Dec. 27, 2012 ? Researchers at the University of Colorado School of Medicine have figured out intimate details of how the hepatitis C virus takes over an invaded cell, a breakthrough that could point to way for new treatments for the virus.
Hep C hijacks the machinery by which a cell makes proteins and uses it instead to create proteins for the virus. Over the last two decades, researchers have figured out that Hep C uses an RNA molecule to do this. Now they're trying to fill in the details.
One key detail is reported in a paper published online Dec. 23 in Nature Structural and Molecular Biology. It's written by Jeffrey Kieft, PhD, an associate professor at the CU medical school's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Genetics and an Early Career Scientist of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and his former graduate student, Megan Filbin, PhD, a graduate of the Program in Molecular Biology.
Working with researchers from the lab of Tamir Gonen at the Janelia Farm Research Campus of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Kieft used ultra high-power electron microscopes to take images of individual RNA molecules from Hep C as they interacted with the cell's machinery. The researchers combined those images with a variety of other experiments and these clues led them to identify a new way that the virus' RNAs takes over the cell's machinery.
Specifically, the researchers focused on how a ribosome, the cell's protein-making factory, can be manipulated by the Hep C RNA to affect a part of the protein process called translocation. And they saw something else -- that even very small changes in the interactions important for that hijacking process can be blocked.
"This points the way to developing drugs to fight hepatitis C in ways that current therapies do not," Kieft says.
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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by University of Colorado Denver, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Journal Reference:
Megan E Filbin, Breanna S Vollmar, Dan Shi, Tamir Gonen, Jeffrey S Kieft. HCV IRES manipulates the ribosome to promote the switch from translation initiation to elongation. Nature Structural & Molecular Biology, 2012; DOI: 10.1038/nsmb.2465
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
Imagine your family leaving for an indefinite period of time without knowing where or why they?re going and how long they?ll be away. This is what many pets experience when their families leave. Without the ability to understand that they?ll return, pets become anxious?experiencing feelings of fear, depression and other taxing emotions. They communicate these feelings in a variety of ways, causing both their families, and themselves, a great deal of distress otherwise known as separation anxiety.
WHAT IS IT?
Separation anxiety syndrome is a distress response most common in dogs when they?re separated from the person or people they?re most attached to. Roughly 7-28 percent of domesticated dogs may experience some degree of separation anxiety, according to Leighanne Goyder, D.V.M., with Johnson Ranch Veterinary Clinic in Roseville. Dr. Goyder goes on to say that while it?s possible, it?s much less common in cats or other domesticated animals.
CAUSES
While it?s not fully understood why some dogs experience separation anxiety and others don?t, it?s important for families to know that their dogs aren?t trying to punish them for being left alone; rather, their behavior is a panic response. ?Some speculated causes include lack of appropriate pet-owner interactions, improper socialization to owner departure and absence, prolonged contact with humans without learning to be alone, traumatic episodes during owner absence, and cognitive decline,? Dr. Goyder says.
Patti Hebert, R.V.T., with MarketPlace Veterinary Hospital in El Dorado Hills, notes that, ?It is common practice to label any ?home alone? problems as separation anxiety. [Similar behaviors] may not be due to separation anxiety. These behaviors may be seen from boredom. Your pet may not be getting enough exercise, playtime, potty breaks or social contact.? It?s important to rule those possible causes out before concluding that your pet has separation anxiety.
SYMPTOMS
According to Dr. Goyder, barking, howling, destructive behavior and inappropriate elimination are the most common symptoms of separation anxiety. She adds that ?specific events may trigger anxiety in an affected dog, like getting keys, putting on shoes or jackets, or packing the car, etc.? Really, any undesired behavior, especially those harmful to the dog or the home while you?re away, may be signs of separation anxiety syndrome.
In an attempt to protect their home and belongings, families often turn to leaving their dog outside. Hebert advises against this, stating that, ?When left outside, these dogs will turn into escape artists as they tunnel under, chew through or jump over fences. In their attempt to escape, they often injure themselves.?
TREATMENT
If you suspect that your dog may have separation anxiety syndrome, see your veterinarian, who will perform necessary steps to determine the cause of your pet?s symptoms. ?Providing your vet with a complete history will help determine if the pet is suffering from a behavioral condition, such as separation anxiety syndrome,? Dr. Goyder explains. The severity of the pet?s behavior will determine the treatment, which may include:
Behavior modification techniques. Whether alone or in conjunction with other treatments, behavior modification techniques are the best method for managing separation anxiety. Dr. Goyder explains that ?independence training, counter conditioning (associating leaving with something pleasant like a good stuffed toy or treat), changing departure and return routines, and graduated planned departures and absences can all help.?
