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Tag: "messengers" at biology news

How to steer a moving cell

...onal Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Extra-cellular messengers called chemokines are families of small proteins secreted by cells that regulate the cells?directional movement, or chemotaxis. Cells possess an innate ability to migrate, an inner compass that somehow senses the presence of chemokines. But in meta...

How appetite-stimulating brain cells work overtime during fasting

... sort," Diano said. Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that relay signals to and from neurons. "Changes in temperature could have a strong effect on brain function." The findings emphasize the complexity of the feeding circuitry, which once "seemed so simple," wrote Charles Mobbs of Mount Sinai School...

Microfluidic chip helps solve cellular mating puzzle

...toward the cell’s control center, the nucleus. The messengers that carry it to the nucleus are MAPKs, which direct the cell’s response by triggering multiple genes. But biologists have been baffled for years as to why two different forms of MAPKs perk up when the mating call arrives. Only one of them, called Fu...

Brain works more chaotically than previously thought

..., it seems that the neurons release their chemical messengers along the entire length of these extensions and, i...errington first put forward the idea that chemical messengers are only released at "synapses", a term he coined. According to the founder of modern neurophysiolog...

Gene linked with mental illness shapes brain region, researchers find

...he neurotransmitter serotonin, one of the chemical messengers that nerves use to communicate with one another. Once specific nerve cells release serotonin, a molecule called the serotonin transporter (SERT) brings it back into the cell. Thus, serotonin has only a brief influence on the target neurons. Drugs tha...

No-mow grass may be coming to your yard soon

...re they have looked for them. As critical chemical messengers of plant development, they are found in low levels in virtually all plant cells, including seeds, flowers, roots, leaves, stems, pollen, and young vegetative tissue. "Without them, plants are tiny dwarves, with reduced vasculature and roots, and ar...

Computational analysis shows that plant hormones often go it alone

... Plants rely on hormones, which act as chemical messengers to regulate every aspect of their biology. Growth, for example, is stimulated by multiple hormones -- brassinosteroids, auxins and gibberellins among them. The fact that these and several other hormones stimulate plant growth suggested to some invest...

Study reveals how ADHD drugs work in brain

...boost levels of two neurotransmitters, or chemical messengers in the brain, known as dopamine and norepinephrine. Dopamine is thought to play a role in memory formation and the onset of addictive behaviors, while norepinephrine has been linked with arousal and attentiveness. Berridge notes that scientists have...

Commonly used antidepressants may also affect human immune system

... effects. Unlike in the brain, which uses chemical messengers to communicate between nerve cells, the immune system is believed to "converse" through physical contact -- one type of immune cell touches another, setting off a response. Specifically, "antigen presenting cells" display their antigens (bits of a f...

Mammalian Transcriptome Mapped

...e RNA transcripts for which they are complementary messengers and modulate their expression into proteins. In fact, synthetic antisense molecules have been widely used to inhibit conventional genes, including applications as anti-viral and anti-cancer drugs, which are currently on the market or in clinical tria...

UQ scientists break new ground in fight against infection & chronic disease

...e against infection, called macrophages, releasing messengers to fight and kill disease-causing microbes. IMB ...g the microbes. "The cells also release chemical messengers to boost immunity," Professor Stow said. She said the research was made possible by advanced techn...

Endocannabinoids ?the brain's cannabis ?demonstrate novel modes of action to stress

...ances that are produced inside our brains that are messengers between brain cells. Our work involves trying to understand what these substances, endocannabinoids, are for." She said they are particularly interested in how endocannabinoids influence oxytocin cells in the brain, because because OT within the bra...

Immune system's distress signal tells bacteria when to strike back

...for example, have elevated cytokines ?the chemical messengers that trigger an immune response ?in the bowel. "These could signal the bug," said Alverdy, "then the bug strikes back and then the inflammation process snowballs." Because the bacteria in this case are "normal flora," people with no real infection de...

Discovery of New Dopamine Action May Yield Alternative Psychiatric Drugs

.... Neurotransmitters such as dopamine are chemical messengers that one neuron launches at receptors on another to trigger a nerve impulse in the receiving neuron. Receptors are protein switches on the surfaces of neurons that recognize neurotransmitters and translate their signals into a cellular response. Dopa...

Second messenger NAADP shows fast, dose-related impact on satiety cycle

...istory compared to other traditional intracellular messengers and many aspects of this molecule remain under investigation. However the potential of this new messenger as a therapeutic target should not be underestimated," she added. ...

Molecular messengers perform a crucial role in the ability of injured nerve cells to heal themselves

... therapies for injured nerve fibers. Long distance messengers star in many heroic tales, perhaps the most famous...titute of Science has now discovered how molecular messengers perform a crucial role in the ability of injured nerve cells to heal themselves. A nerve cell has a...

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