(Press-News.org) For more than a decade the research group of Brown University Professor Walter Atwood has doggedly pursued the workings of the JC polyomavirus, which causes a disease called PML that fatally degrades the central nervous system of patients with weakened immune systems. In a study published online Oct. 2 in the Journal of Virology, his team describes how it gains entry into cells: It breaks in via certain receptors of the neurotransmitter serotonin called 5-HT2 receptors.
Atwood, lead author and graduate student Benedetta Assetta and their co-authors showed this by inserting more than a dozen different serotonin receptors into cells that normally can't be infected. Of all 14 receptors, only the three 5HT-2 receptors facilitated infection.
"This paper is significant because it re-defines the role that serotonin receptors play in JC Polyomavirus infection," Atwood said. "Our initial hypothesis was that these receptors played a direct role in virus binding to cells. We now know that this is incorrect. A second carbohydrate molecule, LSTc, is what facilitates binding and we confirm that here."
The research, Atwood said, could lead to improved treatment for PML, for instance by informing how existing drugs work.
"The present study provides new insights on three different serotonin receptors which are potential drug targets," Atwood said. "Several 5-HT2 receptor inhibitors, both selective and non-selective, are FDA-approved and commonly used to treat neurological disorders. One of these drugs, mirtazapine, has been administered in patients with PML and results have been mixed but it does appear that the use of mirtazapine is most successful if administered early at the onset of PML symptoms."
The researchers are now looking at why these three specific serotonin receptors facilitate infection, while the others do not.
###
The National Institutes of Health funded the research.
How JC Polyomavirus invades cells
2013-10-07
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Facial recognition is more accurate in photos showing whole person
2013-10-07
Subtle body cues allow people to identify others with surprising accuracy when faces are difficult to differentiate. This skill may help researchers improve person-recognition software and expand their understanding of how humans recognize each other.
A study published in Psychological Science by researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas demonstrates that humans rely on non-facial cues, such as body shape and build, to identify people in challenging viewing conditions, such as poor lighting.
"Psychologists and computer scientists have concentrated almost exclusively ...
Where in the world are young people using the internet?
2013-10-07
According to a common myth, today's young people are all glued to the Internet. But in fact, only 30 percent of the world's youth population between the ages of 15 and 24 years old has been active online for at least five years. In South Korea, 99.6 percent of young people are active, the highest percentage in the world. The least? The Asian island of Timor Leste with less than 1 percent.
Those are among the many findings in a study from the Georgia Institute of Technology and International Telecommunication Union (ITU). The study is the first attempt to measure, by ...
Sending multiple sclerosis up in smoke
2013-10-07
Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the immune system attacks the nervous system. The result can be a wide range of debilitating motor, physical, and mental problems. No one knows why people get the disease or how to treat it.
In a new study published in the Journal of Neuroimmune Pharmacology, Drs. Ewa Kozela, Ana Juknat, Neta Rimmerman and Zvi Vogel of Tel Aviv University's Dr. Miriam and Sheldon G. Adelson Center for the Biology of Addictive Diseases and Sackler Faculty of Medicine demonstrate that some chemical compounds found in marijuana can help ...
Improving the quality of clinical ethics consultants
2013-10-07
Clinical ethicists play a vital role in hospitals and other health care systems by helping to resolve ethical conflicts that arise between patients, families, and clinicians about end-of-life care and other important medical decisions. To improve the quality of clinical ethics consultants, the American Society for Bioethics and Humanities (ASBH) has proposed a method for assessing them. An article in the Hastings Center Report describes the process and explains its importance.
Questionable credentials and unacceptable variations in practice patterns "may be placing patients ...
Bt sweet corn can reduce insecticide use
2013-10-07
Since 1996, corn containing a gene that allows it to create a protein that is toxic to certain insects, yet safe for human consumption, has been grown in the United States. However, most of this "Bt corn" has been used for animal feed or processed into corn meal, starch, or other products. Although varieties of sweet corn (corn on the cob) have existed since the late 1990s, relatively few acres have been planted.
Due to pressure from activist groups, some grocery stores have refused to carry Bt sweet corn. However, a new study published in the Journal of Economic Entomology ...
How binge drinking impairs bone healing
2013-10-07
MAYWOOD, Il. – Physicians have long observed that binge drinking can significantly impair the healing process following a bone fracture.
Now a study by Loyola University Medical Center researchers is providing insights into how alcohol slows healing on the cellular and molecular levels. The findings could lead to treatments to improve bone healing in alcohol abusers, and possibly non-drinkers as well.
Roman Natoli, MD, PhD, will present findings Oct. 6 during the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research 2013 Annual Meeting in Baltimore. Senior author is John ...
Stress a key factor in causing bee colonies to fail
2013-10-07
Scientists from Royal Holloway University have found that when bees are exposed to low levels of neonicotinoid pesticides - which do not directly kill bees - their behaviour changes and they stop working properly for their colonies.
The results showed that exposure to pesticides at levels bees encounter in the field, has subtle impacts on individual bees, and can eventually make colonies fail.
This discovery provides an important breakthrough in identifying the reasons for the recent global decline of bees, a trend that has baffled many experts worldwide.
"One in ...
Massive DNA study points to new heart drug targets and a key role for triglycerides
2013-10-07
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A global hunt for genes that influence heart disease risk has uncovered 157 changes in human DNA that alter the levels of cholesterol and other blood fats – a discovery that could lead to new medications.
Each of the changes points to genes that can modify levels of cholesterol and other blood fats and are potential drug targets. Many of the changes point to genes not previously linked to blood fats, also called lipids. A surprising number of the variations were also associated with coronary artery disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and high blood ...
How the detergent of the atmosphere is regenerated
2013-10-07
Hydroxyl (OH) radicals – known as the detergent of the atmosphere – decompose isoprene in the air. This leads to the creation of new OH radicals, which are then able to purify the air of other pollutants and trace gases. The scientific community had previously only been able to speculate about this mechanism.
The atmosphere has an astonishing ability to cleanse itself. Chemical processes ensure that trace gases and pollutants are removed from the atmosphere – such as isoprene, which is largely produced by forests. Without these processes global warming would be even ...
Gene activity and transcript patterns visualized for the first time in thousands of single cells
2013-10-07
Biologists of the University of Zurich have developed a method to visualize the activity of genes in single cells. The method is so efficient that, for the first time, a thousand genes can be studied in parallel in ten thousand single human cells. Applications lie in fields of basic research and medical diagnostics. The new method shows that the activity of genes, and the spatial organization of the resulting transcript molecules, strongly vary between single cells.
Whenever cells activate a gene, they produce gene specific transcript molecules, which make the function ...