Oral medication. Some pets with separation anxiety syndrome may be prescribed oral medication to help decrease anxiety. Dr. Goyder recommends that families pair this option with behavior modification techniques for best results.
DAP plug-in diffusers and collars. DAP is a synthetic version of a pheromone of nursing dogs. It has been found to pacify puppies and can be helpful in calming dogs in fearful, stressful or anxiety-ridden situations.
WHAT WON?T HELP
The Humane Society of the United States has found the following tools in treating separation anxiety to be ineffective:
Punishment
Getting another dog
Crating
Radio/TV noise (unless used as a safety cue)
Obedience training (separation anxiety is not the result of disobedience or lack of training; therefore, it has not been found effective in treating separation anxiety.)
Living with a pet who suffers from separation anxiety syndrome can be extremely difficult, especially for the primary member of the family whom the pet is most attached to. For the well-being of the animal and his ?people? family, it?s imperative to identify the problem then work to find an effective treatment. ?
Article by Kelley Saia?? Family Health & Wellness Magazine published by?Style Media Group.
My Dog with Separation Anxiety
Living with a dog with separation anxiety is like living with Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. When I?m home, my dog Sailor is perfectly well behaved and simply the cutest thing (in my humble opinion). The minute I leave the house, however, she becomes a completely different dog. I have to ?dog proof? my house before departing, because if something?s left out (even a loaf of bread), it will be eaten or destroyed. She?ll jump on counters and on top of the refrigerator, try to get into the trash (which I?ve learned to barricade off), attempt to escape, etc. Whenever I leave, I don?t know what I?ll come home to, which often makes it difficult to enjoy my day. Once she was diagnosed with separation anxiety, I worked with her vet to find effective treatments. While her anxiety has improved with treatment, it doesn?t seem to be something that will ever be cured, but we work very hard to make the situation work because Sailor?s an important member of our family.
?Megan Hodge
Article appears in the January/February 2013 Issue of Family Health & Wellness Magazine.
Subscribe to the Family Health & Wellness?Magazine Blog!
The tastes of the reading public are turning digital.
A Pew Internet Research Center survey released Thursday found that the percentage of Americans aged 16 and older who read an e-book grew from 16 percent in 2011 to 23 percent this year. Readers of traditional books dropped from 72 percent to 67 percent. Overall, those reading books of any kind dropped from 78 percent to 75 percent, a shift Pew called statistically insignificant.
Those owning an e-book device or tablet jumped from 18 percent to 33 percent, with much of that increase coming from last year's holiday season, when millions received Kindles, Nooks and other e-readers as gifts.
Awareness that libraries offer digital texts grew from 24 percent to 31 percent.
The telephone survey of 2,252 people aged 16 and older was conducted from Oct. 15 to Nov. 10. It has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 2.3 percentage points.
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi signed into law a new constitution shaped by his Islamist allies, a bitterly contested document which he insists will help to end political turmoil and allow him to focus on fixing the economy.
Anxiety about a deepening political and economic crisis has gripped Egypt in past weeks, with many people rushing to buy dollars and withdraw their savings from banks. The government has imposed new restrictions to reduce capital flight.
The new constitution, which the liberal opposition says betrays Egypt's 2011 revolution by dangerously mixing religion and politics, has polarized the Arab world's most populous nation and prompted occasionally violent protest on the streets.
The presidency said on Wednesday that Mursi had formally approved the constitution the previous evening, shortly after results showed that Egyptians had backed it in a referendum.
The text won about 64 percent of the vote, paving the way for a new parliamentary election in about two months.
The charter states that the principles of sharia, Islamic law, are the main source of legislation and that Islamic authorities will be consulted on sharia - a source of concern to the Christian minority and others.
The referendum result marked yet another electoral victory for the Islamists since veteran autocrat Hosni Mubarak was toppled in 2011, following parliamentary elections last year and the presidential vote that brought Mursi to power this year.
Mursi's government, which has accused opponents of damaging the economy by prolonging political upheaval, now faces the tough task of building a broad consensus as it prepares to impose austerity measures.
The Egyptian pound came under renewed pressure on Wednesday as market players, worried about the economy, switched their funds into U.S. dollars and other currencies, traders said.
Keen to be seen as decisive, the government is now in talks with business figures, trade unions and other groups to highlight the need for tax increases to resolve the crisis.
Mursi has committed to such austerity measures to receive a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund.
However, Al-Mal newspaper quoted Planning Minister Ashraf al-Araby as saying the government would not implement the tax increases until it had completed the dialogue with different parts of society.
In Cairo's bustling centre, people openly expressed their frustration with economic instability as they went about their daily business.
"The country's going to the pits. Everything is a mess," Hamdy Hussein, a 61-year-old building janitor, said angrily. "It's worse than ever. Mubarak was better than now. People were living and there was security."
Ashraf Mohamed Kamal, 30, added: "The economic situation will be a mess in the next few years. It already is. People will get hungrier. People are now begging more."
TURMOIL CONTINUES
Mursi, catapulted into power by his Islamist allies this year, believes adopting the constitution quickly and holding the vote for a permanent new parliament will help to end the long period of turmoil and uncertainty that has wrecked the economy.
Mursi's government argues the constitution offers enough protection to all groups, and that many Egyptians are fed up with street protests that have prevented a return to normality and distracted the government from tackling the economy.
The charter gives Egypt's upper house of parliament, which is dominated by Islamists, full legislative powers until the vote for a new lower house is held.
While stressing the importance of political stability to heal the economy, Mursi's government has tried to play down the economic problems and appealed for unity despite the hardship.
"The government calls on the people not to worry about the country's economy," Parliamentary Affairs Minister Mohamed Mahsoub told the upper house in a speech. "We are not facing an economic problem but a political one and it is affecting the economic situation. We therefore urge all groups, opponents and brothers, to achieve wide reconciliation and consensus."
Mursi is due to address the upper house on Saturday in a speech likely to be dominated by economic policy.
Sharpening people's concerns, the authorities imposed currency controls on Tuesday to prevent capital flight. Leaving or entering Egypt with more than $10,000 in cash is now banned.
Adding to the government's long list of worries, Communications Minister Hany Mahmoud has resigned citing his "inability to adapt to the government's working culture".
The opposition has condemned the new basic law as too Islamist, saying it could allow clerics to intervene in the lawmaking process and leave minority groups without proper legal protection. It said this month's vote was marred by major violations.
Nevertheless, major opposition groups have not called for new protests, suggesting that weeks of civil unrest over the constitution may be subsiding now that it has passed.
The United States, which provides $1.3 billion a year in military aid plus other support to Egypt and sees it as a pillar of security in the Middle East, called on Egyptian politicians to bridge divisions and on all sides to reject violence.
(Additional reporting by Patrick Werr; Writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by David Stamp)
The U.S. government is considering expanding its mortgage refinancing program to include borrowers whose mortgages are not backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the discussions.
The refinancing program now being considered also seeks to include "underwater" borrowers who owe more than their homes are worth, the Journal said.
The proposal would also transfer potentially riskier loans held by private investors to the government-sponsored mortgage entities Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the paper said.
Such a move would require congressional authorization to temporarily change the charters of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, according to the Journal.
About 22 percent of all homes with a mortgage, or around 10.8 million homes, down from 12.1 million last year, were worth less than the outstanding balance at the end of June, the Journal said, citing data from CoreLogic.
Under the proposal, Fannie and Freddie would be allowed to charge higher rates to borrowers in order to compensate for the risk of guaranteeing refinanced loans that are underwater and more likely to result in default.
The U.S. Treasury declined to comment.
Combined with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which buy loans and repackage them as securities for investors, Washington's footprint in the market has grown to account for nearly nine of every 10 mortgages.
President Obama will return to Washington from Hawaii Thursday while First Lady Michelle Obama and her daughters plan to continue their vacation, adding at least $100,000 and probably more than $200,000 to taxpayer costs for the excursion.
Instead of accompanying her husband home on Air Force One, Mrs. Obama will fly on her own Air Force jet at a later date and require security and staff to remain in place in Hawaii for the length of her stay, which reportedly could extend until January 6.
The White House does not reveal the price tag for the Obamas? vacations. But an estimate can be made given several known and likely expenses.
Assuming Mrs. Obama uses the type of plane she has flown before to Hawaii, the Air Force C-40B Special Mission Aircraft, the cost of a flight from Honolulu to Washington would be about $63,000. If the C-40B must be flown out to Hawaii to retrieve Mrs. Obama, as would seem likely, the first lady?s travel costs could amount to about $126,000, assuming the jet is dispatched from Washington.
And the cost would be much higher still if a supply-carrying cargo jet comes home along with Michelle in addition to the cargo jet that accompanies Air Force One ? particularly if that jet too must be flown out to Hawaii just for Mrs. Obama.
