Live recordings of cell communication

... signals travel from one neuron to another through vesicles - a nano-sized container loaded with ... more detailed understanding of how the fusion of vesicles occurs on the nano-scale. Associate Professor ... Center explains: - "Contact between vesicles and membranes are an essential step in many ...

Making nanoparticles in artificial cells

... membranes. Like cells, membrane bubbles - or vesicles as scientists refer to them - also provide a ... with the different loads together and fuse two vesicles to form a bigger vesicle - this is done by ... the second process, the researchers only produce vesicles with one of the reactants. When ...

Finding Points to Possible Blood Test for Brain Tumors

... Filled with proteins and genetic material, these vesicles are picked up by neighboring cells in the brain, ... mass. "We think the tumor cells bud off these vesicles filled with information, genetic and protein ... In fact, the tumors secrete so many of these vesicles that they can be found in the patient's ...

JCI online early table of contents: June 5, 2008

... exposure cause cells in the pancreas to release vesicles containing degradative proteins known as enzymes ... the inappropriate release of enzyme-containing vesicles in mice exposed to alcohol and carbachol. As ... parietal cells to transport their acid-containing vesicles to the surface where the acid is released, mice ...

Mechanism of Alzheimer's suggests combination therapy needed

... transport system. This limits their ability to send vital proteins and vesicles to where they are needed within the cell and interferes with the synaptic ... The fast axonal transport system responsible for moving proteins and vesicles from the neuron's cell body where they are made, down the long, trunk-like ...

Researchers clone key sperm-binding proteins

... In most mammals, these proteins are typically produced by the seminal vesicles and added to sperm at ejaculation. Yet this is not the case for humans, ... A family of sperm-binding proteins (BSPs) secreted by the seminal vesicles has been shown to be essential for sperm maturation in female reproductive ...

Innovative method to starve tumors

... requires to grow. "We had already demonstrated the existence of these vesicles as well as their importance in the communication process between cancer ... Called Diannexin, this molecule acts to block the in vitro fusion of vesicles and endothelial cells. In mice with cancer, Diannexin works to slow blood ...

Helicobacter pylori can multiply in autophagic vesicles

... by H. pylori infection and subsequent adoption of these autophagic vesicles by H. pylori for replication in macrophages. The fate of H. pylori is ... patients, but not standard strains, can multiply in the double-layered vesicles of macrophages. The senior author, Dr. Huan-Yao Lei stated that "The ...

Membrane fusion at the synapse: Janus faced synaptotagmin-1 helps to keep the fast pace

... the fusion of the membranes of tiny neurotransmitter-filled bubbles called vesicles with the wall membrane of a neuron. This action allows signals to flow ... allowing positively charged calcium ions to go to the balloon-shaped vesicles inside the presynapse to trigger the release of neurotransmitter. ...

New Alzheimer's predictors advance earlier detection

... JULY 29, 2008 at 12:30 p.m. CT An NYU study found that membrane vesicles that are essential for the trafficking of materials across nerve cells are ... linked to Alzheimer's disease development were unable to shuttle the vesicles to their proper destinations in nerve cells, causing them instead to ...

A new way to think about Earth's first cells

... layered membrane sheets or enclosed vesicles. Researchers commonly use vesicles to model the cellular membranes of protocells. A second animation created by Iwasa (accessible at lower right) shows how vesicles may have been formed. When the team started its work, the researchers ...

Progress Reported Against Gene Involved in Hepatitis C

... cell that may be the site of HCV replication. Another group of genes contributes to formation of the COPI coat that covers several types of cellular vesicles and plays a role in the replication of poliovirus, the researchers said. They also zeroed in on the gene for a liver protein (hepcidin) that ...

Dynamin drug discovery team win prestigious international epilepsy grant

... transmission, while limiting potential side effects. Dynamin mediates synaptic vesicle endocytosis (SVE), a process which replenishes synaptic vesicles prior to reloading and subsequent neurotransmitter release. Modulation of Dynamin limits the efficiency of SVE to retrieve vesicles, decreasing the ...

