It turns out that the mutation makes part of the channel more rigid, altering its dynamics in a way that makes it easier to toggle it open. This is the first time, says Cui, that protein dynamics have been implicated in the functioning of an ion channel.
Ion channels
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. -- While radiation has therapeutic uses, too much radiation is damaging to cells. The most important acute side effect of radiation poisoning is damage to the bone marrow. The bone marrow produces all the normal blood cells, and therefore a high dose of radiation can lead to low blood counts of red cells, platelets and white blood cells. Humans that receive a lethal dose of radiation as in the setting of an accidental exposure die of bone marrow failure.
PITTSBURGH, June 23 – Traditional methods for assessing patients after cardiac arrest may be underestimating their chances for survival and good outcomes, according to a new study by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers now available online in the journal Resuscitation.
Exciting headlines about the cancer-preventing potential of berries, red wine, and other foods are in the news almost every day. An article in the current issue of Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN), ACS' weekly newsmagazine, highlights the researchers trying to make medicines based on substances in those foods and turn their potential into reality.
Chicken litter is much more valuable as a fertilizer than previously thought, according to an Agricultural Research Service (ARS) study showing its newfound advantages over conventional fertilizers.
OTTAWA, CANADA — The rapidly growing polio outbreak in Tajikistan raises serious concerns that the disease could spread to other regions in the world, states an editorial http://www.cmaj.ca/cgi/doi/10.1503/cmaj.100831 in CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal) www.cmaj.ca. It is imperative that health agencies attempt to limit further spread by ensuring high vaccination rates.
A new study of 1,960 White-Americans and 368 Black-Americans with objectively diagnosed venous thromboembolism (VTE) showed that, compared to Whites, Blacks had a significantly higher proportion with pulmonary embolism (PE), including idiopathic PE among Black women, and a significantly higher proportion of Blacks with VTE were women (71% vs 61% for Whites) The study is published today in the American Journal of Hematology.
The separation of Neardenthal and Homo sapiens might have occurred at least one million years ago, more than 500,000 years earlier than previously believed, according to new DNA-based analyses, says a doctoral thesis conducted at the National Center for Research on Human Evolution (Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana)associated with the University of Granada. The researchers analyzed the teeth of almost all species of hominids that have existed during the past 4 million years.
HOBOKEN, N.J. (June 23, 2010) – An estimated 60 million people in the U.S. are affected by allergic rhinitis, commonly known as hay fever, according to the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology. Hay fever is an allergic inflammation of the nasal airways that causes itching, swelling, mucus production, hives and rashes. A study published in the June 14, 2010 issue of Phytotherapy Research demonstrates Pycnogenol® (pic-noj-en-all), an antioxidant plant extract derived from the bark of the French maritime pine tree, substantially improves the symptoms of hay fever.
The evolution of bird bills is related to climate according to latest research by the University of Melbourne, Australia and Brock University, Canada.
By examining bill sizes of a diverse range of bird species around the world, researchers have found that birds with larger bills tend to be found in hot environments, whilst birds in colder environments have evolved smaller bills.
Ensuring the optimum radiation dose on the same day as the brachytherapy implant in prostate cancer treatment manages to control the illness in about 95% of the cases. This is the result of research undertaken at the University Hospital of Navarre and published in the latest issue of Brachytherapy, journal of the American Society of Brachytherapy.
As is known, brachytherapy is a radiotherapy treatment involving the insertion of radioactive sources within or near the tumour.
London (June 23, 2010) – Athletes have been enjoying the benefits of creatine supplements to gain stronger muscles since the 1990s, and the supplement has also proven beneficial among other groups. Could it help cardiac patients regain strength to help with their heart-training workouts as part of rehabilitation? The evidence at this stage suggests not - exercise alone proved a far more powerful tonic for patients in a study out today. The results appear in the journal Clinical Rehabilitation, published by SAGE.
LOS ANGELES (June 23, 2010) – Researchers looking for the first time at how migraine sufferers experience the stigmatizing effects of their disease show that chronic migraine sufferers experience worse stigma than episodic migraine sufferers and more than those with other neurological diseases including stroke, epilepsy and MS.
