Calcium and taste perception

Calcium may not come to mind when you think of tasty foods, but in a study appearing in the January 8 issue of JBC, Japanese scientists have provided the first demonstration that calcium channels on the tongue are the targets of compounds that can enhance taste.

In addition to molecules that directly trigger specific taste buds (salty, sweet etc.), there are other substances which have no flavor of their own but can enhance the flavors they are paired with (known as kokumi taste in Japanese cuisine).

Exploiting this enhancement could have practical uses in food modulation; for example, creating healthy foods that contain minimal sugar or salt but still elicit strong taste. At the moment, though, the mode of action for these substances is poorly understood.

However, Yuzuru Eto and his colleagues examined whether calcium channels which sense and regulate the levels of calcium in the body might be the mechanism involved; they noted that calcium channels are closely correlation to the receptors that sense sweet and umami (savory) tastes and that glutathione (a common kokumi taste element) is known to interact with calcium channels.

To test their possibility, they created several small molecules that resembled glutathione and analyzed how well these compounds activated calcium channels in cell samples. Next, they diluted the same test substances in flavored water (salt water, sugar water, etc.) and asked volunteers (all trained in discriminating tastes) to rate how strong the flavors were.........

genetic information into their DNA.

Scientists have made a breakthrough in HIV research that had eluded researchers for over 20 years, potentially leading to better therapys for HIV, as per a research findings published recently in the journal Nature

The researchers, from Imperial College London and Harvard University, have grown a crystal that reveals the structure of an enzyme called integrase, which is found in retroviruses like HIV. When HIV infects someone, it uses integrase to paste a copy of its genetic information into their DNA.

Previous to the newly released study, which was funded by the Medical Research Council and the US National Institutes of Health, a number of scientists had tried and failed to work out the three-dimensional structure of integrase bound to viral DNA. New antiretroviral drugs for HIV work by blocking integrase, but researchers did not understand exactly how these drugs were working or how to improve them.

Scientists can only determine the structure of this kind of molecular machinery by obtaining high quality crystals. For the newly released study, scientists grew a crystal using a version of integrase borrowed from a little-known retrovirus called Prototype Foamy Virus (PFV). Based on their knowledge of PFV integrase and its function, they were confident that it was very similar to its HIV counterpart.........

Google Voice – What’s New

The Google team is happy to announce a new Google Voice Lite version that gives its users the choice to get Google Voice with your already present mobile number OR with a Google number. According to Craig Walker, Vincent Paquet & Pierre Lebeau, who are the product managers in Google, if the users would sign up using the already present number, they will not get various Google voice’s features. So just go at this link to know more: (http://www.google.com/support/voice/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=164652)

According to the Google Voice Blog, if the users are signing with the already existing numbers, then they would get various features like Online, searchable voicemail, automated voicemail transcription which is actually free of cost and the users don’t have to pay anything, you will notifications through messages and E-mails, and the international calls would cost low. On the other hand, if the users are planning to get the new number, you will be given extra features like call screening, listen in, call blocking and recording, including more.

Check out the Video:

Google always comes out with new and exciting features every single time. Just check out the new features offered by the Google team and try out the different options offered by the Search Engine Giant for all its users!

Medical Research News Blog From Medicineworld.Org

A study by scientists in Australia and the United Kingdom suggests that autoantibodies to fat binding proteins significantly increase in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients with active disease. This increase in anti-apolipoprotein (anti-Apo A-I), anti-high-density lipoprotein (anti-HDL), and anti-C-reactive protein (anti-CRP) may contribute to the development of atherosclerosis in SLE patients, placing them at risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Complete findings of this study are available in the recent issue of Arthritis & Rheumatism, published by Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the American College of Rheumatology.

Lupus is a chronic autoimmune disease where the immune system creates antibodies that attack an individuals' own cells, causing inflammation throughout the body. The inflammation leads to tissue and organ damage, affecting the heart, kidneys, lungs, brain, blood, skin and/or joints of those with SLE. As per a 2008 study for the National Arthritis Data Workgroup 322,000 Americans have a definite or probable SLE diagnosis. The Lupus Foundation of America's figures are much higher, with up to 1.5 million in the U.S. and close to 5 million worldwide reported having form (SLE, discoid, sub-acute cutaneous, drug-induced, or neonatal) of lupus.........