Cancer cells spread by releasing 'bubbles', according to an MUHC study

... have such an important impact" This mechanism was still unknown until now. This study shows that the mutated EGFRvIII triggers production of small vesicles that project from the cell membrane and that carry mutated copies of EGFRvIII on their surfaces. They were baptised oncosomes. Surprisingly enough, ...

2-way cell talk provides clues about neuromuscular disease

... As a result, nerve terminals, which reach out to target cells, were misaligned. Release of neurotransmitters, which enable cell talk, from the tiny vesicles inside nerve terminals was impaired. Mice died prematurely. Two-way communication is absolutely essential, he says. Interestingly when the ...

JCI online early table of contents: Feb. 7, 2008

... that lacked the protein Vps34 PI3K (known as the vps34D mutant) was found to be less able to form autophagy-related 8labeled (Atg8-labeled) vesicles than normal C. neoformans. Furthermore, the vps34D mutant was less virulent in mice than normal C. neoformans. Consistent with a crucial role for ...

Deafness and seizures result when mysterious protein deleted in mice

... transporter, a machine within nerve cells that ferries chemical messengers, or neurotransmitters, from the fluid-filled cytoplasm into vesicles that are positioned at the tips of nerve cells and serve to release neurotransmitters onto neighboring cells. Transporters and neurotransmitters work ...

Stress Robs Skin of Antimicrobial Defenses

... to the increased production of glucocorticoids. This, in turn, inhibited the synthesis of fat in the skin's epidermis and reduced the secretion of vesicles containing antimicrobial peptides, setting up the mice for skin problems. "What happens is, stress down-regulates the expression of two key ...

Study Shows Tomosyn Plays an Important Role in Learning and Memory

... provide a clearer picture of where neurotransmitter-containing synaptic vesicles and proteins cluster. Mutant worms lacking tomosyn were compared to normal ... is substantial -- the protein helps put a limit on the number of synaptic vesicles that become competent to fuse at synapses, thereby regulating the amount ...

Scientists Uncover The Secret Behind The Speed In Nerve cells Conduction

... the second that it takes for us to read these words, tens of thousands of vesicles in our optic nerves are released in sequence, which open tiny surface ... "Nerve cells are one of the few cells in our bodies in which vesicles are prepositioned at the cell membrane, because they have to be ready to ...

Medical Boon in the Form of a Biofriendly Capsule

... blocks of cell membranes. The construction of useful artificial lipid vesicles was previously not possible, because the vesicles were too delicate. Granick and graduate student Liangfang Zhang found a ...

Researchers Link Bacteria Destroying Proteins to Alzheimer's Treatment

... kill the cell. The scientists showed that the antibodies prevent this from happening by reducing accumulation of the amyloid beta proteins in vesicles inside the cell called endosomes. "A lot of research has been done on protein clusters outside nerve cells," Gouras says. "In this study, we ...

Study Revises Dynamin's Role in Nerve Cell Function

... assumed. Dynamin has long been a focus of research for its role in packaging chemical signals, called neurotransmitters, into tiny synaptic vesicles within the cell. The new study finds that the enzyme is not always necessary for this process. Instead, dynamin 1 goes into action only when ...

Genetic Test for Type II Diabetes Moves Closer

... development. The most significant of the new genes identified was SLC30A8, which encodes a zinc transporter expressed solely by the secretory vesicles of beta-cells. This gene is implicated in the final stages of insulin biosynthesis, which involve the co-crystallisation with zinc. Notably, the ...

Link Between Huntington’s and Abnormal Cholesterol Levels in Brain Establishe

... only when the mutant Huntington’s protein is expressed together with the molecule, caveolin-1. Caveolin-1 is the major structural protein of small vesicles called caveolae, which capture cholesterol and move it in and out of the neuronal membranes. When the researchers “knocked out” expression of ...

Dark skin protects

... hardly ever exposed to sunlight, such as genitalia, throats and nasal passages, are packed with melanin cells.In mammals, melanin is contained inside vesicles called melanosomes. Larger, more numerous melanosomes make for darker skin. Mackintosh suggests melanosomes might act like lysosomes in the immune ...