Snake Venom is Key to New Heart Drugs

Research led by the Univ. of Bath has identified two possible new routes for developing novel drugs for high blood pressure and heart disease.
The research, published in the prestigious Nature journal Scientific Reports, was led by Prof. Ravi Acharya in collaboration with the Universities of Leeds and Cape Town.
The scientists created images of the 3D molecular structures of two peptides, including one from snake venom, that inhibit angiotensin-I converting enzyme (ACE), a key protein that regulates blood pressure.

Molecular structure of ACE (red) with Ang-II peptide bound (yellow) Image: Univ. of Bath
ACE inhibitors, such as the drug Captopril, are taken by millions of people in the UK to treat high blood pressure (hypertension) and heart disease. However the drugs cause side effects such as a persistent cough and angioedema (swelling of the face and throat).
In this Medical Research Council funded study, the team produced images of a snake venom peptide BPPb binding to ACE. Although this peptide has been identified previously as a possible template for drug design, it is the first time scientists have been able to see at the molecular level how the peptide binds to ACE and blocks its action.
Acharya says, “We found that the BPPb peptide binds to a major portion of the active site of the ACE molecule pushing out a zinc atom which is essential for its correct functioning. This is the first time we’ve observed zinc-independent inhibition of ACE, and so these findings highlight a very exciting opportunity to design new antihypertensive drugs based on this peptide.”
In addition, the researchers looked at the structure of angiotensin-II (Ang-II) bound to ACE. Ang-II is a hormone produced by ACE that also inhibits it, creating a feedback loop that stops levels of Ang-II getting too high.
Acharya comments, “We already knew that Ang-II blocks ACE, but not how it does this at the molecular level. This study has shown for the first time how ACE self-regulates by producing a molecule that obstructs its active site when the concentration reaches a certain level.”
The next step is to use this structural knowledge as a basis for accelerating the on-going work carried out by Acharya and his collaborators on the development of next generation ACE inhibitors that have improved efficacy and fewer side effects.
The scientists will first use computers to predict the action of different drug designs, then take the best drug candidates and test them in vitro, followed by tests in animal models for hypertension.

Researchers Pinpoint Where Julius Caesar was Stabbed

A concrete structure three meters wide and over two meters high, placed by order of Augustus (adoptive son and successor of Julius Caesar) to condemn the assassination of his father, has given key to scientists. This finding confirms that the General was stabbed right at the bottom of the Curia of Pompey while he was presiding, sitting on a chair, over a meeting of the Senate. Currently, the remains of this building are located in the archaeological area of Torre Argentina, right in the historic center of the Roman capital.

This is the monumental complex in Torre Argentina (Rome), where Julius Caesar was stabbed.

 

Antonio Monterroso, Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) researcher from the Institute of History of the Center for Humanities and Social Sciences (CCHS-CSIC), states, "We always knew that Julius Caesar was killed in the Curia of Pompey on March 15th 44 BC because the classical texts pass on so, but so far no material evidence of this fact, so often depicted in historicist painting and cinema, had been recovered."
Classical sources refer to the closure (years after the murder) of the Curia, a place that would become a chapel-memory. The CSIC researcher explains, "We know for sure that the place where Julius Caesar presided over that session of the Senate, and where he fell stabbed, was closed with a rectangular structure organized under four walls delimiting a Roman concrete filling. However, we don't know if this closure also involved that the building ceased to be totally accessible."
Spaces of the assassination of Caesar
In Torre Argentina, in addition to the Curia of Pompey, researchers have started to study the remains of the Portico of the Hundred Columns (Hecatostylon). The aim is to identify what connecting links can be established between archaeology, art history and cinema in these spaces of the death of Julius Caesar. Monterroso adds, "We also aim to better understand that sense of closure and dismal place described in classical texts."
The two buildings are part of the monumental complex (about 54.000 square meters) that Pompey the Great, one of the greatest military leaders in the history of Rome, built in the capital to commemorate his military successes in the East around the year 55 BC.
Monterroso also states, "It is very attractive, in a civic and citizen sense, that thousands of people today take the bus and the tram right next to the place where Julius Caesar was stabbed 2056 years ago or even that they go to a theater, since the main theater of the capital is the Teatro Argentina, which is equally close."

Researchers Take Einstein’s Theory Beyond Light Speed

Univ. of Adelaide applied mathematicians have extended Einstein's theory of special relativity to work beyond the speed of light.

Einstein's theory holds that nothing could move faster than the speed of light, but Prof. Jim Hill and Barry Cox in the university's School of Mathematical Sciences have developed new formulas that allow for travel beyond this limit.
Einstein's theory of special relativity was published in 1905 and explains how motion and speed is always relative to the observer's frame of reference. The theory connects measurements of the same physical incident viewed from these different points in a way that depends on the relative velocity of the two observers.
"Since the introduction of special relativity there has been much speculation as to whether or not it might be possible to travel faster than the speed of light, noting that there is no substantial evidence to suggest that this is presently feasible with any existing transportation mechanisms," says Hill.
Hill goes on to say, "About this time last year, experiments at CERN, the European center for particle physics in Switzerland, suggested that perhaps neutrinos could be accelerated just a very small amount faster than the speed of light; at this point we started to think about how to deal with the issues from both a mathematical and physical perspective. Questions have since been raised over the experimental results but we were already well on our way to successfully formulating a theory of special relativity, applicable to relative velocities in excess of the speed of light. Our approach is a natural and logical extension of the Einstein Theory of Special Relativity, and produces anticipated formulae without the need for imaginary numbers or complicated physics."
The research has been published in the prestigious Proceedings of the Royal Society A. Their formulas extend special relativity to a situation where the relative velocity can be infinite, and can be used to describe motion at speeds faster than light.
"We are mathematicians, not physicists, so we've approached this problem from a theoretical mathematical perspective," says Cox. "Should it, however, be proven that motion faster than light is possible, then that would be game changing. Our paper doesn't try and explain how this could be achieved, just how equations of motion might operate in such regimes."