The damage at Claremont United Methodist Church occurred late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.
The display's three panels feature silhouettes of three couples holding hands - two men, two women and a heterosexual pair. The vandal knocked over the depictions of the gay and lesbian couples but left the straight couple.
"It's a hate crime based on it being church property as well as the wooden box knocked over that depicted two males holding hands," Claremont police Sgt. Jason Walters told the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
The display created by artist and church member John Zachary includes the phrase "Christ is born" and a Star of Bethlehem, but no traditional manger figures. For the past six years, Zachary has designed and built a scene on the church's front lawn. The scene has had controversial themes before, but this was the first that included gay couples, the Daily Bulletin said.
Zachary said the artwork suffered at least $3,000 worth of damage. The exhibit had three panels that weighed 600 pounds each.
The Rev. Dan Lewis said he was saddened by the incident.
"We have members of our church who are gay and lesbian who it sends a very personal message to," said Lewis, who learned of the vandalism on Christmas Day. "I tried to say in worship on Sunday morning that we will not let it trouble us."
Ed Kania, 60, an openly gay member of the church, called the act of vandalism disappointing, especially because Claremont is a generally seen as a progressive college town.
"It's a reminder that although there are pockets of acceptance, not everybody is accepting," he told the Los Angeles Times. "We're all ... disappointed, but we're using it as a rallying point."
(Reuters) ? Fisker Automotive, the electric carmaker backed by actor Leonardo DiCaprio, is recalling 239 Karma plug-in hybrid cars in the United States due to a possible defect in batteries flagged by A123 Systems.
A123 outlined the problem in a Dec 23 memo. In some cases, hose clamps on batteries made for the Karma were not aligned properly, which could lead to a leak of coolant fluid and possibly an electrical short circuit.
In the worst case scenario, the coolant could seep into the battery compartment and cause a fire, Fisker told U.S. safety regulators according a posting on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website on Thursday.
Fisker said fewer than 40 of these vehicles are with consumers and the rest remain in dealer inventories. The vehicles, made for the 2012 model year, were built from July to November of this year.
Scrutiny of electric vehicles has intensified recently after battery fires in some NHTSA crash tests of General Motors Co's Chevrolet Volt.
The $96,000 plug-in hybrid Karma is the first production vehicle for the fledging automaker that was founded in 2007 by Henrik Fisker, a one-time Aston Martin designer.
Fisker also received a $529 million loan from the Department of Energy to spur car development.
(Reporting by Deepa Seetharaman; Editing by Tim Dobbyn)
The X Factor may have crowned Melanie Amaro as its first champion, but that talented singer isn't the only contestant to benefit from her time on the show.
Sources confirm that Josh Krajcik, Chris Rene and Astro will all sign recording contracts with Sony Music, encouraging news for the second, third and seventh place finishers, respectively.
Krajcik, of course, quickly became a fan favorite after viewers both heard his soulful voice and learned he had been working at a fast food Mexican restaurant.
Rene, meanwhile, earned a large fan base due to his dancing and energy on stage, while Astro - real name: Brian Bradley - was the most controversial crooner on the show, a rapping savant with a cocky attitude that turned off many viewers.
Palestinian special forces watch as Greek Orthodox and Armenian clergy perform the annual cleaning of the church
Palestinian special forces watch as Greek Orthodox and Armenian clergy perform the annual cleaning of the church. An unholy row erupted between Greek Orthodox and Armenian clergy on Wednesday over the cleaning of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, an AFP correspondent said.
Source: AFP - Copyright AFP 2008, AFP stories and photos shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium
FILE - In this file Feb. 11, 2009 file photo, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sources say Nelson will retire. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - In this file Feb. 11, 2009 file photo, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sources say Nelson will retire. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)
FILE - In this April 26, 2010 file photo, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. leaves the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sources say Nelson will retire. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) ? Democrats on Tuesday lamented Sen. Ben Nelson's decision to retire rather than seek a third term in Nebraska, fearing the move sets up Republicans for an easy and crucial victory in their effort to reclaim control of the chamber next year.
Nelson, the lone Democrat in Nebraska's five-member congressional delegation, faced a tough re-election campaign against a large group of Republican challengers who have spent the past several months attacking his support for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and federal stimulus legislation.
