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Pay attention: How we focus and concentrate

Scientists at Newcastle University have shed new light on how the brain tunes in to relevant information.

Neuroscience created 4 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Scientists uncover molecular roots of cocaine addiction in the brain

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have unraveled the molecular foundations of cocaine's effects on the brain, and identified a compound that blocks cravings for the drug in cocaine-addicted mice. The compound, already proven safe ...

Neuroscience created May 22, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Finding a family for a pair of orphan receptors in the brain

Researchers at Emory University have identified a protein that stimulates a pair of "orphan receptors" found in the brain, solving a long-standing biological puzzle and possibly leading to future treatments for neurological ...

Medical research created May 21, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Registry questions superiority of bivalirudin over heparin

Results from a large observational study reported at EuroPCR 2013 today question whether bivalirudin is superior to heparin in the absence of GPIIb/IIIa blockade, showing similar 30-day mortality in patients with non-ST segment ...

Cardiology created May 22, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Poliovirus vaccine trial shows early promise for recurrent glioblastoma

An attack on glioblastoma brain tumor cells that uses a modified poliovirus is showing encouraging results in an early study to establish the proper dose level, researchers at Duke Cancer Institute report.

Cancer created May 21, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

How serotonin receptors can shape drug effects, from LSD to migraine medication

New findings by researchers carrying out experiments at the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science's Advanced Photon Source (APS) help explain why some drugs that interact with two kinds of human serotonin ...

Medical research created May 17, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Preventing blood poisoning

Peptide molecules derived from the body's natural immune system can help boost the body's defence against life-threatening blood poisoning, joint University research has uncovered.

Medical research created May 17, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Effects of stress on brain cells offer clues to new anti-depressant drugs

Research from King's College London reveals the detailed mechanism behind how stress hormones reduce the number of new brain cells - a process considered to be linked to depression. The researchers identified a key protein ...

Neuroscience created May 06, 2013 | popularity 3.9 / 5 (7) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Brain-imaging study links cannabinoid receptors to post-traumatic stress disorder

In a first-of-its-kind effort to illuminate the biochemical impact of trauma, researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center have discovered a connection between the quantity of cannabinoid receptors in the human brain, known ...

Psychology & Psychiatry created May 14, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Study finds genetic risk factor for knee osteoarthritis

(Medical Xpress)—A newly published paper reports that individuals with radiographic knee osteoarthritis (OA) who had a specific pattern of gene variations in the interleukin-1 receptor antagonist gene (IL1RN), which is ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created May 14, 2013 | popularity 4 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Researchers identify critical link in mammalian odor detection

Researchers at the Monell Center and collaborators have identified a protein that is critical to the ability of mammals to smell. Mice engineered to be lacking the Ggamma13 protein in their olfactory receptors were functionally ...

Neuroscience created May 06, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Making cancer less cancerous: Blocking a single gene renders tumors less aggressive

Researchers at Johns Hopkins have identified a gene that, when repressed in tumor cells, puts a halt to cell growth and a range of processes needed for tumors to enlarge and spread to distant sites. The researchers hope that ...

Cancer created May 02, 2013 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (10) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Resistance to visceral leishmaniasis: New mechanisms involved

Researchers from CNRS, Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier and IRD have elucidated new molecular mechanisms involved in resistance to visceral leishmaniasis, a serious parasitic infection. They have shown that dectin-1 ...

Immunology created May 16, 2013 | popularity not rated yet | comments 0

Researchers look to mathematics, nature, to understand the immune system and its role in cancer

Can the patterns in tree branches or the meandering bends in a river provide clues that could lead to better cancer therapies? According to a new study from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer ...

Medical research created May 01, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Sensory hair cells regenerated, hearing restored in mammal ear

Hearing loss is a significant public health problem affecting close to 50 million people in the United States alone. Sensorineural hearing loss is the most common form and is caused by the loss of sensory ...

Neuroscience created Jan 09, 2013 | popularity 4.7 / 5 (39) | comments 16 | with audio podcast

Receptor (biochemistry)

In biochemistry, a receptor is a protein molecule, embedded in either the plasma membrane or cytoplasm of a cell, to which a mobile signaling (or "signal") molecule may attach. A molecule which binds to a receptor is called a "ligand," and may be a peptide (such as a neurotransmitter), a hormone, a pharmaceutical drug, or a toxin, and when such binding occurs, the receptor undergoes a conformational change which ordinarily initiates a cellular response. However, some ligands merely block receptors without inducing any response (e.g. antagonists). Ligand-induced changes in receptors result in physiological changes which constitute the biological activity of the ligands.

For more information about Receptor (biochemistry), read the full article at Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.

Related topics: cells , protein , brain , molecules , nerve cells