New Software Provides Quick Analysis of ion-Channel Activity
... enough, resulting in clinical disorders where the muscles are either too weak or too excitable. By analyzing the currents that are produced by the ion channels that bind the transmitter, scientists have been able to tell which part of the channel operation is affected and suggest possible treatments. QUB ...Purdue Study Aims To Boost MRI Capabilities
...n or discomfort. "Studies indicate that nerves and muscles in some people may be stimulated by these pulsed magnetic fields, causing sensations such as tingling or a weak muscle contraction," Bourland says. Nyenhuis says such effects may be caused by rapid changes in the intensity of the gradient magnetic fi...Evolution Re-Sculpted Animal Limbs By Genetic Switches Once Thought Too Drastic For Survival
...abilities because they are attachedto the powerful muscles and the nervous system of the thorax. Crustaceans thathave them include the decapods--shrimp and lobsters and their relatives. "If you watch, animals with maxillipeds can feed in a different way," Patelsaid. "They can walk and hold and move their foo...A New Biochemical Link Established Between Stress, Sex And Dominance
...m developing the bright, warlike colors, the extra muscles and the fully mature sex organs of a dominant "territorial" male. Stress appears to prevent all but the dominant males from achieving reproductive success. Fernald said that since many species have evolved dominant and non-dominant males, the role o...Ant Pheromone May Aid Alzheimer's Patients
...h their stings, inject a neurotoxin that paralyzes muscles and drag theprey back to the nest." Gas chromatographic and mass spectrometric analyses in the Cornell laboratoryidentified four components in the multipurpose fluid from the ants' poisonglands. They are N-isopentyl-2-phenylethylamine, a key comp...Duke Researchers Develop First Treatment For Rare Muscle Disease
... category of inherited diseases in whichthe body's muscles don't function normally. Usually, an important muscle proteinis missing or defective. Many doctors have been unsure if it is even possible toregenerate muscle tissue that has been damaged in these muscle-wasting diseases.Chen has now shown it is poss...Females' Siren Song Initiates Courtship Duets In African Frogs, Columbia Biologists Find
...lready shown that the Xenopus male's brain andmale muscles are specialized for his prolonged courtship songs and that thesecretion of male sex hormones, androgens, are responsible for establishing thenumbers and types of cells required for the vocalizations. Connections betweenmale vocal neurons and muscle ...Researchers Closing In On Gene For Paralytic Disorder
...motor nerve cells that control muscles,leaving the muscles paralyzed and wasted. In ALS patients, the paralysis begins to develop in mid-life or later,and typically leads to death within three to five years when respiratory musclesfail. In the Mattinglys, symptoms begin in childhood, but the paral...Motivating Muscles: New UD Study Might Help People With Paralysis 'Stay Strong Longer'
...98 issue, may suggest a betterway to stimulate the muscles of people with paralysis, says Stuart A.Binder-Mac....S. News & World Report . "Patients can move their muscles much more forcefully for a longer period oftime if their muscles are stimulated at varying rather th...... factor (phVEGF165) was injected directly into the muscles ofthe afflicted leg. Doses of 500 microg... growth factor wereinjected into the calf or thigh muscles of the diseased leg. During the courseof the study, the volume of the injections was progressively ...Wistar Scientist Awarded American Cancer Society Grant For Research On Gene Therapy
...ly malignant tumorfound most often in the skeletal muscles of children. Dr. Rauscher and his Wistar research team believe that ARMS results from theunnatural fusion of what scientists call the PAX3 and FKHR genes. In thiscombination, they appear to act as an oncogene, which is a gene with thepotential to ...Scientists Use Gene Therapy To Correct Deafness In Mice
...t stored energy into motion making it possible for muscles tocontract and move. "We think Myo15 is a different type of myosin enzyme, whichworks like a tiny bulldozer grabbing proteins or other cell components andmoving them to different locations," Camper explained. Although more research will be needed to......atcreates the same wiggling effect that the body's muscles do when operatingnormally, preventing sustained pressure on the buttocks, lower back or thighs.Such pressure can retard blood flow and oxygen exchange and cause tissue toweaken. In the right environment of moisture and temperature, bacteria canattack...Relapsing Fever Spirochete Switches Surface Proteins When It Changes Hosts
...rsymptoms such as headache and pain in the joints, muscles or abdomen that easilycan be mistaken for a severe flu. These episodes usually last several days,alternating with periods when the symptoms cease. In most patients, theinfection responds to treatment with antibiotics such as penicillin,tetracycline...'Auditory Scene Analysis' Helps Find Mates
...enerator, the pacemaker tells the sound-generating muscles on the male's swim bladder to contract rhythmically and produce a hum averaging 100 Hz in frequency. In part of the midshipman female brain known as the midbrain (and humans have midbrains and hindbrains, too), Baker and Bass found neurons that res...Genetic Screening May Be Tool For Selecting Cancer Treatment, Research Suggests
...by injecting pancreatic cancer cells into thethigh muscles of nude mice (specially engineered mice whose bodies do not rejecthuman cells). When the tumors reached a certain size, they were irradiated. Thesize of the BRCA2-defective tumors decreased 93 percent, while the controltumors did not shrink. ...New Hope On The Horizon For Patients With End-Stage Cardiovascular Disease
...rt, out. These channels improveblood flow to heart muscles and stimulate growth of new blood vessels. To date,four patients have undergone PTMR at Cedars-Sinai. Norman Lepor, M.D., is thePrincipal Investigator on this study. Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Therapy (VEGF) The second experimental protoco...Forecasting The El Niño-Driven Ebb And Flow Of A Rogue Mosquito
...dengue is a characterized by headache, fever, sore muscles and extremepain and stiffness of the joints. It can be completely incapacitating and issometimes fatal, especially to children in its more serious form, denguehemorrhagic fever. There is no vaccine to prevent the disease and it isprevalent in nearly ...Transplanted Skeletal Muscle Mimics Heart Muscle; Helps Failing Heart Pump, Duke Researchers Say
...al procedure, calledcardiomyoplasty, uses skeletal muscles taken from a patient's back or abdomen towrap around an ailing heart. The muscle is stimulated by a device similar to apacemaker to augment weak heart muscle. But, Taylor said, the skeletal muscleisn't really hooked up to the heart. It acts more like...