I try to follow the news, but I must admit that the meeting Trump and Kim had in Hanoi, Vietnam, passed by rather quickly. It was a historic meeting since only a few years ago the tensions between east and west were rather tense. Actually, affecting the whole world. So it was very good that they met and had denuclearisation talks. For world peace. I don’t remember that much about general Asian history, but I thought of a famous leader Mao Zedong. He ruled China from the 1950s to his death in 1976, and was the communist party leader of China spreading his ideas through Maoism, including military and political ideas.
I am interested in history and politics and try to follow some, but my main focus is pharmacology. And MAO is for me something completely different. MAO is an enzyme regulating monoamines. An enzyme enhances various chemical reactions in the body and is related to energy. A chemical reaction always demands energy. Monoamines have been studied during decades and have important functions in the body such as mobility, and also various moods. If we feel happy, angry, sad etc. Interestingly, this enzyme, MAO, has also been located in blood platelets and not only in the central nervous system. There are different MAO enzymes and it has been shown that the MAO-B enzyme is in a way associated to various personality traits such as impulsivity. MAO-B serves as a behavioural biomarker and has been associated to sensation seeking and also drug dependence. This interesting area has been well studied by Oreland and Hallman in Uppsala, Sweden. They have presented several systematic reviews.
Neuropharmacology has always been a very interesting area, and I have a particular interest in Alzheimer´s disease since my mother is affected by memory loss. It is a disease affecting the whole family and I try to follow, and also support, latest science. To make science a little easier, I found this presentation from The Jackson Laboratories website. Here, a more clinical view of Alzheimer´s disease is presented.