Brain Protein "Rescues" Neurons From Atrophy
...th of brain cells, or neurons. However, it was not known whether neurotrophins were, indeed, key substances that cause the brain to "wire" itself into certain functional patterns as a result of experience. The new studies, however, show that the neurotrophins are specifically critical to the growth and int...Bacterial Toxin Surprises Scientists
...atin. Yet until recently, researchers have known little about how such membrane-piercing proteins work. Now, using an innovative technique, NIH-funded researchers at New York City's Albert Einstein College of Medicine are closing in on how one such protein operates...Duke Researchers Discover Central Role Of Nitric Oxide In Hemoglobin Action
...ne Biomedical Center. Nitric oxide, long known as a noxious gas in the atmosphere, has been foundover the past several years to play a major role in numerous biologicalsystems. For example, scientists discovered that NO worked in the circulatorysystem to dilate blood vessels. "Free" NO is release......mal model to test newtreatments. Researchers have known for many years that schizophrenics behave as if theyhave too much dopamine in the brain's limbic system, which controls emotionand behavior. Conversely, not enough dopamine contributes to clinical depression.Although therapeutic drugs for schizophren...Enzyme's "Magic" May Hold Key to Anticancer and Antimicrobial Drugs
...nd chromosome replication. Scientists have known since the 1970s that this biological feat--akin to the familiar magic trick of unlinking two interlocked metal rings--is accomplished by a family of enzymes called topoisomerases. Their critical role in cell division...Key to Triplet Repeat Brain Diseases Open Door For New Way To Understand, Treat Genetic Diseases"
...ort glutamine string. GAPDH, found in all cells,is known to produce energy, along with a number of other important functions. In a second experiment, brain proteins were incubated with GAPDH. Huntingtin protein and DRPLA protein bound to GAPDH, while other brain proteinsdid not. While he can hypothesiz...Researchers Pinpoint Site For Petit Mal Seizures In Brain
...tyric acid, or GABA, which is one of a dozen or so known neurotransmitter molecules. GABAb receptors are thought to act as a brake on nerve cell activity, Hosford said. But their exact function in the brain is unknown. Using a mouse prone to petit mal seizures, the researchers have localized the petit mal ...New 'Twist' In Proteins Offers Possible Route To Improved Antibiotics
...ude roughly globular shapes, or spiralhelices, the known examples of which are "right-handed." Thatis, when...y, the Duke scientists also are planning to survey known chemicalsthat might fit into the cleft of the active site. "Conceptually, it would seem fea...Duke Geologists Explore Alternative Way To Measure Ice Age Sea Bottom Temperatures
...in other fossilized shell-bearing marine organisms known as foraminifera. But the Science article said thos...eological record of glacial cycles as well as with known shifts in the Earth's orbit that are suspected to drive the glacial cycles. "What Gary is trying to ......he measurement errors requires the use of a device known as a mass spectrometer. This device can actually measure quantities of U-238, U-234 and Th-230 atom by atom, instead of waiting for them to decay and measuring their radiation. Previously, even a mass spectrometer was not capable of counting the ext...Rosemary May Have Anti-Cancer Properties
... Rosemary significantly inhibited the binding of a known cancer-causing agentto the DNA in the rats' mammary cells. Scientists believe that that bindingprocess is a necessary event in the formation of tumors. The Penn State researchers fed the rats a diet supplemented with 1 percentrosemary for two weeks...Duke Researchers Show "Editing" Can Fix Faulty Genes In New Approach To Gene Therapy
...arrier of geneticinformation, the genetic material known as RNA is an active participantin editing genetic messages before they are translated into protein. The editing approach to gene therapy ignores the defectivegenes, which are encoded in DNA and stored in the chromosomes, in favorof focusing on the s...Duke Researchers Find Second Gene Linked To Blood Vessel Disorder
...Association, and theBaxter Foundation. HHT, also known as Osler-Weber-Rendu disease, causes tiny veins to...edin the medical literature, virtually nothing was known of its underlyingcause. Now in two years, Marchuk and his colleagues have linked HHT to twogenes and...Transgenic Rice Plants Resist Insects, Drought And Salt Damage
...arval stage -- and that is about 70 percent of the known insect pests worldwide. Among crops damaged by lepidopteran insects are sorghum, oats, rye, barley and wheat, as well as corn and rice. In the case of the highly destructive rice pest, the pink stem borer, the insect enters the plant near the base a...Race Plus Roaches: A Breathtaking Link
... and American cockroaches. Cockroach allergens are known to represent an important risk factor for acute asthma, a condition that causes the bronchi of the lungs to constrict. Onset almost always occurs in childhood. Serious illness and even death can result. For example, in Baltimore City, where the study......d beetles but rather a group of beetles generally known as blister beetles. They owe their blistering reputation to cantharidin, which causes severe irritation of the skin when touched -- and of the urogenital tract when swallowed. Because of its purported stimulative effect, cantharidin was one of th......y. Every other terrestrial or land-based ecosystem known is basedon photosynthesis the conversion of sola...else in the world. "Movile is the only cave system known that ischemoautotrophically based, and it contains the only knownchemoautotrophically based terrestr...Bee Sting Treatment Should Emphasize Speed, Not Method Of Removal
...enomization, by measuring the welts from injecting known quantitiesof bee venom into their skin with a syringe. The longer the sting was allowed to remain in the skin, the larger the welt,indicating that more venom had been injected. "What this illustrates is the significance of even short delays inrem...Hawaiian Whales Show 'No Overt Response' To Sounds Of ATOC Simulation
...n shallower parts of the ocean. Sperm whales are known to frequent the deep sound channel, but they are not believed capable of hearing low-frequency sounds of the type generated by ATOC. "There's so much we need to learn about whales, especially about their sensitivity and response to sounds," Franke...Nitric Oxide May Hold Key To First Treatment For Deadly Form Of Malaria, Duke Scientists Report
...Thesedrugs could plug up the transcription factor, known as OxyR, preventingit from being switched on, or t...ay. "It is a parallel process to what is known as oxidative stress, inwhich an excess of oxygen in cells can lead to a host of diseases, as wellas ...