POT COULD LEAD TO NEW ANXIETY DRUGS
The next line of anxiety and depression drugs could come from man-made chemicals that are distant relatives of marijuana, say University of California-Irvine researchers. Anxiety is controlled by the body's anandamide system, a network of natural compounds that help govern pain, mood and other psychological functions. The researchers say marijuana relieves anxiety via that same route but lab rats given the new compounds did not suffer the side effects produced by THC, marijuana's active ingredient. Professor Daniele Piomelli says, "THC reduces anxiety by binding directly to receptors in the brain and resulting in its familiar 'high' sensation. This reaction is too strong, creating marijuana's side effects." Two man-made chemicals, URB532 and URB597, however, inhibit the enzyme that breaks apart natural anandamide, leaving more of the neurotransmitter to help reduce anxiety and depression, similar to Prozac's action on serotonin. This allows the new compounds to keep brain anandamide levels high for many hours after a single dose without producing side effects.
PHOTO CAPTURES BLAZING FIREBALL
University of Alberta researchers have photographed a blazing fireball that could yield clues to finding a rare meteorite. "If we could find the remains of the meteorite, it would be quite significant, not simply because it's another meteorite but because we would have the potential for determining its trajectory before it struck Earth," Professor Doug Hube says. "We might be able to learn where in the solar system it came from." The camera the researchers use is on the rooftop observatory of the school's physics building and it captured the image moving from the southwest horizon to the northwest for about seven seconds early in the morning last week. Hube and colleagues are analyzing the tape and using eyewitness reports to do a geometric triangulation, which will determine a more specific area to find the meteorite. Scientists have only been able to pinpoint the origins of a meteorite six times.
CHEWING UP PAIN SIGNALS
The Scripps Research Institute reports it has worked out the structure of an enzyme that modulates central nervous system functions such as pain perception, cognition, feeding, sleep and locomotor activity. The enzyme fatty acid amide hydrolase breaks down certain fatty signaling molecules in the lipid membranes of nervous system cells. The enzyme changes the action of these fatty signaling molecules by scooping them out of the cell membranes and chewing them up. "I envision that if someone could make a specific inhibitor to FAAH, you could, in principal, get pain relief without any of the side effects," says Benjamin Cravatt, one of the paper's lead authors.
SORTING THE UNSEEN -- NANOTUBES
Scientists already know carbon nanotubes are fluorescent but chemists at Rice University have taken the process a step farther, identifying the optical signatures of 33 "species" of nanotubes to create a simpler and faster way to categorize them. The research team detailed the wavelengths of light absorbed and emitted by each type of light-emitting nanotube. Normally it takes hours of tedious testing to assay a single sample of nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes are cylinders of carbon atoms about 1-billionth of a meter in diameter. The ability to sort nanotubes is crucial if they are to be used commercially. Nanotubes aren't identical. There are three families of carbon nanotubes, and cousins and siblings in these families have slightly different diameters and physical structures. These almost imperceptible variations give rise to drastically different properties: about one-third of nanotubes are metals for example, and the others are semiconductors.
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(EDITORS: For more information about ANXIETY, contact Andrew Porterfield at 949-824-3969 or e-mail [email protected]. For METEORITE, Phoebe Dey, 780-492-0437 or [email protected], for ENZYME, Jason Bardi, 858-784-9254 or [email protected], and for NANOTUBES, Jade Boyd, 713-348-6778 or [email protected])