Republicans must net four seats to take back the Senate in 2012, and Nebraska looks to be an easy pickup. There are no Democrats in line to take Nelson's place in the increasingly conservative state. He joins several other Democrats to retire from the Senate, including Virginia's Jim Webb and North Dakota's Kent Conrad.
After months of speculation that he would leave office, the 70-year-old conservative Democrat told supporters in an emailed statement he felt it was time he "step away from elective office, spend more time with my family, and look for new ways to serve our state and nation."
"Therefore, I am announcing today that I will not seek re-election," said Nelson, a former two-term governor. "Simply put: It is time to move on."
Democrats banking on Nelson's ability to leverage his centrist stances and capture statewide races were left scrambling; many state activists acknowledged being taken by surprise.
While some floated the names of state Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha and Nelson's former lieutenant governor, Kim Robak, as possible contenders, many said it was too early to know who might run. Messages seeking comment were left for Lathrop and Robak.
A dream candidate for Democrats: former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey. Traveling in India on Tuesday, Kerrey told The Washington Post, "Ben's retirement is a huge loss for Nebraska. I am very sad he's leaving. That is as far as I am going (right now)."
Democrats acknowledged the party will face a steep uphill battle to hold on to Nelson's seat, but pointed to a crowded GOP primary field with no obvious front-runner. The ticket includes Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, state Treasurer Don Stenberg, state Sen. Deb Fischer, and investment adviser Pat Flynn.
"This virtually guarantees a Republican victory in 2012," said University of Nebraska Lincoln political scientist Mike Wagner. "There's almost no scenario in which a Democrat can win ? especially at this late stage."
National Republican party leaders also have encouraged Gov. Dave Heineman to join the race, but Heineman has said it would take a lot to persuade him to run.
The Senate's Democratic campaign chairman, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, said she expected that Republicans would "have their hands full with a very divisive primary in the state, which will provide an opportunity for Democrats to remain competitive."
State Sen. Heath Mello, an Omaha Democrat who worked as an aide to Nelson, said he feared Nelson's retirement would inject more partisan politics into an already heated race.
"That is not the way Nebraskans have chosen their senators in the past," Mello said. "We've always elected independent-minded people to represent Nebraska's interests, ahead of the political parties."
A two-term governor before winning a Senate seat, Nelson has recently expressed dismay about a divided Congress' inability to pass meaningful legislation, frustration that echoed in his statement Tuesday.
"I encourage those who will follow in my footsteps to look for common ground and to work together in bipartisan ways to do what's best for the country, not just one political party," he said.
Even as Nelson wavered about a re-election bid, he piled up campaign cash, hired a campaign manager and watched his party spend more than $1 million on ads supporting him. The preparation left him with more than $3 million campaign cash on hand last month, about twice his nearest competitor.
The Democrats' Majority PAC alone spent more than $406,000 on media buys and production costs for Nelson's expected re-election campaign in seven separate expenditures between Sept. 9 and Dec. 9.
"I'm absolutely stunned," Kathleen Fahey, a Democratic super-delegate in 2008, said of Nelson's announcement. "Ben has been such a great senator for everybody. I'm not liking this."
Nelson first was elected to the Senate in 2000, defeating Republican contender Stenberg to replace the retired Kerrey, and positioned himself as a centrist supporting both Democratic and Republican legislation.
He was one of only two Senate Democrats to support a failed GOP bid to block new federal controls on power plant pollution that blows downwind into other states earlier this year, and he took great pride in his membership in the 2005 "Gang of 14," made up of Republicans and Democrats who brokered a deal to avoid a filibuster showdown over President George W. Bush's judicial nominees.
However, Nelson's vote in favor of Obama's signature health reform measure left the GOP confident they could beat him next year. The health reforms are strongly opposed by many Nebraska conservatives, and after the vote Nebraska Republicans immediately kicked off a "Give Ben the Boot" campaign.
Nelson also was one of five Democratic senators targeted by a national conservative group with ties to GOP strategist Karl Rove. The group, Crossroads GPS, spent $1.6 million on ads attacking Nelson as well as Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida, Clair McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio ? all considered top targets by national Republicans in 2012.
"For once Senator Nelson has listened to Nebraskans," Nebraska Republican Party Chairman Mark Fahleson said Tuesday. "The Nebraska Republican Party is more focused than ever on electing another conservative Republican to join Sen. Mike Johanns and recapturing the U.S. Senate so that we can reverse the damage done by Ben Nelson, Washington Democrats and the Obama Administration."
