Amino Acid News and Research

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Amino Acid is one of several molecules that join together to form proteins. There are 20 common amino acids found in proteins.

Molecular link between a viral infection and development of a common and fatal form of liver cancer

Researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center have uncovered a crucial molecular link between a viral infection and development of a common and fatal form of liver cancer. In the process, they have identified a possible way to treat this disease as well as a number of other cancers.

26 Jul 2005

Plant toxins in the diets of early humans drove the evolution of taste

Plant toxins in the diets of early humans drove the evolution of a bitter taste receptor better able to detect them, suggests new genetic research by scientists at University College London, Duke University Medical Center, and the German Institute of Human Nutrition.

25 Jul 2005

Crucial molecular link between a hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC)

21 Jul 2005

Definitive proof that Ab42 is the culprit molecule that underlies the pathology of Alzheimer's disease

One puzzle in Alzheimer's disease (AD) research is why mice engineered to have the abnormal protein underlying the disease in humans show little pathology of the disease. Specifically, such mice are genetically altered to overproduce mutant human amyloid precursor protein (APP).

21 Jul 2005

Researchers have doubled the potency of a protein that drives blood to clot

...according to research to be published in the July 26 edition of Biochemistry. The study results may have profound implications for the treatment of hemophilia, the inherited blood disorder that causes easy or excessive bleeding in 30,000 Americans.

20 Jul 2005

Scientists determine the structures of eight proteins in just 10-20 days per protein

A University at Buffalo scientist created a stir in 2003 when he announced a much faster, more precise and far less expensive method of obtaining nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data to map a protein's atomic structure. Genomics researchers were fascinated, but some also were a bit skeptical.

18 Jul 2005

Lipid helps cell wall protein fold into proper shape

A protein that provides a vital passage through a bacterium's outer cell wall will misfold and malfunction if that wall is built of the 'wrong' material, scientists at The University of Texas Medical School at Houston report in a finding that has long-term implications for understanding diseases caused by misfolded proteins such as cystic fibrosis, Alzheimer's disease, and mad cow disease.

17 Jul 2005

Keap1 protein - a promising new target for drugs to fight many different kinds of cancer

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are unraveling the biochemical mechanism by which functional foods combat cancer.

11 Jul 2005

Research discovers new deadly link to sickle cell disease

A new study led by a researcher at Children's Hospital & Research Center at Oakland is the first to find that an amino acid deficiency in sickle cell disease is the result of hemolysis, a process where red blood cells rupture and release their contents into the blood stream. Low availability of the amino acid arginine is associated with lung disease and death in adult sickle cell patients.

6 Jul 2005

Scientists solve structure of a critical innate immune system protein

Scientists at The Scripps Research Institute have solved the structure of a crucial human immune system molecule called TLR3, an acronym for Toll-like receptor three. In an upcoming issue of the journal Science, the protein is described as a large horseshoe-shaped coil composed of 23 leucine-rich repeats (LRRs).

27 Jun 2005

Researchers explain how ubiquitin function is determined

University of Maryland researchers have explained, for the first time, why the linkage between the cell-regulating protein molecules called ubiquitins determines their function.

10 Jun 2005

Research opens up new directions for studying prion diseases in humans

The mysterious, highly infectious prions, which cause the severe destruction of the brain that characterizes "mad cow disease" and several human brain degenerative disorders, can be rendered harmless in the laboratory by a slight alternation of the three-dimensional conformation or shape of the prion protein's structure.

9 Jun 2005

New approach to inhibiting blood vessel growth or angiogenesis

A manmade protein with a tail of amino acids delivered to target cells can dramatically reduce blood vessel growth that obstructs vision or feeds a tumor, researchers have found.

31 May 2005

Artificial cobweb proteins for medicine

A unique material based on cobweb proteins is being created by Russian researchers of the State Research Center of Russian Federation GosNIIgentics, Scientific Research Center “Coal-Chemical Fiber”, State Research Center of Applied Microbiology in cooperation with their colleagues from Michigan University with support form the International Science and Technology Center (ISTC) (project 1033.2).

30 May 2005

Nutrition gene key in regulating immune system

A gene that signals a yeast cell to make bread rise and mice to eat a better diet also helps selectively silence the immune system, researchers have found.

18 May 2005

Scientists have uncovered a new method the immune system uses to label foreign invaders as targets to be attacked

Researchers showed that the immune system can brand foreign proteins by chemically modifying their structure, and that these modifications increased the chances that cells known as lymphocytes would recognize the trespassers and attack them.

17 May 2005

Engineers have found a way to modify a plastic to anchor molecules that promote nerve regeneration, blood vessel growth or other biological processes

In the study led by Dr. Christine Schmidt, the researchers identified a piece of protein from among a billion candidates that could perform the unusual feat of attaching to polypyrrole, a synthetic polymer (plastic) that conducts electricity and has shown promise in biomedical applications.

17 May 2005

Valium puts humans and amoeba to sleep

Biologists at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) have discovered that the popular sedative Valium has similar effects on the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum as it does in humans. Their surprising finding that Valium, as well as a "natural Valium" molecule found in human brains, causes the social amoeba to enter a dormant or "sleep" phase, may provide new insights into how cells in higher organisms, including humans, communicate with each other.

16 May 2005

Unsuspected protein CD147, regulates the production of plaque-forming peptides that are the defining feature of Alzheimer's

Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have discovered an unsuspected subunit of the protein complex gamma-secretase, which plays a central role in Alzheimer's disease.

15 May 2005

Nephrogenic Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuresis - a new genetic disease

Two infant boys whose bodies were overloaded with excess fluid have led UCSF pediatricians to the discovery of a new genetic disease. In the process, they have discovered a rare type of mutation where different substitutions in a single amino acid cause two different, opposite genetic disorders.

4 May 2005