Adrenergic-Thyroid Hormone Interactions Drive Postnatal Thermogenesis and Loss of Mammalian Heart Regenerative Capacity Why can't adult human hearts regenerate after injury like a heart attack? The Huang lab recently presented findings in Circulation to support that loss of cardiac regenerative capacity may be a tradeoff for us to… Continue Reading
Poison Frogs, Birds, Hold Clues to Antidotes for Deadly Toxins A team of researchers at UC San Francisco, the California Academy of Sciences and Stanford University have uncovered some intriguing clues in the mystery of how some poison birds and frogs evade their own toxins.… Continue Reading
Binding of SARS-CoV-2 spike protein to ACE2 is disabled by thiol-based drugs; evidence from in vitro SARS-CoV-2 infection studies Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), and the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein is an envelope glycoprotein that binds angiotensin converting enzyme 2 as an entry receptor. Read… Continue Reading
Cytoprotection by a naturally occurring variant of ATP5G1 in Arctic ground squirrel neural progenitor cell photo credit to: https://innovativegenomics.org/ news/dengke-ma-extreme-hibernation In major cardiovascular diseases, including stroke and heart attack, loss of blood flow causes loss of oxygen (ischemia), leading to tissue damage and cell deaths. A species of ground squirrels… Continue Reading
The structure of a calsequestrin filament reveals mechanisms of familial arrhythmia In a clinical collaboration with Melvin Scheinman from the UCSF Comprehensive Genetic Arrythmia Program, CVRI investigators Rahul Deo and Natalia Jura, along with MD/PhD trainee Erron Titus, set out to explain how mutations in the calcium-storage protein,… Continue Reading
A digital biomarker of diabetes from smartphone-based vascular signals The global burden of diabetes is rapidly increasing, from 451 million people in 2019 to 693 million by 20451. The insidious onset of type 2 diabetes delays diagnosis and increases morbidity2. Given the multifactorial vascular… Continue Reading
Golgi localized β1-adrenergic receptors stimulate Golgi PI4P hydrolysis by PLCε to regulate cardiac hypertrophy Beta blockers are among the most widely used drugs for treating heart failure. It has long been thought that these drugs act on proteins, known as adrenergic receptors, that solely reside on cell surfaces. A… Continue Reading
Paralytic Shellfish Poisoning Meets Its Match As climate change brings more red tides, a protein from the American bullfrog might provide protection from paralytic shellfish poisoning. Article Continue Reading
A Bullfrog’s Powerful Defense Against Toxic Red Tides As climate change raises ocean temperatures, fisheries and public health agencies closely monitor the waters for harmful algal blooms known as red tides. The algae in these blooms produce a neurotoxin that accumulates in… Continue Reading
Evidence for hormonal control of heart regenerative capacity during endothermy acquisition Why can’t we regenerate the heart? A recent study by the Huang laboratory at UCSF explored the heart of echidnas, platypus, anteaters, armadillos, whales and bats, and identified a key hormone that made our ancestors warm-blooded… Continue Reading