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Post by ruth on May 3, 2009 11:07:58 GMT -5
Polyphosphates have been implicated in energy storage due to the energy liberated in hydrolysis of their phosphoanhydride bonds, their associations with energy producing cellular structures and their enzymatic synthesis from cellular energy carriers (12,18,19,21). tinyurl.com/d2gvk5
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Post by ruth on May 4, 2009 9:06:27 GMT -5
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Post by ruth on May 6, 2009 9:20:33 GMT -5
we are looking for bond-breakers, it makes me laugh...... that is what all these scientists are looking for as well. i feel like the donkey chasing the cart. www.biotechnews.com.au/article/302169/complexity_apicomplexans?pp=6Understanding how the machinery of invasion works is obviously a good way to identify novel approaches for intervention in the case of obligate intracellular parasites because without invasion there is no establishment of infection. “However, finding the right target and the right strategy is not always so obvious,” Soldati-Favre says. Although her work has always been focused more towards understanding the fundamental processes of parasite cell biology and not directly towards drug development or finding an intervention, she remains quietly optimistic about that task. She knows that by understanding the fundamentals more carefully and then keeping the potential clinical benefits always at the back of her mind, researchers should be able to find promising and ultimately, effective drug targets. As part of this, companies are currently developing and testing attenuated Toxoplasma vaccines for use in the veterinary arena. However, according to Soldati-Favre, these vaccine prototypes are not all that safe, as the attenuated forms are poorly defined and could revert. “I think there is a great potential today to generate much safer live vaccines for animals based on recently accumulated knowledge, and this is clearly where fundamental cell biology of the causative organism holds the key. Using Toxoplasma as an organism model, we can ask and address the key questions more easily and in a way that applies to the whole group of parasites.” At the moment, Soldati-Favre and collaborators are surprised and delighted about some quite basic findings they have made into protein lipidation and lipid-modifying enzymes in the lytic cycle of these parasites “What we are now studying about the post-translational modifications of proteins, which is quite fundamental, is unexpectedly revealing a promising avenue for intervention. “ We have identified a series of compounds that interfere with protein acylation and have very dramatic effects on the invasion process and on the intracellular replication of the parasites.
“Importantly, this happens without deleterious effects on the host cells. This definitely encourages us to pursue our central and basic aim of identifying the parasite targets. There can always be a surprise in science by looking at the detail.”
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