PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Punctured cell membranes lead to high blood pressure

2014-01-27
(Press-News.org) Contact information: Birgitte Svennevig
birs@sdu.dk
University of Southern Denmark
Punctured cell membranes lead to high blood pressure Researchers from the University of Southern Denmark have identified how a mutated protein can lead to holes in a protein sitting in a cell's membrane. Such holes cause high blood pressure, and the discovery can now lead to new and better medication for high blood pressure.

High blood pressure can be caused by many things - one of them being a specific mutated protein. Now the researchers at University of Southern Denmark have found out exactly what unfortunate events in the human organism are initiated by the mutated protein.

"This knowledge can now lead to new and better medicines for high blood pressure", says the lead author of a new scientific publication, PhD student Wojciech Kopec from the Center for Biomembrane Physics (MEMPHYS) at the University of Southern Denmark.

He explains that some years ago research colleagues from University of Aarhus found out that a particular mutated protein is associated with high blood pressure. But the exact mechanism at play could not be clarified until now.

Wojciech Kopec and his colleagues, Himanshu Khandelia and Bastien Loubet from Memphys and Hanne Poulsen from University of Aarhus, have now revealed the mechanism at play: The mutated protein leads to the formation of holes in a protein sitting in a cell's membrane, and so the cell can no longer control what is allowed into and out of the cell interior. The holes are made where the cell controls its content of salts. A normal, healthy cell has full control of how much salt (sodium ions) must be removed from within the cell so that it can maintain a perfect salt balance in the organism, it is a part of.

"But when there are holes, sodium ions can penetrate into the cell, so the salt levels go up. Too high salt levels are associated with many diseases, including high blood pressure", explains Wojciech Kopec.

This specific knowledge is particularly useful for the medical industry involved with developing new drugs.

"Medicine is molecules, and therefore it is in principle easy to develop a molecular formula that can close the holes in the membrane", says Wojciech Kopec.

The researchers found the mechanism by running a computer simulation on one of the country's most powerful computer clusters, Horseshoe 6, which is situated at University of Southern Denmark.

### Ref: The Molecular Mechanism of Na+, K+-ATPase Malfunction in Mutations Characteristic for Adrenal Hypertension. Wojciech Kopec, Bastien Loubet, Hanne Poulsen, and Himanshu Khandelia. Biochemistry. DOI: 10.1021/bi401425g • Publication Dat. (Web): 15 Jan 2014.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Magnetic switch gets closer to application

2014-01-27
This news release is available in German. Scientists from Paris, Newcastle and Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin have been able to switch on and off robust ferromagnetism ...

New quantum dots herald a new era of electronics operating on a single-atom level

2014-01-27
New types of solotronic structures, including the world's first quantum dots containing single cobalt ions, have been created and studied at the Faculty ...

New biomedical diagnostics using personalized 3-D imaging

2014-01-27
This news release is available in Spanish. This innovation enables 3D images of living organisms to be obtained with greater speed and precision. In broad terms, helical optical projection tomography consists in ...

IOF position paper reveals enormous variation in worldwide usage of FRAX

2014-01-27
Nyon, Switzerland ...

App may signal cellphone dependency

2014-01-27
A new, free app will allow smartphone users to measure their cellphone use. Computer scientists and psychologists from the University of ...

Unique specimen identifiers link 10 new species of ant directly to AntWeb

2014-01-27
A team of scientists from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and the University of California at Davis describe ten new species of Temnothorax ants, doubling the number of species of this ...

How did we get 4 limbs? Because we have a belly

2014-01-27
This news release is available in German. All of us backboned animals – at least the ones who also have jaws – have four fins or limbs, one pair in front ...

Visual system can retain considerable plasticity after extended blindness

2014-01-27
BOSTON (Jan. 27, 2014) -- Deprivation of vision during critical periods of childhood development has long been thought to ...

Study shows researchers' status helps some scientific papers gain popularity

2014-01-27
Do scientific papers written by well-known scholars ...

U of Tennessee research finds link between alcohol use and domestic violence

2014-01-27
Alcohol use is more likely ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Brain stimulation can boost math learning in people with weaker neural connections

Inhibiting enzyme could halt cell death in Parkinson’s disease, study finds

Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

UNDER EMBARGO: Neurotechnology reverses biological disadvantage in maths learning

Scientists target ‘molecular machine’ in the war against antimicrobial resistance

Extending classical CNOP method for deep-learning atmospheric and oceanic forecasting

Aston University research: Parents should encourage structure and independence around food to support children’s healthy eating

Thunderstorms are a major driver of tree death in tropical forests

Danforth Plant Science Center adds two new faculty members

Robotic eyes mimic human vision for superfast response to extreme lighting

Racial inequities and access to COVID-19 treatment

Residential segregation and lung cancer risk in African American adults

Scientists wipe out aggressive brain cancer tumors by targeting cellular ‘motors’

Capturability distinction analysis of continuous and pulsed guidance laws

CHEST expands Bridging Specialties Initiative to include NTM disease and bronchiectasis on World Bronchiectasis Day

Exposure to air pollution may cause heart damage

SwRI, UTSA selected by NASA to test electrolyzer technology aboard parabolic flight

Prebiotics might be a factor in preventing or treating issues caused by low brain GABA

Youngest in class at higher risk of mental health problems

American Heart Association announces new volunteer leaders for 2025-26

Gut microbiota analysis can help catch gestational diabetes

FAU’s Paulina DeVito awarded prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

Champions for change – Paid time off initiative just made clinical trials participation easier

Fentanyl detection through packaging

Prof. Eran Meshorer elected to EMBO for pioneering work in epigenetics

New 3D glacier visualizations provide insights into a hotter Earth

Creativity across disciplines

Consequences of low Antarctic sea ice

Hear here: How loudness and acoustic cues help us judge where a speaker is facing

A unique method of rare-earth recycling can strengthen the raw material independence of Europe and America

[Press-News.org] Punctured cell membranes lead to high blood pressure