Non-peptide arginine-vasopressin antagonists: the vaptans

kavin submitted, created time 7 months 3 weeks (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov)

Arginine-vasopressin is a hormone that plays an important part in circulatory and water homoeostasis. These drugs are all effective in the treatment of euvolaemic and hypervolaemic hyponatraemia. Conivaptan is a V1a/V2 non-selective vasopressin-receptor antagonist that has been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration as an intravenous infusion for the inhospital treatment of euvolemic or hypervolemic hyponatremia.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: hypervolemic sodium hyponatremia conivaptan homeostasis vaptansl arginine vasopressin

Polyamines Improve K+/Na+ Homeostasis in Barley Seedlings by Regulating Root Ion Channel Activities

yangjane submitted, created time 1 year 2 months (www.plantphysiol.org)

Polyamines are known to increase in plant cells in response to a variety of stress conditions. However, the physiological roles of elevated polyamines are not understood well. Here we investigated the effects of polyamines on ion channel activities by applying patch-clamp techniques to protoplasts derived from barley (Hordeum vulgare) seedling root cells. Extracellular application of polyamines significantly blocked the inward Na+ and K+ currents (especially Na+ currents) in root epidermal and cortical cells

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: homeostasis agriculture sodium potassium Polyamines

Sodium and Potassium in the Pathogenesis of Hypertension

channel submitted, created time 1 year 7 months (content.nejm.org)

Hypertension affects approximately 25% of the adult population worldwide, and its prevalence is predicted to increase by 60% by 2025, when a total of 1.56 billion people may be affected. It is the major risk factor for cardiovascular disease and is responsible for most deaths worldwide. Primary hypertension, also known as essential or idiopathic hypertension, accounts for as many as 95% of all cases of hypertension.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: Sodium Potassium hypertension

CYP3A5 and ABCB1 Genes Influence Blood Pressure and Response to Treatment, and Their Effect Is Modified by Salt

julie submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (hyper.ahajournals.org)

"The permeability–glycoprotein efflux-transporter encoded by the multidrug resistance 1 (ABCB1) gene and the cytochromes P450 3A4/5 encoded by the CYP3A4/5 genes are known to interact in the transport and metabolism of many drugs. Recent data have shown that the CYP3A5 genotypes influence blood pressure and that permeability–glycoprotein activity might influence the activity of the renin–angiotensin system."

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: blood pressure genes sodium renin–angiotensin system P glycoprotein

Early Aldosterone-Induced Gene Product Regulates the Epithelial Sodium Channel by Deubiquitylation

badboy submitted, created time 1 year 8 months (jasn.asnjournals.org)

"The mineralocorticoid hormone aldosterone controls sodium reabsorption and BP largely by regulating the cell-surface expression and function of the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) in target kidney tubules. Part of the stimulatory effect of aldosterone on ENaC is mediated by the induction of serum- and glucocorticoid-regulated kinase 1 (Sgk1), a kinase that interferes with the ubiquitylation of ENaC by ubiquitin-protein ligase Nedd4-2."

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: mineralocorticoid hormone aldosterone kidney sodium

Turning light into matter

Goose submitted, created time 1 year 11 months (www.nature.com)

It sounds like a conjuring trick. You shine a light into a gas, and the light gets swallowed. Then you pump the gas into another container, say the magic words, and the light comes out again.

But this trick, demonstrated by physicist Lene Vestergaard Hau and her co-workers at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, doesn't use magic. Instead, the researchers have harnessed the strangeness of quantum mechanics to conduct their vanishing act

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: gas quantum mechanics physic Mexican wave sodium

Salt will help you to start at birth

angelfish submitted, created time 1 year 11 months (www.abc.net.au)

In tests where the children could choose from salty or sweet snacks, those born with low sodium levels reached for a salty snack more often.
Some people with a penchant for salty snacks may have been born with it, a new study suggests.
The study also found that children with the most severe sodium deficiency at birth weighed 30% more, on average, than their peers born with the highest sodium levels.

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: Salt Snacks sodium health

Taste for salt can begin at birth

eudemon submitted, created time 1 year 11 months (www.sciam.com)

Some people with a penchant for salty snacks may have been born with it, a new study suggests. In a study of 41 children and teenagers who'd been born prematurely, researchers found that those who'd had low sodium levels in their blood at birth had a particular fondness for salty food.

Where the children could choose from salty or sweet snacks, those born with low sodium levels reached for a salty snack more often. They also consumed substantially more sodium each day, based on interviews with children and their parents

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: salty snack sodium babies