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The doctor who almost died of a heart attack to avoid burdening the NHS

Consultant anaesthetist Dr Paul Trafford, pictured with his wife and nieces, almost suffered a major heart attack after returning to his home in Glasgow following a shift in his hospital due to an undiagnosed issue.




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Foreign killers could avoid deportation if healthcare in home countries is worse than the NHS

The landmark judgment - which risks throwing the Government's deportation policy into chaos - has already delayed the case of gang rapist Yaqub Ahmed, who was supposed to be deported.




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Moidul Islam Ali vs The State Of Assam on 8 May, 2020

Registry shall obtain scanned/Photostat copies of the records of G.R. Case No. 2581/2019 pertaining to Dergaon P.S. Case No. 843/2019 from the Court the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Golaghat.

JUDGE Comparing Assistant




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The doctor who almost died of a heart attack to avoid burdening the NHS

Consultant anaesthetist Dr Paul Trafford, pictured with his wife and nieces, almost suffered a major heart attack after returning to his home in Glasgow following a shift in his hospital due to an undiagnosed issue.




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Foreign killers could avoid deportation if healthcare in home countries is worse than the NHS

The landmark judgment - which risks throwing the Government's deportation policy into chaos - has already delayed the case of gang rapist Yaqub Ahmed, who was supposed to be deported.




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Coronavirus: Simon Jordan urges Premier League to cancel season to avoid 'corporate manslaughter'

For Simon Jordan, who owned Crystal Palace between 2000 and 2010, he believes the 'best case scenario' is to lose this season and then return when the health of all involved is in no doubt.




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NDMA issues guidelines for restarting industrial activities to avoid Vizag-type tragedy

In the wake of the gas leak at a factory in Visakhapatnam, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued detailed guidelines for restarting industries after the lockdown and the precautions to be taken for the safety of the plants as well as the workers. In a communication to all states and union territories, the NDMA said due to several weeks of lockdown and the closure of industrial units, it is possible that some of the operators might not have followed the established standard operating procedures. As a result, some of the manufacturing facilities, pipelines, valves may have residual chemicals, which may pose risk. The same is true for the storage facilities with hazardous chemicals and flammable materials, it said. The NDMA guidelines said while restarting a unit, the first week should be considered as the trial or test run period after ensuring all safety protocols. Companies should not try to achieve high production targets. There should be 24-hour sanitisation ..




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‘To avoid stress and fear, expecting moms must stop following corona news’




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After slamming door on Air India crews, Noida Authority takes back order

After slamming door on Air India crews, Noida Authority takes back order





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Noida: Asymptomatic man tests positive, dies hours later




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Noida: To allow domestic staff or not? RWAs start online vote




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Videocon Cube 3 (V50JL) smartphone with Android Marshmallow, 5-inch display launched at Rs 8,490

Videocon Mobiles has launched its latest 4G smartphone, Cube 3 (V50JL) in India. Priced at Rs 8,490, the smartphone will available across all retail stores.




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Android Marshmallow share increases, still stays behind Lollipop

Although a significant increase, Android Marshmallow still lies below Android Lollipop, and Kitkat on the list. As per the latest distribution numbers, Android Lollipop 5.0 and v5.1 together run on 35% Android devices, followed by Android Kitkat 4.4 with a 27.7% share.




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10 home remedies to avoid swine flu

Are the rising swine flu casualties giving you jitters?




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35 Indians Repatriated From Singapore Quarantined at 4-star Hotel in Greater Noida

The administration said it has appointed officers to inspect the facilities being provided to the repatriated Indians, who were stuck abroad due to the coronavirus-induced lockdown, and address their concerns, if any.




