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PROTEIN LINKED TO HEART FAILURE
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Protein linked to heart failure Study on PLN’s effect on calcium cycle may lead to new treatment By Paul Recer The Associated Press The Charlotte Observer Friday, February 28, 2003 Washington – In a study that could lead to new treatment for congestive heart failure, researchers have shown that an abnormal form of a protein can be a fundamental cause. Earlier studies in animals had suggested that the protein phospholamban, or PLN, played a key role. Now, by studying four generations of a family in which the heart disease was common, researchers have shown that an abnormal form of the protein molecule was the primary cause. Dr. Christine Seidman, a researcher at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and Harvard Medical School, said the abnormal PLN disrupts the calcium cycle in heart muscle and causes the heart to lose its ability to efficiently pump blood. Calcium causes heart muscles to contract, and PLN then helps move the calcium away so that the muscles can relax between beats. This action, called a calcium pump, is essential for the proper beating of the heart. Seidman, co-author of a study appearing today in the journal Science, said her study shows that a gene mutation produces an abnormal form of PLN which, in turn, disrupts the calcium pump and causes congestive heart failure. Both Seidman and another doctor who has done research with animals said the discovery may now make it possible to develop a drug that specifically controls the action of PLN or the movement of calcium in and out of the muscles. Congestive heart failure occurs when infection, heart attack or high blood pressure weakens the heart muscle, lowering its ability to contract and force blood to the lungs and to the rest of the body. The often-fatal disorder affects about 4.7 million Americans, most of them elderly, and costs about $17.8 billion a year for treatment and care. In some families an inherited condition can cause heart failure to start before the age of 30. "This particular gene mutation … alters the protein in a subtle way," said Seidman. "We have shown that this causes heart failure." She said the study shows that when the function of PLN is altered, "you get heart failure. No other part of the heart has gone awry." Seidman and her co-authors found the mutation by analyzing the genes in four generations of a family where heart failure at an early age was common. "These individuals all have normal hearts," she said. "They don’t have underlying coronary artery disease. But through a fluke of nature, they have a subtle change in this protein so that calcium is not regulated in the heart. That causes them to get heart failure." Dr. Kenneth Chien, a heart researcher at the University of California, San Diego, school of medicine, said he and others have shown in animal studies that manipulating phospholamban can cause heart failure, but the new study is the first to show that PLN causes the disease in humans by altering the flow of calcium in and out of heart muscle. "What this rare form of heart failure tells us is that we need to treat abnormal calcium handling and that it is contributing to heart failure," he said. Seidman and her group studied 30 family members in four generations. The study found that in the 13 family members with early heart failure, there was a subtle change in the PLN gene. This change caused PLN to dampen the action of the calcium pump in the heart muscle and disrupt the proper cycling of calcium. As a result, the muscles lost their efficiency and the heart quickly weakened, she said. Read the complete news at: http://www.charlotte.com Jai Maharaj http://www.mantra.com/jai Om Shanti
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**If you respond to a Jai Maharaj post, please be sure to snip the original message in its entirety** "Dr. Jai Maharaj" Information This person’s game is to use outdated articles to attract people to his website, where he sells psychic services. What’s most amusing is that many of the groups to which his messages are crossposted do not exist. He plagues many USENET groups. His standard method of responding to an attack on his credibility is to repost the original article or to post the sender’s personal contact information and threaten to report the sender to his/her ISP for spamming or making threats (the very definition of irony). Some info re: Jai Maharaj. mantra.com Mantra Corporation P. O. Box 1919 Honolulu HI, 96792-6919 US IP Address 206.126.0.13 [flex.com] Business Entity Name: MANTRA CORPORATION Record Type: Master Name for a Domestic Profit Corporation File Number: 82087 D1 Status: Active Purpose: BUSINESS CONSULTING, MARKETING,ADVERTISING AND RELATED SERVICES Place Incorporated: Hawaii UNITED STATES Mailing Address: P O BOX 1919 WAIANAE Hawaii 96792-6919 United States of America Officer Information STEVENS,JAY R MILLER,JOAN E 11/30/1990 Articles of Incorporation Flex.com 206.126.0.0 – 206.126.15.255 P.O.Box 22481 Honolulu, HI 96823-2481 US IP Address 206.126.0.13 Administrative Contact: Wong, Delgory K. +1-808-539-3790 ISP Flexnet, Inc. Hawaii’s First Public Access Internet Provider IP Address: 199.201.240.1 hindu.org Himalayan Academy *107 Kaholalele Road* Kapaa, HI 11111 US IP Address 64.75.159.118 Boy, there’s a lot of info out there on this guy…quite a few domains not worth mentioning here… This is interesting: http://members.tripod.com/sid_e_slicker/india10.html http://www.mantra.com/holocaust http://mathquest.com/discuss/sci.math/a/m/387192/387198 His "real" name is supposed to be Jay Stevens. There is an anti-Jay newsgroup too: A member of the "flame Jay Stevens" group is "Jose Mariachi", )another self-proclaimed "doctor"?) "Mariachi" web site could be another bogus cash grab remarkably similar to Stevens’ site, mantra.com. Here’s a neat Jai FAQ [long but interesting] http://www.geocities.com/drjosemariachi/jay_faq.html#bb and a short version here: http://www.vic.com/%7Edbd/minifaqs/jai.maharaj.miniFAQ He made Kook of the Month for June of 1995 here: http://www.lart.com/auk/whiners.html