X-Message-Number: 25352 From: "The NanoAging Institute" <> Subject: SURPRISE! CELLS HAVE SECOND SOURCE OF PHOSPHATE Date: Fri, 17 Dec 2004 20:56:29 -0500 For 50 years, thousands of labs around the world have studied cells' critical internal communications, and scientists had assumed the speakers were known. But now, in the Dec. 17 issue of Science, Johns Hopkins researchers report finding not just a new participant, but a brand new conversation that has implications for treating disease and understanding biology. Much of cells' internal communication revolves around two very important words -- "stop" and "go" -- elicited when a small bit, called phosphate, is added onto proteins. This addition turns protein activities up or down and fine tunes cells' responses to what's happening outside their borders. This communication can go awry in diseases, including cancer, and be corrected by various drugs. The source of these phosphate bits has been known -- a molecule called adenosine triphosphate, or ATP. But in their new report, the Johns Hopkins scientists describe a brand new source of phosphate that seems to work with as many proteins as targeted by ATP, but in a completely different way. http://www.nanoaging.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=781 Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=25352