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Team:Bielefeld-Germany/Project/Outlook
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| - | + | Pheochromocytoma is a rare endocrine tumor originating in the medulla of adrenal glands, sitting in top of the kidney. The adrenal glands produce several catecholamines, to which metanephrine and dopamine belong. These hormones regulate responses to stress, heart rate and blood pressure. In patients with pheochromocytoma these hormones are released excessively, potentially causing increased heart rate and blood pressure. Pheochromocytoma may become life threatening when not recognized and treated. | |
Revision as of 11:16, 24 October 2010
Contents |
Outlook
The techniques’ potential
In our project we modulated the virA-gene from ’’A. tumefaciens’’, which is encoding a receptor for the plant-hormone acetosyringone, via error prone PCR. Slight mutations may alter the receptors conformation or its binding site. Both of these can cause shifts in specificity and sensitivity. This way we created a new receptor, which is capable of sensing capsaicin. The chemical formulas of capsaicin and acetosyringone are quite similar and there are other molecules of interest, that have some of the necessary properties, too. Thus, we suggest that it is possible to modulate VirA receptors in order to make them sense a variety of highly relevant compounds.
In other words, there are other candidates our sensing system may be applied to. All of them have similiar molecular structures as the vir-systems natural inducor acetosyringone. In the following we will present some of the most relevant compounds other than capsaicin, that may be upcoming targets of our research.
All of the following images of the compounds molecular structures are linked to The PubChem Project.
Dopamine
Following some text ´bout it
3-Methoxytyramine
Following some text ´bout it
Diagnosis of Pheochromocytoma and neuroblastoma
Pheochromocytoma is a rare endocrine tumor originating in the medulla of adrenal glands, sitting in top of the kidney. The adrenal glands produce several catecholamines, to which metanephrine and dopamine belong. These hormones regulate responses to stress, heart rate and blood pressure. In patients with pheochromocytoma these hormones are released excessively, potentially causing increased heart rate and blood pressure. Pheochromocytoma may become life threatening when not recognized and treated.
