More than 200 heterozygous mutations in the type 2 BMP receptor gene, BMPR2, have been identified in patients with Heritable Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension (HPAH). More severe clinical outcomes occur in patients with BMPR2 mutations by-passing nonsense-mediated mRNA decay (NMD negative mutations). These comprise 40% of HPAH mutations and are predicted to express BMPR2 mutant products. However ...

objective(s) the mechanism(s) by which antidepressants regulate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (hpa) axis remain elusive. the endocannabinoid system (ecbs) which exhibits antidepressant potential, appears to regulate the hpa axis activity. therefore, we aimed to investigate the role of the ecbs in the action of doxepin including its effect on the hpa axis. materials and methods male wistar ...

When an amino-acid sequence cannot be optimized for both folding and function, folding can get compromised in favor of function. To understand this tradeoff better, we devise a novel method for extracting the "function-less" folding-motif of a protein fold from a set of structurally similar but functionally diverse proteins. We then obtain the β-trefoil folding-motif, and study its folding usin...

Recently, several innovative approaches have been developed that allow one to directly screen or select for improved protein folding in the cellular context. These methods have the potential of not just leading to a better understanding of the in vivo folding process, they may also allow for improved production of proteins of biotechnological interest.

Three out of 125 “big questions of science”, can now be claimed to have been answered. All of these questions involve water; its structure, its role in protein folding and its role in protein-protein association.