Irene’s Defense Party Summer Cottage Retreat

Our JCI “Sustained increase in α5GABAA receptor function impairs memory after anesthesia” paper is receiving a lot of attention, as it debunks a common belief that “brain function returns to normal once anesthetics are eliminated from the brain”. Dr. Beverley Orser was recently interviewed by the Globe and Mail to discuss our new findings: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/anesthetics-may-cause-prolonged-memory-loss-study-finds/article21506749/

Congratulations to Dr. Beverley Orser and everyone in the Orser Lab! Our newest patent (no. 9,517,265) is for a class of drugs that target a receptor in the brain that blocks the ability to make new memories. To read the full article, please visit: https://www.utoronto.ca/news/new-u-t-patent-targets-brain-fog-left-behind-anesthesia?utm_source=Bulletin&utm_medium=Email&utm_content=News&utm_campaign=eViews For more information about the patent: https://patents.google.com/patent/US20130302352A1/en?inventor=beverley+orser

Drs. Fahad Alam, Stephen Choi, and Beverley Orser featured in the Globe and Mail talking about the complexities of anesthesia. Full article can be found here: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/advsunnybrook/waking-up-to-the-complexities-of-anesthesia/article34720912/

Dr. Stephen Choi from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre was mentioned in Science Magazine. Full article can be found here: Science Magazine 2017

Following the meeting of the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) in Singapore this past week, stories that describe our research were published in the Herald Sun and The Sydney Morning Herald: “Scientists trying to develop new anaesthetics that reduce risk of memory loss” – Herald Sun “Surgery linked to memory loss and […]

Mesbah-Oskui L, Penna A, Orser BA, Horner RL (2017) Neurotoxicology and Teratology  61: 115-122  Abstract A reduction in the activity of GABAA receptors, particularly α5 subunit-containing GABAA receptors (α5GABAARs), has been implicated in the etiology of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Genetically modified mice that lack α5GABAARs (Gabra5-/-) exhibit autism-like behaviors and both enhanced and impaired […]

Avramescu S, Wang DS, Choi S, Orser BA. (2017) Lancet 389(10073): 1009   Click on link to Pubmed

Wang DS, Mazer CD, Orser BA. (2017) N Engl J Med.   Click on link to Pubmed

Lecker I, Wang DS, Kaneshwaran K, Mazer CD, Orser BA. (2017) Anesthesiology doi: 10.1097/ALN.0000000000001665. Abstract BACKGROUND: The antifibrinolytic drug tranexamic acid is structurally similar to the amino acid glycine and may cause seizures and myoclonus by acting as a competitive antagonist of glycine receptors. Glycine is an obligatory co-agonist of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) subtype of glutamate […]