New clues for asthma treatment
Friday, March 18, 2011 - 12:00
in Biology & Nature
(PhysOrg.com) -- New information that could help in the fight against asthma has been obtained by an international collaboration of scientists utilizing the U.S. Department of Energys Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory. Their results, which were recently published in the journal Nature, show how an important human transmembrane protein functions at a molecular level. The findings are significant in that the particular human transmembrane protein known as β2-adrenergic receptor, a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), is the focus of a series of drugs for the treatment of asthma. This new research on its structure and function has the potential of leading to the development of improved drug therapies.