Once you throw in the tens of thousands of dollars that must be dished out to house, pay, and support the military and Secret Service assets enlisted to protect Mrs. Obama ? as well as other support staff ? the price tag for her stay is probably in excess of $200,000, and possibly much more, depending on how long she remains on vacation.
Mrs. Obama flew to Hawaii separately from the president in 2010 and 2011, in those cases leaving early with the family while he finished work with Congress and then joined them for the remainder of the vacation.
If Obama strikes an early deal on the fiscal cliff and then returns to Hawaii to finish up his vacation, the tab for taxpayers would be extraordinary. Air Force One costs about $180,000 an hour to fly, and the roundtrip taxpayer-funded ticket for the nine-hour flight would amount to about $3.24 million.
Obama plans to fly out of Hawaii Wednesday night at about 10:00 pm local time, which would get him to the White House at around 12:30 pm ET on Thursday.
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Tagged as: michelle Obama, Obama Hawaii vacation 2012
Birdsong study pecks theory that music is uniquely humanPublic release date: 27-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Beverly Clark beverly.clark@emory.edu 404-712-8780 Emory University
A bird listening to birdsong may experience some of the same emotions as a human listening to music, suggests a new study on white-throated sparrows, published in Frontiers of Evolutionary Neuroscience.
"We found that the same neural reward system is activated in female birds in the breeding state that are listening to male birdsong, and in people listening to music that they like," says Sarah Earp, who led the research as an undergraduate at Emory University.
For male birds listening to another male's song, it was a different story: They had an amygdala response that looks similar to that of people when they hear discordant, unpleasant music.
The study, co-authored by Emory neuroscientist Donna Maney, is the first to compare neural responses of listeners in the long-standing debate over whether birdsong is music.
"Scientists since the time of Darwin have wondered whether birdsong and music may serve similar purposes, or have the same evolutionary precursors," Earp notes. "But most attempts to compare the two have focused on the qualities of the sound themselves, such as melody and rhythm."
Earp's curiosity was sparked while an honors student at Emory, majoring in both neuroscience and music. She took "The Musical Brain" course developed by Paul Lennard, director of Emory's Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology program, which brought in guest lecturers from the fields of neuroscience and music.
"During one class, the guest speaker was a composer and he said that he thought that birdsong is like music, but Dr. Lennard thought it was not," Earp recalls. "It turned into this huge debate, and each of them seemed to define music differently. I thought it was interesting that you could take one question and have two conflicting answers that are both right, in a way, depending on your perspective and how you approach the question."
As a senior last year, Earp received a grant from the Scholars Program for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research (SPINR), and a position in the lab of Maney, who uses songbirds as a model to study the neural basis of complex learned behavior.
When Earp proposed using the lab's data to investigate the birdsong-music debate, Maney thought it was a great idea. "Birdsong is a signal," Maney says. "And the definition of a signal is that it elicits a response in the receiver. Previous studies hadn't approached the question from that angle, and it's an important one."
Earp reviewed studies that mapped human neural responses to music through brain imaging.
She also analyzed data from the Maney lab on white-throated sparrows. The lab maps brain responses in the birds by measuring Egr-1, part of a major biochemical pathway activated in cells that are responding to a stimulus.
The study used Egr-1 as a marker to map and quantify neural responses in the mesolimbic reward system in male and female white-throated sparrows listening to a male bird's song. Some of the listening birds had been treated with hormones, to push them into the breeding state, while the control group had low levels of estradiol and testosterone.
During the non-breeding season, both sexes of sparrows use song to establish and maintain dominance in relationships. During the breeding season, however, a male singing to a female is almost certainly courting her, while a male singing to another male is challenging an interloper.
For the females in the breeding state every region of the mesolimbic reward pathway that has been reported to respond to music in humans, and that has a clear avian counterpart, responded to the male birdsong. Females in the non-breeding state, however, did not show a heightened response.
And the testosterone-treated males listening to another male sing showed an amygdala response, which may correlate to the amygdala response typical of humans listening to the kind of music used in the scary scenes of horror movies.
"The neural response to birdsong appears to depend on social context, which can be the case with humans as well," Earp says. "Both birdsong and music elicit responses not only in brain regions associated directly with reward, but also in interconnected regions that are thought to regulate emotion. That suggests that they both may activate evolutionarily ancient mechanisms that are necessary for reproduction and survival."
A major limitation of the study, Earp adds, is that many of the regions that respond to music in humans are cortical, and they do not have clear counterparts in birds.
"Perhaps techniques will someday be developed to image neural responses in baleen whales, whose songs are both musical and learned, and whose brain anatomy is more easily compared with humans," she says.
