 10 cases of schizophrenia may be triggered by an autoimmune reaction against brain cells, according to early trial results shared with New Scientist. The finding offers the possibility of gentler treatments for this devastating mental illness. Last month, doctors at a conference at the Royal Society of Medicine in London were told to consider an autoimmune cause when people first show symptoms of schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia experience symptoms of psychosis, such as hallucinations, delusions and paranoia. It affects 1 per cent of people in the West and is thought to be caused by overactive dopamine signalling pathways in the brain. Antipsychotic drugs don’t always work well and have serious side effects. 14 | NewScientist | 15 February 2014
Warming is only on hold until the wind changes POWERFUL winds in the Pacific are largely responsible for the recent slowdown in global warming. The intense winds have encouraged heat to sink into the oceans. But as soon as the winds die down, the heat will escape and warming will resume. Over the past 20 years, the trade winds that gust westwards across the Pacific have soared to unprecedented strengths. The strongest winds are now twice as powerful. These winds far exceed climate modellers’ predictions. So Matthew England from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues decided to see what would happen if they factored actual wind levels into the models. They found that adding five years of strong trade winds created powerful ocean currents that buried the warm surface water, bringing cooler water to the surface. Those cooler waters reproduced the current warming hiatus (Nature Climate Change, doi.org/rdt). “The missing wind can account for the hiatus in its entirety,” says England. Last year Yu Kosaka and Shangping Xie of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California showed that cool surface waters in the Pacific could explain the hiatus (Nature, doi. org/rcp). But nobody knew why those waters were so cool. “This provides a mechanism,” says Kosaka. A repeating weather pattern called the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation may explain the winds’ strength. In its current state, the IPO should produce strong winds, says England. “But the models capture less than half the magnitude at best.” England says that the winds will return to normal. The warm water is only about 125 metres down, so we could see rapid warming as it resurfaces. It is not clear when that will happen, but if the hiatus follows the pattern of the IPO, it may only last another five or six years, England says. Michael Slezak n
This week other antibodies could well be involved. This time Lennox is testing 240 people with schizophrenia for antibodies to their own brain cells. Again, around 6 per cent have known antibodies. But she is also finding that some blood samples test negative for the known antibodies, yet still show an immunological reaction to brain cells in the lab. That suggests they contain unidentified antibodies, she says, which could bring the number of affected cases up to around 1 in 10. Immuno-suppressive treatments, such as removing antibodies from the blood, have successfully been used to treat some cases of schizophrenia caused by an immune response. But only a handful of cases have –Simpler way out– so far been treated in this way, and no randomised trials have been conducted. The antibodies are rarely seen in people who have had schizophrenia for several years, suggesting that immunosuppressive treatment needs to start early to work. Lennox Previous studies had found speculates that after a while the that antibodies that target the antibodies die away but the NMDA receptor on neurons damage persists. trigger brain inflammation, She recommends widespread leading to seizures, comas – and testing for these antibodies. sometimes psychosis (Annals of “Suppressing the immune Neurology, doi.org/fdgnpc). response can cause the In the past few years, these psychiatric symptoms of antibodies have also been found in the blood of people whose only schizophrenia to go away” symptom is psychosis. In 2010, Belinda Lennox at the University Without it, many more cases may of Oxford tested 46 people with be missed, Angela Vincent, at the recent onset of psychosis for University of Oxford, told last antibodies known to target month’s conference. neurons. Three people – about It is still unclear why some 6 per cent – tested positive people develop these immune (Neurology, doi.org/chs532). responses to their own brain cells, “The question is whether a but Lennox is excited by the larger percentage of cases might treatment prospects. have other antibodies which But Chris Frith of University we cannot yet detect,” says College London cautions that Robin Murray at the Institute such antibodies have so far only of Psychiatry in London, who been identified in a small wasn’t involved in the research. proportion of cases. “I’m sure Now Lennox is conducting a schizophrenia has many different larger trial. Early results suggest causes,” he says. n
Immune trigger for schizophrenia Clare Wilson
AS MANY as 1 in 10 cases of schizophrenia may be triggered by an autoimmune reaction against brain cells, according to early trial results shared with New Scientist. The finding offers the possibility of gentler treatments for this devastating mental illness. Last month, doctors at a conference at the Royal Society of Medicine in London were told to consider an autoimmune cause when people first show symptoms of schizophrenia. People with schizophrenia experience symptoms of psychosis, such as hallucinations, delusions and paranoia. It affects 1 per cent of people in the West and is thought to be caused by overactive dopamine signalling pathways in the brain. Antipsychotic drugs don’t always work well and have serious side effects. 14 | NewScientist | 15 February 2014
Warming is only on hold until the wind changes POWERFUL winds in the Pacific are largely responsible for the recent slowdown in global warming. The intense winds have encouraged heat to sink into the oceans. But as soon as the winds die down, the heat will escape and warming will resume. Over the past 20 years, the trade winds that gust westwards across the Pacific have soared to unprecedented strengths. The strongest winds are now twice as powerful. These winds far exceed climate modellers’ predictions. So Matthew England from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and colleagues decided to see what would happen if they factored actual wind levels into the models. They found that adding five years of strong trade winds created powerful ocean currents that buried the warm surface water, bringing cooler water to the surface. Those cooler waters reproduced the current warming hiatus (Nature Climate Change, doi.org/rdt). “The missing wind can account for the hiatus in its entirety,” says England. Last year Yu Kosaka and Shangping Xie of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in California showed that cool surface waters in the Pacific could explain the hiatus (Nature, doi. org/rcp). But nobody knew why those waters were so cool. “This provides a mechanism,” says Kosaka. A repeating weather pattern called the Interdecadal Pacific Oscillation may explain the winds’ strength. In its current state, the IPO should produce strong winds, says England. “But the models capture less than half the magnitude at best.” England says that the winds will return to normal. The warm water is only about 125 metres down, so we could see rapid warming as it resurfaces. It is not clear when that will happen, but if the hiatus follows the pattern of the IPO, it may only last another five or six years, England says. Michael Slezak n