Joined: 16 Mar 2004 |Posted: Thu Aug 06, 2009 11:24 am Post
subject: Nanotubes Could Aid Understanding of Retrovirus
Transmission |Recent findings by medical researchers indicate
that naturally occurring nanotubes may serve as tunnels that
protect retroviruses and bacteria in transit from diseased to
healthy cells — a fact that may explain why vaccines fare poorly
against some invaders. To better study the missions of these
intercellular nanotubes, scientists have sought the means to
form them quickly and easily in test tubes. Sandia National
Laboratories researchers have now learned serendipitously to
form nanotubes with surprising ease. “Our work is the first to
show that the formation of nanotubes is not complicated, but can
be a general effect of protein-membrane interactions alone,”
says Darryl Sasaki of Sandia's Bioscience and Energy Center .
The tunnel-like structures have been recognized only recently as
tiny but important bodily channels for the good, the bad, and
the informational. In addition to pr