Nelson upset incumbent Nebraska Gov. Kay Orr in 1990 to earn his first statewide office and was re-elected in 1994 by a landslide. In 1996, he reneged on a campaign pledge that he would not seek higher office while governor and announced his candidacy for the Senate seat vacated by the retiring Sen. Jim Exon.
Omaha millionaire businessman Chuck Hagel soundly defeated Nelson in that Senate race, but the two later served as colleagues when Nelson was elected in 2000.
Bruning on Tuesday wished Nelson well and praised him as "a dedicated public servant of the state of Nebraska for over two decades," while Fischer expressed confidence the GOP would now claim the seat.
"I think we have a strong group of Republicans, and I happen to believe the seat will go to a Republican," she said.
Stenberg thanked Nelson for his service, but said Nebraskans need "a genuine, lifelong conservative who is committed to serving his country ? not to personal financial gain."
___
Associated Press writer Larry Margasak in Washington contributed to this report.
LOS ANGELES ? The Los Angeles coroner's office says Jamaican-born rapper Heavy D died of natural causes.
The self-proclaimed "overweight lover" of hip hop, who became one of rap's top hit makers with a combination of humor and positivity, collapsed outside his Beverly Hills home on Nov. 8. The 44 year-old rapper, whose real name was Dwight Errington, died later at a hospital.
Coroner's office spokesman Craig Harvey said Tuesday that weight and a transcontinental jet flight were contributing factors.
The cause of death was pulmonary embolism and deep leg vein thrombosis. He also had arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Heavy D became one of the genre's most integral stars in the late 1980s and early 1990s. His hit "The Overweight Lover's in the House" played up his hefty frame.
SkySafari from Southern Stars is an app for the astronomy enthusiast with an iPhone. It's the perfect companion for a new telescope owner, who can use the app to help locate celestial bodies in the sky, or the casual observer who wants to know the name of that bright star cluster overhead. It's also useful for the seasoned astronomer who wants a pocket reference that's chock full of information.
The basic app (US$2.99) displays over 120,000 stars and has images of all the major planets and their moons. It also includes information on well-known asteroids and comets. SkySafari lets you look up details on each heavenly object including its catalog number and its coordinates in the sky. The app also explains the history and mythology behind each celestial object, so you can learn about the object as well as find it in the sky.
If you have an iOS device with a compass or gyroscope, you can point the app at the sky and use an augmented reality view to locate stars and planets. It even includes a night mode which preserves your dark-adjusted vision when you're out stargazing at night.
One of the best features is "Tonight's Best," which lists the best celestial objects to observe that night. The app generates this list based on your location and the local date and time. The app also has SkyWeek, a list of notable astronomical events pulled from Sky and Telescope Magazine's popular weekly column. Both Tonight's Best and SkyWeek are fantastic places to start if you're new to astronomy and don't want to miss an important event.
SkySafari is also available in a Plus ($14.99) and Pro ($59.99) version which includes information on millions of stars, deep sky objects and every comet or asteroid ever observed. If you have a motorized GoTo mount, the Plus and Pro versions also let you control your telescope using the iPhone app.
SkySafari is similar to Star Walk, another iPad and iPhone-based astronomy app. Both apps give you an augmented reality view of the sky and have information on the objects that you see. SkySafari, though, has additional features like SkyWeek that'll appeal more to the serious hobbyist than the casual observer. The depth of the information available and the option to control your telescope make SkySafari one of the leading astronomical apps available for iOS.
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - The yuan closed up against the dollar on Monday after hitting an all-time high in intraday trading, guided by a stronger mid-point by the People's Bank of China, and looks set for an over-4-percent appreciation for 2011, traders said.
The yuan is expected to remain stable or rise slightly in the last week of the year to close 2011 near 6.30 versus the dollar, in line with market expectations.
The currency is likely to continue to appreciate next year as China continues to post big trade surpluses despite a slowdown in exports and amid pressure from the United States to let the yuan rise to balance bilateral trade, traders said.
But the yuan's appreciation is likely to slow to around 3 percent in 2012, with much of the rise seen in the second half of next year as China may keep the yuan relatively stable in the first half to assess the impact of the euro zone crisis, they said.