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Haemophilia Nutrition Tips: Foods To Eat And Avoid

Haemophilia is a rare, inherited condition in which your blood does not clot normally due to the lack of sufficient blood-clotting proteins or clotting factors. An individual with haemophilia will have excessive bleeding, as the blood doesn't clot properly. If an




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Thyroid Cancer: Causes, Symptoms, Risk Factors, Diagnosis, Treatment And Prevention

Thyroid cancer is the cancer of the thyroid gland which is found at the neck's front just below Adam's apple. The thyroid gland is a butterfly-shaped gland with two lobes, one at each side joined by a narrow tissue called the




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Rishi Kapoor Passes Away Of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia: Know More About This Cancer

Veteran actor Rishi Kapoor (67) passed away on Thursday at 8:45 a.m after a long battle with leukaemia. This Bollywood star was diagnosed with the disease two years back in 2018 and has undergone a bone marrow treatment in the US




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Asteroid 1998 OR2 to safely fly past Earth this week




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Study finds treatment for opioid use disorder is rare in hospitals




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NDMA issues guidelines for restarting industrial activities to avoid Vizag-type tragedy

In the wake of the gas leak at a factory in Visakhapatnam, the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued detailed guidelines for restarting industries after the lockdown and the precautions to be taken for the safety of the plants as well as the workers.




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Work resumes in Greater Noida’s Oppo mobile factory

Work resumes in Greater Noida’s Oppo mobile factory




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Noida man who died of cardiorespiratory arrest tested positive for COVID-19




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Follow govt protocol before sending Noida-resident Vande Bharat Mission crew here: Gautam Buddh Nagar admin requests Air India




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Covid-19 Factoid: 80 per cent of cases in lockdown 3.0 from just 5 states

Five nations witness an upward trajectory in new Covid-19 cases while Iran might be seeing a second wave




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Paradise Papers: The moral dilemmas of tax avoidance

Mohan Guruswamy

The tranche of documents uncovered recently has not only brought several stalwarts of Indian politics, cinema industry, and business tycoons under scanner but has also thrown up pertinent questions over the moral dilemmas of avoiding tax

The paradise in the Paradise Papers refers to tax havens of low or even no taxation. Such havens usually are shadowy and sleazy little countries and principalities such as the Cayman Islands, Lichtenstein and Monaco, and sometimes entities within countries like Jersey, Guernsey, Bermuda in the UK and Delaware and Puerto Rico in the USA. Then there are low taxation countries like Switzerland, Singapore and Dubai that assure secretive rich people of their privacy. 

Essentially a tax haven exists to cheat sovereign states of their lawful incomes. The Tax Justice Network campaign group estimates that corporate tax avoidance costs governments $500bn a year, while personal tax avoidance costs $200bn a year. This in effect means that anywhere between $20-30 trillion of business transactions are sheltered from taxations. Moody’s estimated that in 2016 giant American technology companies such as Google, Microsoft and Apple were hoarding about $1.84 trillion cash in offshore havens. Clearly they are avoiding tax and as bending the rules of the tax system is not illegal unlike tax evasion; they are operating within the letter, but perhaps not the spirit, of the law.

In the early 1980’s, shaken up by the number of scandals in Wall Street, and by the number of its MBA graduates who were found wanting in ethical and moral values, the Harvard Business School made a course on “Leadership and Corporate Accountability” a core requirement. I am sure Jayant Sinha, a Harvard MBA, had to do this course and would have scored a high grade in it. Such courses now are in the core curriculum of the business schools attended by the other two young politicians also named in the Paradise Papers or capers if you will. Sachin Pilot graduated from the famous Wharton School of Business and Karti Chidambaram took his business masters from Texas and a law degree from Cambridge to boot.

Doing the required ethics course is one thing but it is quite something else to be able to resolve moral dilemmas of what John Kenneth Galbraith described as the “HBS’s ethical view of capitalism which derives straight out of the Protestant ethic and its transformational view of money, in which the ability to accumulate wealth is a reflection of one’s character.”

The charge against Jayant Sinha is that while acting as an Omidyar Network representative was on the board of a California company that made a loan to that company’s Cayman subsidiary. Usually such a loan to such a subsidiary suggests a fiddle. Whether Sinha knew this or did not know it is something else? Clearly the evidence does not suggest any malfeasance. But clearly there is room for skepticism. 

Omidyar Network proclaims its belief: “Just as eBay created the opportunity for millions of people to start their own businesses, we believe market forces can be a potent driver for positive social change.” Grand words but that hardly conceals the true goal that is to make bucks, sometimes fast ones too.  Again as Galbraith put it: “The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”

Jayant, then fresh out of one of the IIT’s, worked with me way back in the mid 1980’s on a paper that proposed the mass construction of smokeless challahs for rural homes as a profitable employment for hundreds of thousands of rural workers. I remember it as a bit of an elaborate scheme that also computed the savings due to improved health results. It was published in this newspaper and the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi took note of it. I was impressed enough to write a recommendation when he applied for a Masters in Energy Management at Pennsylvania. 

