RESEARCHERS DEVELOP SARS PROTEIN MODEL
Professors William Gallaher at Louisiana State University and Robert Garry at Tulane have developed a model of a critical surface protein of the virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome. It could pave the way for new antiviral drugs to treat SARS. The model will be posted at virology.net so all scientists working on SARS have access to it. The protein on the surface of the virus, called the spike glycoprotein, is responsible for entry of the virus into cells. Certain regions of this protein are particularly critical to the process of fusion that melds the viral membrane to the cell membrane. Prior to the SARS outbreak, Gallaher and Garry had begun research to integrate what was known of the coronavirus spike protein into a model of its overall structure. When the genetic sequence of the SARS coronavirus was announced, they were uniquely positioned to analyze it and develop a model that covers the last 314 amino acids of the spike glycoprotein just before the protein is anchored into the viral envelope.
GEOPHYSICISTS ISSUE TURKISH AFTERSHOCK WARNING
There is a real danger of further earthquakes in the area of southern Turkey devastated by a quake Thursday, say University of Ulster geophysicists. The earthquake occurred on the East Anatolian Fault Zone, a major plate boundary between the Arabian and Anatolian tectonic plates. Professor John McCloskey says stress modeling done last year identified the city of Bingol as a particularly high earthquake hazard. "It is likely that the earthquake ruptured a segment of the East Anatolian Fault Zone which extends from just north of Bingol for about 25 kilometers (15 miles) to the southwest," he said. The researchers say another series of detailed calculations show a significantly increased seismic risk in the area as a result of the Bingol earthquake.
NEW ANALYSIS SHOWS GLOBAL WARMING
Satellite data of the lowest few miles of the atmosphere, from the late 1970s, shows a global temperature increase of about one-third degree Fahrenheit between 1979 and 1999. Researchers from the National Center for Atmospheric Research say the results contradict previous analyses that show no warming over the 20-year period. Scientists who do not agree with global warming theories point to the absence of a warming signal in earlier satellite-derived temperature analyses even though there is a distinct warming trend in average air temperature on Earth. A 2000 report from the National Research Council concludes both trends might be correct. To glean temperatures from the raw satellite data, several corrections were made to account for the effects of heating on the satellite radiation sensor -- the first time this error had been addressed -- as well as changes for the drifting orbit of each satellite. The group found a warming trend of 0.16 degrees F per decade in the layer between about 1.5 and 7.5 miles high, compared to a trend of 0.02 degrees F in a previous analysis.
PAINKILLER HELPS SKIN CANCER DRUG
Celecoxib -- Celebrex -- increases the effectiveness of a drug used to treat skin cancer, say Ohio State researchers. Experiments in mice show celecoxib together with 5-fluorouracil, or 5FU, a cream commonly used to treat nonmelanoma skin cancer, were up to 35 percent more effective in reducing the number of skin cancer tumors than using the cream alone. 5FU or Efudex has serious side effects that some patients find almost worse than the cancer itself. 5FU is good at shrinking tumors but it isn't good at preventing tumors from recurring, although researchers don't know if this is because patients stop using the cream too soon or if it doesn't kill all of the cancer cells. The researchers found celecoxib prevented or delayed the onset of skin tumors induced in mice by ultraviolet light -- and it did so better than other NSAIDs.
--
(EDITORS: For more information on SARS, contact Leslie Capo at (504) 568-4806. For TURKEY EARTHQUAKE, David Young, 44-780-891-1343 or e-mail [email protected], for GLOBAL WARMING, UCAR Communications, (303) 497-8604 or [email protected], and for SKIN CANCER, Tatiana Oberyszyn, (614) 293-9803 or [email protected].)