"The PBOC has recently set a slew of strong mid-points and pumped dollars into the market via state banks, giving the market a clear signal that the government won't let the yuan depreciate," said a trader at a major Chinese bank in Shanghai.
"But the central bank appears not in a hurry to let the yuan appreciate amid global economic uncertainties resulting from the euro zone debt crisis. So the yuan is likely to move largely sideways in coming months."
Spot yuan closed at 6.3198 against the dollar, up from Friday's close of 6.3364, after hitting an all-time high of 6.3160. Its previous peak was 6.3294 hit on December 16.
The PBOC set the dollar/yuan mid-point at 6.3167 on Monday, stronger than Friday's 6.3209 and near the record-high fixing of 6.3165 on November 4.
FIGHTING SPECULATORS
The yuan has appreciated 4.27 percent so far this year, with most of the gain being recorded in the first 10 months of the year as China tries to rebalance trade and use the currency to help fight high inflation.
While the government has recently halted yuan appreciation amid slowing exports, it also seems to be wary of a weaker yuan that may lead to capital outflows.
Some overseas investors appear to have been shorting the yuan in recent months amid signs that China's growth is slowing under the double weight of a global slowdown and the country's monetary tightening policy in place since October last year.
The PBOC, in addition to using strong mid-points to signal government intentions to keep the yuan stable, has also acted to inject dollars into the market via state-owned banks whenever there are signs that the yuan is set to weaken sharply.
The yuan has thus been effectively kept in a range of 6.3 to 6.4 against the dollar since early November -- a trend traders say they believe to continue well into 2012.
In contrast, offshore benchmark one-year non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) have largely been forecasting a yuan depreciation in a year's time since late September, reversing a general trend of predicting an appreciation since the yuan's revaluation in July 2005.
One-year NDFs fell slightly to 6.3790 on Monday against 6.3810 at the close on Friday, implying that the yuan will depreciate 0.97 percent in 12 months from Modnay's PBOC mid-point, compared with a 1.01 percent fall implied on Friday.
MDC researchers: Ion channel makes African naked mole-rat insensitive to acid-induced pain Public release date: 20-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: bachtler@mdc-berlin.de bachtler@mdc-berlin.de 49-309-406-3896 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
British researchers of the Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have found out why the African naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), one of the world's most unusual mammals, feels no pain when exposed to acid. African naked mole-rats live densely packed in narrow dark burrows where ambient carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are very high. In body tissues, CO2 is converted into acid, which continuously activates pain sensors. However, naked mole-rats are an exception: they have an altered ion channel in their pain receptors that is inactivated by acid and makes the animals insensitive to this type of pain. Dr. Ewan St. John Smith and Professor Gary Lewin conclude that this pain insensitivity is due to the African mole-rats' adaptation to their extreme habitat over the course of evolution (Science , Vol. 334, Dec.16, 2011, 1557-1560)*.
The Nav1.7 sodium ion channel plays a key role in the transmission of painful stimuli to the brain. It triggers a nerve impulse (action potential) in the pain receptors sensory nerve cells, the endings of which are found in the skin and which transmit pain signals to the brain. Dentists already use sodium ion channel blockers in the form of local anesthetics, but these target all sodium ion channels they come into contact with, not just the Nav1.7 ion channel. People with defective Nav1.7 ion channels due to a genetic mutation feel no pain, but for them, pain insensitivity is not at all an advantage: minor injuries or infections can go unnoticed, often with serious consequences.
However, this is different for the African naked mole-rat. For these animals, pain insensitivity to acid is evidently a survival advantage. The air in the burrows has such high CO2 levels that humans or other mammals could hardly survive in such an environment. Normally, high CO2 levels and acid cause painful burns and trigger inflammation in all mammals, including humans. Thus, the tissue of patients with inflammatory joint diseases such as rheumatism contains high concentrations of acid. These high acid levels in the tissue activate the pain sensors.
Naked mole-rats also have pain sensors. In a previous study, the research group of Professor Lewin already showed that naked mole-rats are just as sensitive to heat and pressure as mice are. In contrast, they do not feel any pain when they are exposed to acid. Moreover, as Dr. St. John Smith and Professor Lewin report in the American journal Science, naked mole-rats also have the Nav1.7 ion channel like other mammals, including mice and humans. The researchers therefore investigated the function of this ion channel in naked mole-rat and in mouse sensory nerves to determine whether there is a difference between the two species in the function of this ion channel.
