JCI table of contents: January 2, 2007
...n beta blockers. The secret lies in a single amino acid change in the beta1-adrenergic receptor, that may ...iant beta1-adrenergic receptors in which the amino acid at position 389 had been replaced by either an arginine or a glycine residue. The authors were able ...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...ells responded preferentially to sucrose, salt, or acid (S-, N-, and H-cells, respectively). B6 mice had more S-cells, and all neurons responded more strongly to sucrose than did neurons of 129 mice. The author deduced that strain differences likely arose from a reduced binding efficiency between sweetene...Two studies: Speeding development of novel tracer for prostate cancer
...formed with only 15 patients, shows that the amino acid analog may hold the potential to provide informati...ules in the body. PET showed the activity of amino acid transporters that "mediate" FACBC, the radiotracer that was developed in Mark M. Goodman's lab at Em...Genetic mutation alters response to heart failure drugs
...n beta blockers. The secret lies in a single amino acid change in the beta1-adrenergic receptor, that may ...iant beta1-adrenergic receptors in which the amino acid at position 389 had been replaced by either an arginine or a glycine residue. The authors were able ...'Marathon mice' elucidate little-known muscle type
...ins that consist of both "heavy" and "light" amino acid chains. While most muscles in mammals contain a mixture of slow- and fast-twitch fiber types, some muscle beds are enriched for one type or the other, Spiegelman said. However, adult skeletal muscles also contain fibers with an abundance of a fourt...ACS News Service Weekly PressPac -- Dec. 20, 2006
...r internal, structures of familiar acetylsalicylic acid and the newly described Form II of aspirin. The article explains that the discovery of Form II may not have any practical implications for people who take aspirin. However, uncertainties about Form II do showcase surprising knowledge gaps in organic...... target mainly fungi. This weapon contains a fatty acid chain that, like similar chains in soap which diss...ssolve oils. By altering the length of the fatty acid chains and the sequence of positively charged amino acids, they were able to create an array of weap...MIT creates 3-D scaffold for growing stem cells
...Adding motifs With the addition of defined amino acid fragments called active motifs, the scaffold can be fashioned to coax stem cells to behave in certain desirable ways-such as differentiating into needed body tissues or migrating toward bone marrow and other natural destinations. "What makes these ...Study identifies glucose 'sensor' that plays dual role in glucose metabolism and fat synthesis
...does both-it binds to glucose and it induces fatty acid synthesis-is significant and makes LXR a potential...said. "LXR can sense surplus glucose, induce fatty acid synthesis, and prompt the liver's export of triglycerides into the bloodstream. Since LXR acts as th...Shotgun sequencing finds nanoorganisms
...erating rust -- and in the process create sulfuric acid and dissolve pyrite (iron sulfide or fool's gold) ...reme environments - live together and generate the acid drainage that makes such mines toxic hazards. The green runoff from the mine, captured and treated b...Mayo researcher discovers target site for developing mosquito pesticides
...design at Mayo Clinic, identified two unique amino acid residues called cysteine (286) and arginine (339)....ippling the serine residue, which is another amino acid of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase and is located at the active site of the enzyme. This serine resi...Male contraception -- UVa discovery stirring interest among basic scientists and drug developers
...that SFEC has extensions at both ends of its amino acid sequence. Other ATP/ADP carriers do not have these extensions, which may explain why SFEC is able to perform its shuttling function in the distal sperm tail. "The distal sperm tail does not have mitochondria, which means that SFEC operates in a d...Software, evolution and micro-inversions -- improving the building of phylogenetic trees
... signals used for studying evolution such as amino acid changes, Chaisson explained. With microinversions, its easy to develop evolutionary relationships between species and difficult to debate whether one species is inverted relative to another species. With InvChecker and microinversions, researchers ...Novel EGFR ectodomain mutations in glioblastoma
...d missense mutationschanges that altered the amino acid sequence of EGFR. But the mutations were mostly different from the ones commonly seen in other cancers: rather than changing the kinase domain, most of the gliobastoma-associated mutations mapped to the extracellular domain of the protein. These f...AZTI-Tecnalia obtains isomers of conjugated linoleic acid from micro-organisms
...n the production of isomers of conjugated linoleic acid from linoleic acid by using micro-organisms. Conjugated linoleic acid is a mixture of isomers, some of which have fu...Seeing a neurotoxin's deadly grip
...ring the toxin at the binding site by single amino acid changes (obtained from the high resolution crystal structure) drastically reduced its toxicity. Specifically, when they incubated the altered neurotoxin with mouse diaphragm, it produced far less muscular paralysis than the natural toxin. "This tells...Botulism study could lead to new vaccines and treatments to counter bioterrorist attacks
...be dramatically reduced by altering just one amino acid in its molecular structure. This finding suggests the possibility of designing a specific inhibitor that will prevent the neurotoxin from binding to the neuron surface. Experimental therapies In addition to treating botulism, the scientists said th...Study reveals clean air challenge for major Asian cities
...ations of sulphur dioxide, the gas responsible for acid rain, have stabilized at a relative low level and rarely exceed health guidelines. However, the use of high sulphur fuel content in some countries may result in an increase in emissions. Emissions of nitrogen dioxide and fine particulate matter, ma...Drop in acid rain altering Appalachian stream water
...ian hardwood forests may be getting a respite from acid rain but data from a long-term ecological study of stream chemistry suggests that the drop in acid rain may be changing biological activity in the ecosystem and hiking dissolved carbon dioxide in for......g oxidative stress with the antioxidant L-ascorbic acid was not nearly as effective in suppressing paralysis as EGb 761. Thus, the beneficial effects of the extract may result from block of A oligomerization....