Gamers Solve Stubborn Viral Mystery: The Shape Of A Key Enzyme

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A screenshot from the Foldit puzzle for an enzyme found in HIV-like viruses.

UW Center for Game Science A screenshot from the Foldit puzzle for an enzyme found in HIV-like viruses.

See, Mom? Playing online video games can pay off.

An online group of gamers has correctly deduced the structure of an enzyme that AIDS-like viruses use for reproduction. By playing the online-game Foldit, the group figured out the structure of an important viral protein that has baffled scientists for more than a decade.

The enzyme is a retroviral protease and plays a critical role in how the AIDS virus matures and proliferates. Gamers, who weren't experts in viruses, solved the puzzle in just three weeks.

 

X-ray crystallography, the gold standard for protein structures, verified the result. The findings were published online by the journal Nature Structural & Molecular Biology.

Biochemist Firas Khatib believes the data will help researchers develop better antiretroviral drugs and show that Foldit can help solve thorny scientific mysteries.

More than 600,000 people have played Foldit since it was rolled out in 2008 by researchers from the University of Washington. "The game is like Tetris on steroids," Foldit co-creator Zoran Popovic tells Shots.

Gamers start with a protein that looks like a necklace. Instead of beads or pearls, amino acids hang from the strand. The game challenges players to manipulate the structure of the protein so that it reaches the lowest energy state, which earns them the highest score. The function of the protein changes with the shape it takes.

Gamers bring a different viewpoint to the table when it comes to solving scientific puzzles: freedom from scientific convention. "Humans can outperform the computers when you have to make a drastic move in order to get to the correct answer," Khatib says.

Sometimes to get to the right answer, a drastic or seemingly illogical decision has to be made. But a computer trying to solve a problem won't make an illogical decision that leads it down the wrong path because it can't always see that far ahead, the researchers say.

Scientists sometimes have related but irrelevant information flying around their problem-solving process that can blind them to unusual solutions. Gamers don't have the restrictions that scientists and computers impose upon themselves.

Khatib hopes that the gaming technology will catch fire with other scientists. "Citizen science can actually help solve unsolved scientific problems," he says.

View the original article here

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HEALTH MANAGEMENT. Enzyme could be target for the treatment of smoking, alcoholism at the same time

An enzyme that is displayed, a role in controlling the brain response to nicotine and alcohol in mice may be a promising a drug, which would at the same time deal with smoking, and alcohol abuse in humans, according to a study by researchers of the Ernest Gallo clinic and Research Center, San Francisco joined with the University of California,.
In the course of four weeks mice genetically so is missing the gene for protein kinase C (PKC)-Epsilon consumes less a nicotine-containing water solution than normal mice and were less likely to a Chamber back, in which she had given nicotine.
On the other hand, normal mice steadily grew their consumption of nicotine solution, while the mice PKC Epsilon is not missing.
The study was conducted by Gallo, senior associate director and investigator Robert O. brass, MD, UCSF Professor of Neurology and Gallo researchers Dr. Anna M. Lee.
Binds nicotine to a certain class of Nicotinic Receptors in normal mice, as in humans is neurons released by dopamine in the brain causes on dopamine. Dopamine creates a feeling of joy and so calls for a sense of reward. Lee and brass found that mice without PKC Epsilon has a lack of these Nicotinic Receptors.
The study is in the online early Edition of the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences for the week of 12 September 2011.
The finding complements earlier research in brass found that mice genetically PKC-Epsilon enzyme deficiency to less alcohol than normal mice potion and were averse to a Chamber, where she had been alcohol again.
"This could mean that these mice of nicotine or alcohol, not the same feeling of reward get," brass said. "The enzyme looks like it the part of regulating the reward system, which includes these Nicotinic Receptors." The reward system is a complex of areas in the brain, which call for nicotine, to influence alcohol and other addictive substances.
The next step in the research, brass, said would be to develop compounds that inhibit PKC Epsilon. The ultimate goal, he said, would be drugs, which could be used "through its contribution to the edge of searches for people on some of which will demand their reward."
The research was U.S. through grants from the public health service and the Canadian Institutes of health research, and funded, supported by California for medical research on alcohol and drug abuse by UCSF.
The UCSF-affiliated Ernest Gallo clinic and Research Center is one of the world's preeminent academic centres for the study of the biological basis of alcohol and substance use. Gallo center discoveries possible molecular targets for the development of therapeutic medicines through preclinical and proof-of-concept studies extended.
UCSF is a leading University, promoting health worldwide through advanced biomedical research, graduate training in life sciences and health professions, and excellence in patient care.

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