In the present study the researchers showed that the NaV1.7 ion channel of the naked mole-rat does in fact differ in structure from that of the mouse or of humans. Ion channels are proteins composed of amino acids, the blueprint of which is coded by the genes. In the NaV1.7 ion channel of the naked mole-rat, three amino acid building blocks are different from those in all other mammals. These three altered protein subunits lead to profound impairment or blockage of the naked mole-rat ion channel by acid. This phenomenon can also be observed in the Nav1.7 ion channel of mice and humans, but it is so weak that the transmission of pain signals is hardly disturbed.
In the naked mole-rat, however, this mutated ion channel is sufficient to inhibit signal transduction. The reason for the mutation in the ion channel, according to the researchers, is that naked mole-rats have adapted over the course of evolution to the high CO2 levels in the air and thus have become insensitive to pain induced by acid. This is also the case when in the nerve cells of the naked mole-rats other ion channels are activated by acid stimuli that would normally activate pain receptors.
Cave-roosting microbats and tree-roosting megabats
In a number of mammals the structure of the gene for the Nav1.7 ion channel has been decoded. These include the cave-roosting microbat (Myotis lucifigus), a bat that lives in a similar habitat and exhibits a similar gene variant. In contrast, another species, the tree-roosting megabat (Pteropus vampyrus), also lives in large colonies like the mole-rat and the cave-roosting microbat, but it is not under any CO2 pressure. According to the researchers, this suggests that under similar environmental conditions in the course of evolution, unrelated species develop similar traits. For the African naked mole-rat, and perhaps for the cave-roosting microbat, this means that CO2 and acid cannot induce pain.
Significance for patients with inflammatory diseases?
What do the findings of the MDC researchers mean for patients with inflammatory diseases, in whom this ion channel is continuously activated? According to Professor Lewin, the pharmaceutical industry is already working to develop small molecules that will block this ion channel. The findings from the laboratory of Professor Lewin that three altered protein subunits inhibit the signal transduction of Nav1.7 may aid the development of small molecules that specifically block this mutated ion channel.
###
*The molecular basis of acid insensitivity in the African naked mole-rat.
Ewan St. John Smith. Damir Omerbai?, Stefan G. Lechner, Gireesh Anirudhan, Liudmila Lapatsina, and Gary R. Lewin
Dept. of Neuroscience, Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Rssle-Str. 10, 13125 Berlin-Buch, Germany
Photos of the African naked mole-rat can be downloaded from the Internet at:
http://www.mdc-berlin.de/de/index.html
Barbara Bachtler
Press Department
Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch
in the Helmholtz Association
Robert-Rssle-Strae 10
13125 Berlin
Phone: 49-30-94-06-38-96
Fax: 49-30-94-06-38-33
e-mail: presse@mdc-berlin.de
http://www.mdc-berlin.de/
Further information:
http://www.mdc-berlin.de/en/news/archive/2008/20080129-living_without_pain___the_african_naked_mo/index.html
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
MDC researchers: Ion channel makes African naked mole-rat insensitive to acid-induced pain Public release date: 20-Dec-2011 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: bachtler@mdc-berlin.de bachtler@mdc-berlin.de 49-309-406-3896 Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres
British researchers of the Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch have found out why the African naked mole-rat (Heterocephalus glaber), one of the world's most unusual mammals, feels no pain when exposed to acid. African naked mole-rats live densely packed in narrow dark burrows where ambient carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are very high. In body tissues, CO2 is converted into acid, which continuously activates pain sensors. However, naked mole-rats are an exception: they have an altered ion channel in their pain receptors that is inactivated by acid and makes the animals insensitive to this type of pain. Dr. Ewan St. John Smith and Professor Gary Lewin conclude that this pain insensitivity is due to the African mole-rats' adaptation to their extreme habitat over the course of evolution (Science , Vol. 334, Dec.16, 2011, 1557-1560)*.
The Nav1.7 sodium ion channel plays a key role in the transmission of painful stimuli to the brain. It triggers a nerve impulse (action potential) in the pain receptors sensory nerve cells, the endings of which are found in the skin and which transmit pain signals to the brain. Dentists already use sodium ion channel blockers in the form of local anesthetics, but these target all sodium ion channels they come into contact with, not just the Nav1.7 ion channel. People with defective Nav1.7 ion channels due to a genetic mutation feel no pain, but for them, pain insensitivity is not at all an advantage: minor injuries or infections can go unnoticed, often with serious consequences.
