Word: receptor
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...Davis, chairman of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. "If you were lucky, you got a drug that worked as well as the old one but had fewer side effects. Now we can be very specific and say, 'Let's go after the D3 receptor or the D4 receptor...
Some neurotransmitters induce other neurons to fire; others dampen neuron activity. In either case, once the chemical locks on to the receptor, it sets in motion a cascade of chemical events in the receiving cell. This ongoing dance of neurotransmitters and receptors is the intricate code that brain cells use to communicate with one another...
...surprise, then, at a report in the current Nature. Chemicals found in chocolate, it seems, go after the same brain receptor system targeted by marijuana. In theory, you could even get high on chocolate--though not easily. Unlike THC, the active ingredient in pot, chocolate's chemicals turn on only a few circumscribed regions of the brain. A 130-lb. person would have to eat about 25 lb. of the stuff in one sitting to get a noticeable buzz...
...other prominent researchers attending the conference, including Robert Gallo of the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, did not seem at all convinced that a cure was any closer. Gallo, among others, has failed in efforts to design an effective treatment based on the original discovery of the CD4 receptor. After Hovanessian's talk, Gallo tried to avoid reporters but was finally cornered. "Why is the press so excited about this?" he demanded. "I'm flabbergasted. I thought it was an interesting presentation, but I can't say more than that." Gallo's lack of enthusiasm was + hardly surprising...
...Ever since the AIDS virus was first isolated in 1983, scientists have been trying to determine which receptor on the surface of healthy immune cells is used by the virus to infect the cells. By blocking the receptor, researchers might be able to prevent the illness from taking hold. One such receptor, called CD4, has already been identified, and now biologists in France have reported evidence suggesting that they have found a second, CD26, which the virus must use in conjunction with the first...