I next met him when I was serving as his fathers Advisor in the Finance Ministry. Jayant and his wife were both working with foreign companies investing in Indian stocks. He was apprehensive about a proposal made by me to disinvest PSU stocks by selling them to the governments banks for onward restructure and disinvestment. The minister had clearly spoken to him. At that time too I wondered if the HBS’s core business ethics course would have seen conflict of interest issues in it? The minister however had plenty of flex in him.

To my mind tax avoidance is just as reprehensible as tax evasion. Sinha was too junior in the Finance Ministry to have expressed views on this. It would have been unlikely though for that is not the HBS way. The previous Finance Minister, himself a Harvard MBA, would not have any left footprints for young Sinha to tread on. Neither would the present lawyer Finance Minister. 

 

Lead Image: 




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Punjab CM appeals people to avoid crowding




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Punjab govt opens new markets to avoid crowding amid COVID-19 spread




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Unspooling the days of celluloid glory

How a youngster discovered the nuances of filming in the town of Palampur




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Crystal structure of the nucleoid-associated protein Fis (PA4853) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Factor for inversion stimulation (Fis) is a versatile bacterial nucleoid-associated protein that can directly bind and bend DNA to influence DNA topology. It also plays crucial roles in regulating bacterial virulence factors and in optimizing bacterial adaptation to various environments. Fis from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PA4853, referred to as PaFis) has recently been found to be required for virulence by regulating the expression of type III secretion system (T3SS) genes. PaFis can specifically bind to the promoter region of exsA, which functions as a T3SS master regulator, to regulate its expression and plays an essential role in transcription elongation from exsB to exsA. Here, the crystal structure of PaFis, which is composed of a four-helix bundle and forms a homodimer, is reported. PaFis shows remarkable structural similarities to the well studied Escherichia coli Fis (EcFis), including an N-terminal flexible loop and a C-terminal helix–turn–helix (HTH) motif. However, the critical residues for Hin-catalyzed DNA inversion in the N-terminal loop of EcFis are not conserved in PaFis and further studies are required to investigate its exact role. A gel-electrophoresis mobility-shift assay showed that PaFis can efficiently bind to the promoter region of exsA. Structure-based mutagenesis revealed that several conserved basic residues in the HTH motif play essential roles in DNA binding. These structural and biochemical studies may help in understanding the role of PaFis in the regulation of T3SS expression and in virulence.




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Crystal and mol­ecular structure of jatrophane diterpenoid (2R,3R,4S,5R,7S,8S,9S,13S,14S,15R)-2,3,8,9-tetra­acet­oxy-5,14-bis­(benzo­yloxy)-15-hydroxy-7-(iso­butano­yloxy)jatropha-6(17),11(E)-diene

The structure of the jatrophane diterpenoid (ES2), C46H56O15, has ortho­rhom­bic (P212121) symmetry. The absolute configuration in the crystal has been determined as 2R,3R,4S,5R,7S,8S,9S,13S,14S,15R [the Flack parameter is −0.06 (11)]. The mol­ecular structure features intra­molecular O—H⋯O and C—H⋯O hydrogen bonding. In the crystal, C—H⋯O hydrogen bonds link the mol­ecules into supra­molecular columns parallel to the a axis. One of the acet­oxy substituents is disordered over two orientations in a 0.826 (8):0.174 (8) ratio.




