In a study published in Autophagy, researchers at the University of Maryland (UMD) shed new light on how Zika virus hijacks our own cellular machinery to break down a protein that is essential for neurological development and cellular communication, getting it to “eat itself”. By triggering this process known as autophagy, Zika virus is able […]
Your lungs and airways need to be stretchy, sort of like balloons. Take a big breath, and they’ll open right up. Damaged lungs can’t open properly. Patients with asthma, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and systemic sclerosis suffer from fibrosis and tissue remodeling, where a build-up of tissue and immune cells, and proteins that form a glue-like […]
Huntington’s disease is caused by a mutation in the Huntingtin gen. Patients show involuntary movements, cognitive deficits and specific psychiatric disorders resulting from the degeneration and death of medium spiny striatal neurons. A study led by researchers of the Institute of Neurosciences of the UB (UBNeuro) describes the toxic role of the protein RTP801 in […]
Scientists at the University Bath have discovered a series of protein structures that are thought to be highly relevant to the onset of Parkinson’s disease. It is hoped that further analysis of these structures will open up a new avenue for potential treatment for a disease that is the fastest growing neurological condition in the […]
Buckwheat from the cast a positive impact on the health Buckwheat seems to increase the salary of a special Protein in the body, which contributes to the aging process slows down and the resistance to stress increases. In the current investigation, with the participation of the Siberian Federal University, it was found that consumption of […]
Newly produced spermatozoa within the testis are not fully functional until they mature in the epididymis, a duct that helps to transport and store sperm. Male infertility may arise from lack of communication between the testis and the epididymis and new research has uncovered a mechanism of this communication. Dr. Martin Matzuk at Baylor College […]
Sufferers of Parkinson’s disease have clumps of α-synuclein (alpha-synuclein), sometimes known as the “Parkinson’s protein,” found in the brain. These destroy cell membranes, eventually resulting in cell death. Now, a method developed at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, reveals how the composition of cell membranes seems to be a decisive factor for how small quantities […]
Like a parent of teenagers at a party, Mother Nature depends on chaperones to keep one of her charges, the immune system, in line so that it doesn’t mistakenly attack normal cells, tissues and organs in our bodies. A recent study by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers has demonstrated that in mice—and probably humans as well—one […]
Forty years since its discovery, much remains to be discovered about an enzyme called CaMKII that plays a key role in shaping learning and memory in the brain. Now Roger Colbran, Ph.D., graduate student Tyler Perfitt and colleagues report in the Journal of Neuroscience the discovery of a novel interaction between CaMKII and a protein […]
