platypus friday

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Researchers Masaki Kita and Daisuke Uemura have isolated the peptides in platypus venom that induces pain in humans. The peptides induce calcium ions to rush into cells, and as we all know, calcium ions bring the pain (or perhaps more accurately, lead to long-term potentiation (LTP), which is basically…. pain).

In what was news to me, I guess it’s common when testing human cells to use cells from a specific line. In this case, IMR-32, which are neuroblastoma (aka cancer) cells from a 13 month old baby.

Kita, Uemura, et al’s paper: Duck-Billed Platypus Venom Peptides Induce Ca2+ Influx in Neuroblastoma Cells

I know, it’s Saturday. But that’s just typical procrastination on my part.

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2 Comments

  1. Becca Sheade — January 20, 2010 #

    Why don’t you start a platypussary, where you can care and nurture cancer ridden water mammals back to health.

  2. alex chiang: web 6.0 » me vs. the nyt, platypus style — July 23, 2010 #

    [...] NYT reported on the platypus venom story I wrote about last [...]

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