Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Mushrooms and Equipment

Mushroom Harvest is the website of a supplier of mushrooms. Offered are organic mushrooms some of which are described as medicinal. Equipment, including laboratory and grow room equipment, is supplied.

Labels:

Monday, April 07, 2008

Effective Use of Selective Estrogen Receptor Modulators

A Science Daily article titled Moving Beyond Tamoxifen: Drug Discovery And The Future Of Selective Hormone Receptor Modulators discusses the potential benefits that could accrue from further development of a class of drugs described by the term selective estrogen receptor modulators. SERMs come in different varieties and have strikingly different effects on different cell types as the word selective infers. As the linked article notes SERMs can mimick the effects of estrogen at one location while causing quite different outcomes at another.

The variation of effects produced by SERMs can be explained by the nature of estrogen receptors and gene expression dynamics. There is variation among receptors. When bonding with a recptor occurs a cascade of biochemical reactions can follow determining which genes will be expressed and which will not be.

The Science Daily article specifically mentions a SERM known as raloxifene which can have anti-carcinogenic effects through anti-estrogen activity in breast tissue. However, raloxifene can also promote increased bone density in other tissue through estrogen-like effects.

Labels:

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Working in Tandem

A Science News article Green Tea Helps Beat Superbugs, Study Suggests, notes findings by researchers which indicate that drinking green tea can enhance the effectiveness of some antibiotics against disease causing mocro-organisms. Researchers were surprised to find that drinking green tea could lower the resistence of certain bacteria including some dubbed superbugs.

Labels: