Effects of tranylcypromine on the concentrations of some trace amines in the diencephalon and hippocampus of the rat

Summary Concentrations of 4 trace amines in diencephalon and hippocampus of the rat were measured by integrated-ioncurrent mass spectrometry after administration of the antidepressant drug, tranylcypromine. Much larger increases were observed for 2-phenylethylamine and tryptamine than for m- and p-tyramine.Financial support has been provided by the Medical Research Council of Canada, the Psychiatric Services Branch, Province of Saskatchewan, the Alberta Mental health Research Fund, and the Special Services and Research Committee, University of Alberta Hospital.Acknowledgments. The authors wish to thank Dr B.A. Davis for synthesizing the deuterated internal standards and Dr D.A. Durden for supervising the mass spectral analyses. Expert technical assistance was provided by Mr R.C. Mag-Atas and Ms D.G. Calverley. The advice and encouragement of Professors W. G. Dewhurst and A. A. Boulton are gratefully acknowledged.     

Three-dimensional structure of a complex of antibody with influenza virus neuraminidase

The structure of a complex between influenza virus neuraminidase and an antibody displays features inconsistent with the inflexible 'lock and key' model of antigen-antibody binding. The structure of the antigen changes on binding, and that of the antibody may also change; the interaction therefore has some of the character of a handshake.     

A common inversion under selection in Europeans

A refined physical map of chromosome 17q21.31 uncovered a 900-kb inversion polymorphism. Chromosomes with the inverted segment in different orientations represent two distinct lineages, H1 and H2, that have diverged for as much as 3 million years and show no evidence of having recombined. The H2 lineage is rare in Africans, almost absent in East Asians but found at a frequency of 20% in Europeans, in whom the haplotype structure is indicative of a history of positive selection. Here we show that the H2 lineage is undergoing positive selection in the Icelandic population, such that carrier females have more children and have higher recombination rates than noncarriers.