American Chemical Society's Weekly PressPac - Jan. 7, 2009

Main Category: Biology / Biochemistry
Also Included In: Water - Air Quality / Agriculture;  IT / Internet / E-mail;  Autism
Article Date: 13 Jan 2009 - 2:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   view / write opinions   rate article

Clothing to crow about: Chicken feather suits and dresses

In the future, you may snuggle up in warm, cozy sweats made of chicken feathers or jeans made of wheat, enjoying comfortable, durable new fabrics that are "green" and environmentally friendly. Researchers in Australia are reporting that new advances are paving the way for such exotic new materials - made from agricultural waste or byproducts - to hit store shelves as environmentally-friendly alternatives to the estimated 38 million tons of synthetic fabrics produced worldwide each year. They review research on the development of these next generation eco-friendly fibers, which will produce fabrics with a conventional feel, in the November 26, 2008 issue of ACS' Biomacromolecules, a monthly journal.

In the article, Andrew Poole, Jeffrey Church and Mickey Huson note that scientists first produced commercial fabrics made of nontraditional materials - including milk proteins, peanuts, and corn - almost 50 years ago. Although these so-called "regenerated" fabrics had the look and feel of conventional protein-based fabrics such as wool and silk, they tended to perform poorly when wet. This problem, combined with the advent of petroleum-based synthetic fibers, caused the production of these unusual fabrics to stop, the researchers say.

Amid concerns about the environment and consumer demand for eco-friendly products, renewable fabrics made from nontraditional agricultural materials are now poised to make a comeback, the scientists say. Promising fabric sources include agricultural proteins, such as keratin from scrap chicken feathers and gluten from wheat, they say. The scientists describe advances in nanotechnology and chemical cross-linking that can improve the strength and biodegradability of these fabrics, paving the way for commercial production of eco-friendly clothing, furniture upholstery and other products. - MTS

"Environmentally Sustainable Fibers from Regenerated Protein"

DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/bm8010648

CONTACT:
Andrew J. Poole, Ph.D.
CSIRO Materials Science and Engineering
Victoria, Australia

Microswimmers" make a big splash for improved drug delivery

They may never pose a challenge to Olympic superstar Michael Phelps, but the "microswimmers" developed by researchers in Spain and the United Kingdom could break a long-standing barrier to improving delivery of medications for cancer and other diseases. They describe the development of tiny, magnetically controlled particles, called "microswimmers," that doctors could use to precisely deliver medicine to diseased tissue. Their report appears in the December 25, 2008 issue of The Journal of Physical Chemistry B, a weekly ACS publication.

In the new study, Pietro Tierno and colleagues note that scientists tried for years to develop tiny engines that can move micro and nanomachines through tight spaces, such as blood vessels and lab-on-a chip devices. But existing engines are slow, difficult to maneuver, and must undergo alterations in their shape, chemistry or temperature in order to work. The design of simple, more practical engines to power these tiny, robotic machines remains a major challenge, the researchers say.

The scientists describe a solution - tiny beads, about 1/25,000 of an inch in diameter, made of plastic and magnetic materials. When exposed to a magnetic field, the particles spun like a gyroscope and could be easily directed to move though narrow channels of liquids inside a glass plate, the researchers say. The scientists could control the speed of the "microswimmers" by varying the strength of the magnetic field. - MTS

"Magnetically Actuated Colloidal Microswimmers"

DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/jp808354n

CONTACT:
Pietro Tierno, Ph.D.
University of Barcelona
Barcelona, Spain

Toward a long-sought saliva test for autism

Researchers in Italy are reporting discovery of abnormal proteins in the saliva of autism patients that could eventually provide a clue for the molecular basis of this severe developmental disorder and could be used as a biomarker for a subgroup of patients with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Their study is in the January 2 issue of ACS' Journal of Proteome Research, a monthly publication.

Autism involves social withdrawal, impaired emotional responses and communication skills, and other symptoms. With no laboratory test available, scientists are searching for biomarkers such as abnormal proteins that appear in the body fluids of individuals with autism that may provide a way to accurately diagnose autism and track its response to potential treatments.

Massimo Castagnola, Irene Messana, Maria Giulia Torrioli and Fiorella Gurrieri, compared proteins in the saliva of 27 children with ASD to those in a control group without ASD. They discovered that at least one of four proteins in 19 children in the ASD group had significantly lower levels of phosphorylation. That key body process activates proteins so that they can work normally. The results suggest that these abnormal proteins might be the clue for anomalies in the phosphorylation of proteins involved in development of central nervous system in early infancy that are involved in ASD. - MTS

"Hypo-Phosphorylation of Salivary Peptidome as a Clue to the Molecular Pathogenesis of Autism Spectrum Disorders"

DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/pr8004088

CONTACT:
Massimo Castagnola, Ph.D.
Universite Cattolica
Rome, Italy

New evidence that people make aspirin's active principle - salicylic acid

Scientists in the United Kingdom are reporting new evidence that humans can make their own salicylic acid (SA) - the material formed when aspirin breaks down in the body. SA, which is responsible for aspirin's renowned effects in relieving pain and inflammation, may be the first in a new class of bioregulators, according to a study in the December 24, 2008 issue of ACS' biweekly Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

In the report, Gwendoline Baxter, Ph.D. and colleagues discuss how their past research revealed that SA exists in the blood of people who have not recently taken aspirin. Vegetarians had much higher levels, almost matching those in patients taking low doses of aspirin. Based on those findings, the researchers previously concluded that this endogenous SA came from the diet, since SA is a natural substance found in fruits and vegetables.

Now the group reports on studies of changes in SA levels in volunteers who took benzoic acid, a substance also found naturally in fruits and vegetables that the body could potentially use to make SA. Their goal was to determine whether the SA found in humans (and other animals) results solely from consumption of fruits and vegetables, or whether humans produce their own SA as a natural agent to fight inflammation and disease. The results reported in the study suggest that people do manufacture SA.

"It is, we suspect, increasingly likely that SA is a biopharmaceutical with a central, broadly defensive role in animals as well as plants," they state. "This simple organic chemical is, we propose, likely to become increasingly recognized as an animal bioregulator, perhaps in a class of its own." - JS

"Salicylic Acid sans Aspirin in Animals and Man: Persistence in Fasting and Biosynthesis from Benzoic Acid"

DOWNLOAD FULL TEXT ARTICLE http://pubs.acs.org/stoken/presspac/presspac/full/10.1021/jf800974z

CONTACT:
Gwen Baxter, Ph.D.
R&D, National Health Service (Scotland)
Dumfries and Galloway Royal Infirmary
Dumfries, Scotland
DG1 4AP

----------------------------
Article adapted by Medical News Today from original press release.
----------------------------

The American Chemical Society - the world's largest scientific society - is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress and a global leader in providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. Its main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

Source: Michael Woods
American Chemical Society