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News tagged with receptors

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

Scientists make insulin-producing cells self-replicate

(Medical Xpress)—Scientists have discovered a hormone that causes the body's insulin-producing factories, beta cells, to churn out more of themselves. Having enough insulin is critical to regulating the amount of sugar ...

Medical research created Apr 29, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (7) | 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

T cells rely on 'rheostat' to help ensure that the immune response matches the threat

A properly functioning immune system is a lesson in balance, providing protection against disease without attacking healthy tissue. Work led by St. Jude Children's Research Hospital scientists and published recently in Nature Im ...

Immunology created Apr 30, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Discovery opens door for breast, prostate cancer treatments

(Medical Xpress)—A team of Western Australian cancer researchers interested in the strong link between hormones and cancer have discovered three new molecules that may have an important role to play in ...

Cancer created Apr 22, 2013 | popularity 3.7 / 5 (3) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Mutant version of H5N1 flu virus found to be more preferential to human infection

(Medical Xpress)—An international team of bio-researchers has found that a mutant strain of the H5N1 influenza virus (created in a lab) has a 200-fold preference for binding with receptors in human cells, ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Apr 25, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (2) | comments 0 | with audio podcast report

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

Researchers identify new pathway, enhancing tamoxifen to tame aggressive breast cancer

Tamoxifen is a time-honored breast cancer drug used to treat millions of women with early-stage and less-aggressive disease, and now a University of Rochester Medical Center team has shown how to exploit tamoxifen's secondary ...

Cancer created Apr 23, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Tactics of new Middle East virus suggest treating by altering lung cells' response to infection

A new virus that causes severe breathing distress and kidney failure elicits a distinctive airway cell response to allow it to multiply. Scientists studying the Human Coronavirus-Erasmus Medical Center, which ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created Apr 30, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Study uses Botox to find new wrinkle in brain communication

National Institutes of Health researchers used the popular anti-wrinkle agent Botox to discover a new and important role for a group of molecules that nerve cells use to quickly send messages. This novel ...

Medical research created May 02, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

ECE: Gene variants linked to reduced male fertility

(HealthDay)—Particular gene variants of follicle stimulating hormone (FSH) and its receptor are associated with significantly reduced fertility in men, according to a study presented at the annual European ...

Genetics created May 03, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

Scientists find potential therapeutic target for Cushing's disease

Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have identified a protein that drives the formation of pituitary tumors in Cushing's disease, a development that may give clinicians a therapeutic target to treat this ...

Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes created May 07, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

Brain, not eye mechanisms keep color vision constant across lifespan

Cone receptors in the human eye lose their color sensitivity with age, but our subjective experience of color remains largely unchanged over the years. This ability to compensate for age-related changes in color perception ...

Cardiology created May 08, 2013 | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0

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 19 hours ago | popularity 5 / 5 (1) | comments 0 | with audio podcast

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

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