However, this is different for the African naked mole-rat. For these animals, pain insensitivity to acid is evidently a survival advantage. The air in the burrows has such high CO2 levels that humans or other mammals could hardly survive in such an environment. Normally, high CO2 levels and acid cause painful burns and trigger inflammation in all mammals, including humans. Thus, the tissue of patients with inflammatory joint diseases such as rheumatism contains high concentrations of acid. These high acid levels in the tissue activate the pain sensors.
Naked mole-rats also have pain sensors. In a previous study, the research group of Professor Lewin already showed that naked mole-rats are just as sensitive to heat and pressure as mice are. In contrast, they do not feel any pain when they are exposed to acid. Moreover, as Dr. St. John Smith and Professor Lewin report in the American journal Science, naked mole-rats also have the Nav1.7 ion channel like other mammals, including mice and humans. The researchers therefore investigated the function of this ion channel in naked mole-rat and in mouse sensory nerves to determine whether there is a difference between the two species in the function of this ion channel.
In the present study the researchers showed that the NaV1.7 ion channel of the naked mole-rat does in fact differ in structure from that of the mouse or of humans. Ion channels are proteins composed of amino acids, the blueprint of which is coded by the genes. In the NaV1.7 ion channel of the naked mole-rat, three amino acid building blocks are different from those in all other mammals. These three altered protein subunits lead to profound impairment or blockage of the naked mole-rat ion channel by acid. This phenomenon can also be observed in the Nav1.7 ion channel of mice and humans, but it is so weak that the transmission of pain signals is hardly disturbed.
In the naked mole-rat, however, this mutated ion channel is sufficient to inhibit signal transduction. The reason for the mutation in the ion channel, according to the researchers, is that naked mole-rats have adapted over the course of evolution to the high CO2 levels in the air and thus have become insensitive to pain induced by acid. This is also the case when in the nerve cells of the naked mole-rats other ion channels are activated by acid stimuli that would normally activate pain receptors.
Cave-roosting microbats and tree-roosting megabats
In a number of mammals the structure of the gene for the Nav1.7 ion channel has been decoded. These include the cave-roosting microbat (Myotis lucifigus), a bat that lives in a similar habitat and exhibits a similar gene variant. In contrast, another species, the tree-roosting megabat (Pteropus vampyrus), also lives in large colonies like the mole-rat and the cave-roosting microbat, but it is not under any CO2 pressure. According to the researchers, this suggests that under similar environmental conditions in the course of evolution, unrelated species develop similar traits. For the African naked mole-rat, and perhaps for the cave-roosting microbat, this means that CO2 and acid cannot induce pain.
Significance for patients with inflammatory diseases?
What do the findings of the MDC researchers mean for patients with inflammatory diseases, in whom this ion channel is continuously activated? According to Professor Lewin, the pharmaceutical industry is already working to develop small molecules that will block this ion channel. The findings from the laboratory of Professor Lewin that three altered protein subunits inhibit the signal transduction of Nav1.7 may aid the development of small molecules that specifically block this mutated ion channel.
###
*The molecular basis of acid insensitivity in the African naked mole-rat.
Ewan St. John Smith. Damir Omerbai?, Stefan G. Lechner, Gireesh Anirudhan, Liudmila Lapatsina, and Gary R. Lewin
Dept. of Neuroscience, Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine, Robert-Rssle-Str. 10, 13125 Berlin-Buch, Germany
Photos of the African naked mole-rat can be downloaded from the Internet at:
http://www.mdc-berlin.de/de/index.html
Barbara Bachtler
Press Department
Max Delbrck Center for Molecular Medicine (MDC) Berlin-Buch
in the Helmholtz Association
Robert-Rssle-Strae 10
13125 Berlin
Phone: 49-30-94-06-38-96
Fax: 49-30-94-06-38-33
e-mail: presse@mdc-berlin.de
http://www.mdc-berlin.de/
Further information:
http://www.mdc-berlin.de/en/news/archive/2008/20080129-living_without_pain___the_african_naked_mo/index.html
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
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.
We are the median: The high cost of rent and utilities forced this New York woman, 55, to move out of the apartment, put her things in storage and stay with a friend until she can find a more affordable place to live.
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Public release date: 20-Dec-2011
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