Latest G protein coupled receptors Stories
New research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine has discovered that rhodopsin, a pigment of the retina that is responsible for the first events in the perception of light, may also be involved in temperature sensation. This detection had not been revealed in previous studies.The work emerged from a collaboration between the laboratory of Andrew Chess, M.D., Professor in the Departments of Neuroscience, Developmental and Regenerative Biology and Genetics and Genomic Sciences at Mount Sinai,...
Scientists from The Scripps Research Institute have determined a new structure from a medically important superfamily of proteins. The structure should help instruct the design of a new kind of therapeutics for conditions ranging from Parkinson's disease to inflammation.The study, published on March 10, 2011, in Science Express, an advance, online publication of selected research from the journal Science, provides important insights into how this large family of proteins, called G...
A light-sensing receptor that's packed inside the eye's photoreceptor cells has an altogether surprising role in cells elsewhere in the body, Johns Hopkins scientists have discovered. Using fruit flies, they showed that this protein, called rhodopsin, also is critical for sensing temperature.A report on the work appears March 11 in Science."For decades, this well-known molecule "” one of the most-studied sensory receptors "” was thought to function exclusively in the eye as a light...
Researchers in California and Germany demonstrate light-activated receptors on nerve cellsAll our daily activities, from driving to work to solving a crossword puzzle, depend on signals carried along the body's vast network of neurons. Propagation of these signals is, in turn, dependent on myriad small molecules within nerve cells -- receptors, ion channels, and transmitters -- turning on and off in complex cascades. Until recently, the study of these molecules in real time has not been...
SEATTLE, March 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Omeros Corporation (Nasdaq: OMER) today announced that it has identified compounds that interact selectively with two orphan G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) linked to pancreatic cancer (GPR182) and cognitive disorders (GPR12). Together with the three previously unlocked orphans linked to squamous cell carcinoma (GPR87), obesity (GPR85) and appetite control (GPR101), Omeros has now successfully unlocked five orphan GPCRs. GPCRs represent the...
Discovery means breakthrough for the development of new drugs based on GPCR'sAdrenaline, the hormone that prepares our body to fight or flight, acts on a hyperdynamic receptor. This molecule switches so fast between several positions, that it was impossible to image it. Until now. Scientists, including Jan Steyaert of VIB and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Belgium, and colleagues from Stanford University in the US, have "frozen the molecule in action" using Xaperonesâ„¢,...
SAN DIEGO, Jan. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Amira Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today the publication of its findings in the Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics (JPET) which describes the biologic effects and the characterization of AM095, a lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) receptor 1 antagonist, in various in vitro and in vivo models of fibrotic disease. "Activation of the LPA1 receptor by LPA has been implicated in a number of disease processes, including tissue fibrosis," said...
Better known as the light sensor that sets the body's biological clock, melanopsin also plays an important role in vision: Via its messengers-so-called melanopsin-expressing retinal ganglion cells, or mRGCs-it forwards information about the brightness of incoming light directly to conventional visual centers in the brain, reports an international collaboration of scientists in this week's issue of PLoS Biology.The findings reveal a new role for mRGCs during image-forming vision and suggest...
Neuroscientists at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) have developed a protein peptide that may be a novel type of highly targeted treatment for depression with a low side-effect profile. Depression affects one in ten Canadians at some time in their lives and is a leading cause of disability worldwide.The study published in this month's Nature Medicine found that coupling between two dopamine receptors was significantly elevated in the brains of people who had been diagnosed...
SEATTLE, Nov. 23, 2010 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Omeros Corporation (Nasdaq: OMER), a biopharmaceutical company committed to discovering, developing and commercializing products focused on inflammation and disorders of the central nervous system, today announced that it has completed the acquisition of a GPCR assay technology, comprised of patents and other intellectual property rights, from Patobios Limited (Patobios). During the preceding exclusive option period with Patobios, Omeros...
