By changing individual atoms in key places in proteins, Duke University chemists have found new evidence for the importance of comparatively weak “hydrogen bonds” in enabling stringlike proteins to fold into the maximally stable shape they need to assume their roles as biological workhorses. Such protein folding immediately after proteins are synthesized is central to their function in the cell.

Although they are much weaker than the preeminent “covalent” chemical bonds that bind atoms

“Backward” DNA leads to DNA breaks associated with leukemia, study finds

When otherwise normal DNA adopts an unusual shape called Z-DNA, it can lead to the kind of genetic instability associated with cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma, according to a study by researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center.

The study, issued in advance of the Feb. 21 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, demonstrates for the first time th

Anti-malarial drugs are most effective in people with lupus who are genetically predisposed to high levels of tumour necrosis factor alpha and low levels of the cytokine IL-10. A study published today in the journal Arthritis Research & Therapy reveals that anti-malarial drugs, widely used to treat systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), bring serum levels of tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) back to normal in SLE patients. The research shows that these drugs are more effective in patients who

UK SCIENTISTS have questioned the use of partial smoking bans in pubs and clubs, following alarming new figures about how much non-smokers actually breathe in.

Researchers from an alliance of universities found that customers sitting in non-smoking areas of pubs were, on average, exposed to as much as two-thirds of the smoke that circulated in smoking areas.

Staff behind the bar were exposed to even higher levels – between 87-95% of smoke in smoking areas.

Furth

The number of adverse reactions reported by UK doctors to the antidepressant paroxetine – often know by its brand name Seroxat – rose by 61 per cent after three editions of the BBC’s award-winning current affairs programme Panorama explored increasing concerns about the drug.

Research just published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology shows a sudden increase in reports immediately after each of the three programmes were aired in the UK in October 2002, May 2003 and Oct

Rising global temperatures over the past two decades may be responsible for a shortened season of a serious respiratory illness in the United Kingdom, according to an article in the March 1 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, now available online.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) can cause particularly severe lower respiratory tract infections in infants and young children, sometimes resulting in pneumonia. Like the flu, RSV has a seasonal pattern, infecting the majority of people

An international research team led by the University of Saskatchewan has discovered a signaling pathway in the brain involved in drug addiction, together with a method for blocking its action, that may point to a single treatment strategy for most addictions. Their findings appear in the March issue of the prestigious journal Nature Medicine.

The team, led by Xia Zhang, associate professor in the U of S department of psychiatry, found that a naturally occurring enzyme known as PTEN acts

Researchers have identified a key component of the mechanism spermatozoa use to abruptly convert their tail motion from a steady swimming undulation to the whip-cracking snap that thrusts them into an egg. The finding opens a new research pathway that the researchers said could help scientists both recognize new forms of male infertility and design new contraceptives to thwart sperm entry into the egg.

What’s more, they said, the exquisitely delicate analytical technique they used t

The next time you mutter about the high cost of relationship maintenance, take comfort in knowing that microbes share your pain. In the first study to examine the cost of sexuality in microbes, Jianping Xu, associate professor of biology at McMaster University, found that sex exacts physical, morphological and behavioural stress on microbes. His findings are published in the recent edition of Genetics, published by the Genetics Society of America.

“There was always an assumption that mic

OHSU study on mice is first to link disorder with enzyme pathway; may be key to preventing human diseases

Removing a gene involved in repairing damaged DNA causes mice to develop the metabolic syndrome, researchers at Oregon Health & Science University have discovered.

Scientists at OHSU, the University of Texas Medical Branch and the University of Alabama found that generating mice that lack the gene encoding the DNA repair enzyme NEIL1 causes them to develop severe

Kitchen chemistry is alive and well at New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) as chemical researchers report cooking up a new and more water- soluble strain of carbon nanotubes. An article about this work, “Rapidly Functionalized, Water-Dispersed Carbon Nanotubes at High Concentration,” appeared Jan. 11, 2006, in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

The team led by Somenath Mitra, PhD, acting chair and professor, department of chemistry and environmental sciences, and Iqbal Za

Pulmonary emphysema is caused primarily by cigarette smoking, and the underlying cellular mechanisms are thought to involve smoke-induced activation of tissue degrading enzymes known as proteases. Elastases are proteases that specifically degrade the structural protein elastin and include enzymes such as MMP-12 (matrix metalloproteinase –12, also called macrophage metalloelastase), which is secreted by inflammatory cells called macrophages.

Now, researcher A. McGarry Houghton and col

Misfolded and damaged proteins are common to all human neurodegenerative diseases. Clumps of these aggregated proteins destroy neurons within the brain and cause disease. But explanations for the mechanism that actually causes cell death have varied widely, puzzling scientists and leading them to ask whether Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s and Creutzfeldt-Jakob diseases and familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are related diseases or very different diseases.

N

Researchers at the University of Minnesota Medical School and the Brain Sciences Center at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center have discovered a new way to assess how brain networks act together.

Work funded by the MIND Institute (New Mexico) led Apostolos P. Georgopoulos, M.D., Ph.D., professor of neuroscience, neurology, and psychiatry, and collaborators to a novel way to assess the dynamic interactions of brain networks acting in synchrony, as reported in a recent issue of th

Tyrannosaurus rex, meet your newest –– oldest –– cousin.

Florida State University paleobiologist Gregory M. Erickson sliced up some ancient dinosaur bones uncovered in China to help an international team of scientists identify a new genus and species. Despite striking skeletal differences and only subtle similarities, the FSU researcher determined that the two remarkably intact specimens were cousins of North America’s hulking Tyrannosaurus rex.

Make that distant c

Need another reason to eat your vegetables? New research shows that some of them contain chemicals that appear to enhance DNA repair in cells, which could lead to protection against cancer development, say Georgetown University Medical Center researchers.

In a study published in the British Journal of Cancer (published by the research journal Nature) the researchers show that in laboratory tests, a compound called indole-3-carinol (I3C), found in broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage