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Remember MacGyver? He could do almost anything with a piece of scotch tape and a paper clip. The following story reminds me very much of McGyver and how much can be accomplished with a little imagination.
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) research engineer Javier Atencia has a reputation for creating novel microfluidic devices out of ordinary, inexpensive components. This time, he has combined a glass slide, plastic sheets and double-sided tape into a “diffusion-based gradient generator”—a tool to rapidly assess how changing concentrations of specific chemicals affect living cells.
A couple of weeks ago, we were excited to report that coffee consumption helps protect drinkers against acquiring type 2 diabetes. In the same article we mentioned that the UConn scientist responsible for promoting the beneficial effects of resveratrol which is found in red wine was recently accused of fraud and has had many of his publications recalled from prestigious scientific journals.
However, a recent study out of the University of Florida is once again providing us with a reason to rejoice over our alcohol consumption (I knew that it wouldn’t take long!). According to the University, researchers with UF’s Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences have shown that Blueberry wine contain more antioxidants than white wines and many red wines.
The researchers found the Florida wine, produced from southern highbush blueberries, had more antioxidants than all of the reported white wine values and all but 20 percent of the reported values for red wines, which are considered high in antioxidants.
According to study author Wade Yang, a food science and human nutrition assistant professor with IFAS, “for people seeking the potential health benefits of a glass of wine, blueberry wine is a comparable, and, in many instances, better alternative to grape wines.”
Traditional RNA isolations kits and techniques usually isolate linear RNA transcripts while discarding circular material that are thought to be unimportant. However, a new study at the Stanford School of Medicine suggests that circular RNA may play a more important role in gene expression than previously thought.
In the classical model of gene expression, the genetic script encoded in our genomes is expressed in each cell in the form of RNA molecules, each consisting of a linear string of chemical “bases”. It may be time to revise this traditional understanding of human gene expression, as new research suggests that circular RNA molecules, rather than the classical linear molecules, are a widespread feature of the gene expression program in every human cell. The results are published in the Feb. 1 issue of the online journal PLoS ONE.
While we are all familiar with the role of methyltransferase in DNA and protein modification in the nucleus, (think epigenetics with regards to DNA), this is the first time that methylation in the cytoplasm has been shown to promote protein complex formation.
The researchers first identified an enzyme which is mainly present in the cytoplasm and which methylates the amino acid lysine (Smyd2). Then they searched for interaction partners of the enzyme Smyd2
and found the heat shock protein Hsp90. The scientists went on to show that Smyd2 and methylated Hsp90 form a complex with the muscle protein titin.
According to the authors, “Titin is the largest protein in the human body and known primarily for its role as an elastic spring in muscle cells. Precisely this elastic region of titin is protected by the association with methylated Hsp90.”
In skeletal muscle cells of the zebrafish, the team explored what happens when the protection by the methylated heat shock protein is repressed. By genetic manipulation they altered the organism in such a way that it no longer produced the enzyme Smyd2, which blocked the methylation of Hsp90. Without methylated Hsp90, the elastic titin region was unstable and muscle function strongly impaired; the regular muscle structure was partially disrupted.
Click here for a link to the Genes and Development paper.
In what I feel might be the most important piece of journalism published last week, the LA Times reported that scientists have uncovered the compound that is responsible for lowering the risk of type two diabetes in coffee drinkers.
According to a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Coffee Components Inhibit Amyloid Formation of Human Islet Amyloid Polypeptide (hIAPP), a documented causative factors of type 2 diabetes.
Why you’ll never find a Muppet with type 2 diabetes:
Apparently, the editors at the Times may have been a few cups behind themselves since the original paper was published in November of last year. Nonetheless, with this kind of news, it is better to hear it late than never.
I just hope that the authors were diligent with their research methods and not dishonest like the UConn scientist who published fraudulent data bolstering the beneficial effects of resveratrol which is found in red wine and has allegedly been linked to improved cardiac health. It has taken me many difficult mornings to recover from that report and I have become quite depressed realizing that my morning after hangovers were for naught. Indeed, my only consulation has come from knowing that the coffee I have consumed to counter the negative effects of drinking too many cups or red wine, (all for their cardioprotective effects of course), wil go a long way to protecting me from acquiring type 2 diabetes.
Citation
J. Agric. Food Chem., 2011, 59 (24), pp 13147–13155, Publication Date (Web): November 7, 2011 (Article), DOI: 10.1021/jf201702h
