Phenethylamine content of human urine and rat brain,its alterations in pathological conditions and after drug administration

Zusammenfassung Nachweis, dass die Phenethylamin-ausscheidung bei endogener, nicht aber bei sekundär atypischer Depression signifikativ vermindert, bei Manie und Schizophrenie aber entsprechend erhöht ist. Die Behandlung der endogenen, nicht aber der sekundären Depression mit trizyklischen antidepressiven Mitteln erhöht die Phenethylaminausscheidung. Der Phenethylamingehalt im Rattengehirn wird durch Reserpin signifikant vermindert, durch Iproniazid, Imipramin und Chlorimipramin jedoch signifikant erhöht.     

On factors involved in the mechanism of ‘Taste-blindness’

Zusammenfassung Der genetisch kontrollierte, hohe Geschmacksschwellenwert — Geschmacksblindheit — gegenüber Phenylthioharnstoff (PTC) und anderen bitteren, strukturell ähnlichen Anti-Schilddrüsensubstanzen, scheint durch die Qualität und Quantität des löslichen Speichel-Enzym-Systems Tyrosiniodinase bedingt zu sein.PTC-Geschmacksblinde sind «Alles-Esser», PTC-Schmecker hingegen weisen eine erhöhte kulinarische Selektivität auf. Diese Tatsache ist um so interessanter, als der Schwellenwert der beiden Gruppen gegenüber den klassischen Geschmacksqualitäten — süss, salzig, sauer und bitter — derselbe ist.     

Possible biosynthesis of D-lysergic acid diethylamide-like compounds from mescaline

Zusammenfassung Die Hypothese einer Biosynthese vond-Lysergsäure-diäthylamidähnlichen Substanzen aus Meskalin in der Leber und im Gehirn wird postuliert.     

Three-dimensional imaging of atomic four-body processes

To understand the physical processes that occur in nature we need to obtain a solid concept about the 'fundamental' forces acting between pairs of elementary particles. It is also necessary to describe the temporal and spatial evolution of many mutually interacting particles under the influence of these forces. This latter step, known as the few-body problem, remains an important unsolved problem in physics. Experiments involving atomic collisions represent a useful testing ground for studying the few-body problem. For the single ionization of a helium atom by charged particle impact, kinematically complete experiments have been performed since 1969 (ref. 7). The theoretical analysis of such experiments was thought to yield a complete picture of the basic features of the collision process, at least for large collision energies. These conclusions are, however, almost exclusively based on studies of restricted electron-emission geometries. Here, we report three-dimensional images of the complete electron emission pattern for the single ionization of helium by the impact of C6+ ions of energy 100 MeV per a.m.u. (a four-body system) and observe features that have not been predicted by any published theoretical model. We propose a higher-order ionization mechanism, involving the interaction between the projectile and the target nucleus, to explain these features.     

Molecular farming of recombinant antibodies in plants

Antibodies represent a large proportion of therapeutic drugs currently in development. In most cases, they are produced in mammalian cell lines or transgenic animals because these have been shown to fold and assemble the proteins correctly and generate authentic glycosylation patterns. However, such expression systems are expensive, difficult to scale up and there are safety concerns due to potential contamination with pathogenic organisms or oncogenic DNA sequences. Plants represent an inexpensive, efficient and safe alternative for the production of recombinant antibodies. Research over the last 10 years has shown that plants can produce a variety of functional antibodies and there is now intense interest in scaling up production to commercial levels. In this review, we discuss the advantages of plants over traditional expression systems, describe how antibody expression in plants is achieved and optimized and then consider the practical issues concerning large-scale molecular farming in plants. The first plant-produced therapeutic antibodies are already in clinical trials, and, given the economic benefits of this production system, we are likely to see many more recombinant antibodies produced in this manner in the future.     

Nonsense-mediated decay microarray analysis identifies mutations of EPHB2 in human prostate cancer

The identification of tumor-suppressor genes in solid tumors by classical cancer genetics methods is difficult and slow. We combined nonsense-mediated RNA decay microarrays and array-based comparative genomic hybridization for the genome-wide identification of genes with biallelic inactivation involving nonsense mutations and loss of the wild-type allele. This approach enabled us to identify previously unknown mutations in the receptor tyrosine kinase gene EPHB2. The DU 145 prostate cancer cell line, originating from a brain metastasis, carries a truncating mutation of EPHB2 and a deletion of the remaining allele. Additional frameshift, splice site, missense and nonsense mutations are present in clinical prostate cancer samples. Transfection of DU 145 cells, which lack functional EphB2, with wild-type EPHB2 suppresses clonogenic growth. Taken together with studies indicating that EphB2 may have an essential role in cell migration and maintenance of normal tissue architecture, our findings suggest that mutational inactivation of EPHB2 may be important in the progression and metastasis of prostate cancer.     

Break-up of the Atlantic deep western boundary current into eddies at 8 degrees S

The existence in the ocean of deep western boundary currents, which connect the high-latitude regions where deep water is formed with upwelling regions as part of the global ocean circulation, was postulated more than 40 years ago. These ocean currents have been found adjacent to the continental slopes of all ocean basins, and have core depths between 1,500 and 4,000 m. In the Atlantic Ocean, the deep western boundary current is estimated to carry (10-40) x 10(6) m3 s(-1) of water, transporting North Atlantic Deep Water--from the overflow regions between Greenland and Scotland and from the Labrador Sea--into the South Atlantic and the Antarctic circumpolar current. Here we present direct velocity and water mass observations obtained in the period 2000 to 2003, as well as results from a numerical ocean circulation model, showing that the Atlantic deep western boundary current breaks up at 8 degrees S. Southward of this latitude, the transport of North Atlantic Deep Water into the South Atlantic Ocean is accomplished by migrating eddies, rather than by a continuous flow. Our model simulation indicates that the deep western boundary current breaks up into eddies at the present intensity of meridional overturning circulation. For weaker overturning, continuation as a stable, laminar boundary flow seems possible.