Earp, who played the viola in the Emory orchestra and graduated last May, is now a medical student at the Cleveland Clinic.
So what music makes her brain light up? "Stravinsky's 'Firebird' suite," Earp says.
###
Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia's largest and most comprehensive health care system.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Birdsong study pecks theory that music is uniquely humanPublic release date: 27-Dec-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Beverly Clark beverly.clark@emory.edu 404-712-8780 Emory University
A bird listening to birdsong may experience some of the same emotions as a human listening to music, suggests a new study on white-throated sparrows, published in Frontiers of Evolutionary Neuroscience.
"We found that the same neural reward system is activated in female birds in the breeding state that are listening to male birdsong, and in people listening to music that they like," says Sarah Earp, who led the research as an undergraduate at Emory University.
For male birds listening to another male's song, it was a different story: They had an amygdala response that looks similar to that of people when they hear discordant, unpleasant music.
The study, co-authored by Emory neuroscientist Donna Maney, is the first to compare neural responses of listeners in the long-standing debate over whether birdsong is music.
"Scientists since the time of Darwin have wondered whether birdsong and music may serve similar purposes, or have the same evolutionary precursors," Earp notes. "But most attempts to compare the two have focused on the qualities of the sound themselves, such as melody and rhythm."
Earp's curiosity was sparked while an honors student at Emory, majoring in both neuroscience and music. She took "The Musical Brain" course developed by Paul Lennard, director of Emory's Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology program, which brought in guest lecturers from the fields of neuroscience and music.
"During one class, the guest speaker was a composer and he said that he thought that birdsong is like music, but Dr. Lennard thought it was not," Earp recalls. "It turned into this huge debate, and each of them seemed to define music differently. I thought it was interesting that you could take one question and have two conflicting answers that are both right, in a way, depending on your perspective and how you approach the question."
As a senior last year, Earp received a grant from the Scholars Program for Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Research (SPINR), and a position in the lab of Maney, who uses songbirds as a model to study the neural basis of complex learned behavior.
When Earp proposed using the lab's data to investigate the birdsong-music debate, Maney thought it was a great idea. "Birdsong is a signal," Maney says. "And the definition of a signal is that it elicits a response in the receiver. Previous studies hadn't approached the question from that angle, and it's an important one."
Earp reviewed studies that mapped human neural responses to music through brain imaging.
She also analyzed data from the Maney lab on white-throated sparrows. The lab maps brain responses in the birds by measuring Egr-1, part of a major biochemical pathway activated in cells that are responding to a stimulus.
The study used Egr-1 as a marker to map and quantify neural responses in the mesolimbic reward system in male and female white-throated sparrows listening to a male bird's song. Some of the listening birds had been treated with hormones, to push them into the breeding state, while the control group had low levels of estradiol and testosterone.
During the non-breeding season, both sexes of sparrows use song to establish and maintain dominance in relationships. During the breeding season, however, a male singing to a female is almost certainly courting her, while a male singing to another male is challenging an interloper.
For the females in the breeding state every region of the mesolimbic reward pathway that has been reported to respond to music in humans, and that has a clear avian counterpart, responded to the male birdsong. Females in the non-breeding state, however, did not show a heightened response.
And the testosterone-treated males listening to another male sing showed an amygdala response, which may correlate to the amygdala response typical of humans listening to the kind of music used in the scary scenes of horror movies.
"The neural response to birdsong appears to depend on social context, which can be the case with humans as well," Earp says. "Both birdsong and music elicit responses not only in brain regions associated directly with reward, but also in interconnected regions that are thought to regulate emotion. That suggests that they both may activate evolutionarily ancient mechanisms that are necessary for reproduction and survival."
A major limitation of the study, Earp adds, is that many of the regions that respond to music in humans are cortical, and they do not have clear counterparts in birds.
"Perhaps techniques will someday be developed to image neural responses in baleen whales, whose songs are both musical and learned, and whose brain anatomy is more easily compared with humans," she says.
Earp, who played the viola in the Emory orchestra and graduated last May, is now a medical student at the Cleveland Clinic.
So what music makes her brain light up? "Stravinsky's 'Firebird' suite," Earp says.
###
Emory University is known for its demanding academics, outstanding undergraduate experience, highly ranked professional schools and state-of-the-art research facilities. Emory encompasses nine academic divisions as well as the Carlos Museum, The Carter Center, the Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Emory Healthcare, Georgia's largest and most comprehensive health care system.
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
My Dog with Separation Anxiety
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Public release date: 27-Dec-2012
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