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Tag: "act" at biology news

Gene-specific Ebola therapies protect non-human primates from lethal disease

... by preventing their replication. The drugs, which act by blocking critical viral genetic sequences, may be more potent than anti-virals such as protease inhibitors, which seek to inhibit a protein needed for viral replication. Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever with case fatality rates as high as 80...

Scientists develop a way to make the deadliest toxin known even more toxic

...e of "superactivation." Proteases are enzymes that act as cellular catalysts, breaking up proteins into smaller elements such as amino acids and reducing the amount of energy needed for the activation. The study was released in an advanced online version by the Journal of the American Chemical Society....

When good DNA goes bad

... structures. "Our study shows that DNA itself can act as a mutagen, resulting in genetic instability," s...iology. It just doesn't look right, and it doesn't act right either, according to Vasquez. This awkward shape puts strain on the DNA, and as Vasquez and he...

How the octopus forms an elbow

...-articulated structure by forming three bends that act like skeletal joints. This puts an artificial constraint of sorts on the arm's movement and simplifies the otherwise complex control of movement that would be needed for the arm to fetch food from a distant point to the octopus's mouth. In the new w...

New brain hormone puts brakes on reproduction

...the hypothalamus to produce GnIH, which appears to act directly on cells in the hypothalamus to turn off their production of GnRH. "Here, we have a novel neural pathway mediating the regulatory actions of sex steroids," said Lance Kriegsfeld, UC Berkeley assistant professor of psychology. "This is an e...

U of MN researchers develop way to visualize synchronized interactions of nerve cells in the brain

... 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...

Mice lacking social memory molecule take bullying in stride

...by psychosocial experience and how antidepressants act in this particular brain circuit. They also suggest new strategies for treating mood disorders such as depression, social phobia and post-traumatic stress disorder, in which social withdrawal is a prominent symptom. Drs. Olivier Berton and Eric Nestl...

Evolutionary shifts in olfactory sensitivities in fruit flies

...e, researchers have demonstrated how evolution can act on several different levels of a sensory system to create a supersensitive detection system for a specific food source and egg-laying environment. The findings are reported by researchers Teun Dekker, Irene Ibba, Purayil Siju, Marcus Stensmyr, and B...

Research could lead to better drugs and whiter whites

... research has shown at an atomic level how enzymes act as catalysts; the findings are a radical departure from the traditional view of how they work and might explain why attempts to make artificial enzymes have so far been disappointing. The work ?published as a major research article in the leading jo...

UC Riverside psychologist explores human perception, finds 'wow factor'

...l psychologists study the ways humans perceive and act in natural environments. The emphasis is on identifying the information available to people's senses, rather than the mental processes by which they interpret it, he said. "One thing these projects all have in common is the 'wow factor,'" Rosenblum ...

Measuring artery repair cells could become new heart disease test

...We're learning that atherosclerosis is a balancing act between damage and repair, and now we may have a test that gives us insight into the repair portion of the equation." "If the results of this study are borne out, measuring EPCs could be a better test for defining an individual patient's risk for he...

Computer simulation hints at new HIV drug target

...nd cheek, blocking the flap opening. "Some drugs act by binding to the active site of a target molecule, such as the site that an enzyme normally uses to catalyze reactions," McCammon said. "But increasingly, scientists are finding that other binding sites can be important. For HIV/AIDS, an important c...

Major WHO study concludes calcium supplements can reduce complications during pregnancy

...nd cheek, blocking the flap opening. "Some drugs act by binding to the active site of a target molecule, such as the site that an enzyme normally uses to catalyze reactions," McCammon said. "But increasingly, scientists are finding that other binding sites can be important. For HIV/AIDS, an important c...

Face perception is modulated by sexual orientation

...rch indicates that an area of the brain thought to act in reward circuitry may represent a phase in visual processing during which sexual orientation modulates how we perceive individual faces. The findings are reported by Felicitas Kranz and Alumit Ishai of the University of Zurich. Of all the visual ...

Mayo Clinic researchers challenge sepsis theory

...- it also can occur when substances the body makes act like the bacterial poisons. The Mayo investigators suggest that some or even many cases of sepsis may actually be caused by these normal body substances. The Mayo team argues that this new understanding of how sepsis arises could lead to new treatmen...

Mice with glowing hearts shed light on how hearts develop

...f the National Academy of Sciences. "The proteins act as molecular spies that tell us what is happening within cells in the living mouse," said Michael Kotlikoff, professor and chair of the Department of Biomedical Sciences at Cornell's College of Veterinary Medicine. Cornell researchers are breeding ...

Gene thwarts some pathogens, gives access to others, could save crops

...s activity that is characteristic of proteins that act as enzymes. This finding led researchers to believe that these molecules give the early signals needed to set off a relay of biochemical events allowing the plant to fight off the pathogen, Mengiste said. "Basically the BIK1 protein does this by reg...

Brain's own cannabis compound protects against inflammation

...scientists have not understood how such substances act within the brain's own immune system. Now, experi...t the release of AEA in injured brain tissue might act as a "gatekeeper" and an important "negative-feedback loop within the CNS [central nervous system] i...

Ancient fossil DNA found preserved in crystal

... of modern contamination. The crystal aggregates act as a "privileged niche in fossil bone," protecting the DNA from hostile environments and leaving it relatively undamaged over time. The team's findings suggest that the DNA in these aggregates should be preferred, whenever possible, over DNA from unt...

Enzyme crystal structure reveals 'unexpected' genome repair functions

...A unwinding process. "Even though TFIIH does not act directly in initial damage recognition, the interaction of XPB with the DNA lesion suggests that XPB plays a role in switching TFIIH from transcription mode to NER," Tainer says. "The structural biochemistry of XPB that we discovered shows an unexpec...

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