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Crystal structure and Hirshfeld surface analysis of the methanol solvate of sclareol, a labdane-type diterpenoid

The title compound, C20H36O2·CH3OH [systematic name: (3S)-4-[(S)-3-hy­droxy-3-methyl­pent-4-en-1-yl]-3,4a,8,8-tetra­methyl­deca­hydro­naphthalen-3-ol methanol monosolvate], is a methanol solvate of sclareol, a diterpene oil isolated from the medicinally important medicinal herb Salvia sclarea, commonly known as clary sage. It crystallizes in space group P1 (No. 1) with Z' = 2. The sclareol mol­ecule comprises two trans-fused cyclo­hexane rings, each having an equatorially oriented hydroxyl group, and a 3-methyl­pent-1-en-3-ol side chain. In the crystal, Os—H⋯Os, Os—H⋯Om, Om—H⋯Os and Om—H⋯Om (s = sclareol, m = methanol) hydrogen bonds connect neighboring mol­ecules into infinite [010] chains. The title compound exhibits weak anti-leishmanial activity (IC50 = 66.4 ± 1.0 µM ml−1) against standard miltefosine (IC50 = 25.8 ± 0.2 µM ml−1).




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Amyloid structure determination in RELION-3.1

Helical reconstruction in RELION is increasingly being used to determine the atomic structures of amyloid filaments from electron cryo-microscopy (cryo-EM) images. However, because the energy landscape of amyloid refinements is typically fraught with local optima, amyloid structure determination is often difficult. This paper aims to help RELION users in this process. It discusses aspects of helical reconstruction that are particularly relevant to amyloids, it illustrates the problem of local optima in refinement and how to detect them, and it introduces a new method to calculate 3D initial models from reference-free 2D class averages. By providing starting models that are closer to the global optimum, this method makes amyloid structure determination easier. All methods described are open-source and distributed within RELION-3.1. Their use is illustrated using a publicly available data set on tau filaments from the brain of an individual with Alzheimer's disease.




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A practical overview of molecular replacement: Clostridioides difficile PilA1, a difficult case study

Many biologists are now routinely seeking to determine the three-dimensional structures of their proteins of choice, illustrating the importance of this knowledge, but also of the simplification and streamlining of structure-determination processes. Despite the fact that most software packages offer simple pipelines, for the non-expert navigating the outputs and understanding the key aspects can be daunting. Here, the structure determination of the type IV pili (TFP) protein PilA1 from Clostridioides difficile is used to illustrate the different steps involved, the key decision criteria and important considerations when using the most common pipelines and software. Molecular-replacement pipelines within CCP4i2 are presented to illustrate the more commonly used processes. Previous knowledge of the biology and structure of TFP pilins, particularly the presence of a long, N-terminal α-helix required for pilus formation, allowed informed decisions to be made during the structure-determination strategy. The PilA1 structure was finally successfully determined using ARCIMBOLDO and the ab initio MR strategy used is described.




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From space group to space groupoid: the partial symmetry of low-temperature E-vanillyl oxime

The phase transition of E-vanillyl oxime {1-[(E)-(hydroxyimino)methyl]-4-hydroxy-3-methoxybenzene, C8H9NO3} has been analysed by single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction. The high-temperature (HT) phase (P21/a, Z' = 1) transforms into the low-temperature (LT) phase (threefold superstructure, Poverline{1}, Z' = 6) at ca 190 K. The point operations lost on cooling, {m[010], 2[010]}, are retained as twin operations and constitute the twin law. The screw rotations and glide reflections are retained in the LT phase as partial operations acting on a subset of Euclidean space {b E}^3. The full symmetry of the LT phase, including partial operations, is described by a disconnected space groupoid which is built of three connected components.




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Crystal structure of the nucleoid-associated protein Fis (PA4853) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa

The crystal structure of Pseudomonas aeruginosa Fis is composed of an N-terminal flexible loop and a C-terminal helix–turn–helix motif.




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Super sensitive telescope will detect “killer” asteroids and comets on collision course with Earth

This innovative facility will be at the front line of Earth defense by searching for "killer" asteroids and comets. It will map large portions of the sky nightly, making it an efficient sleuth for not just asteroids but also supernovae and other variable objects.

The post Super sensitive telescope will detect “killer” asteroids and comets on collision course with Earth appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.




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Rapid Response telescope system spots first potentially hazardous asteroid

The Panoramic Survey Telescope & Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) PS1 telescope has discovered an asteroid about 150 feet in diameter that will come within 4 million miles of Earth in mid-October.

The post Rapid Response telescope system spots first potentially hazardous asteroid appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.




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Evidence of asteroid mining in our galaxy may lead to the discovery of extraterrestrial civilizations

If intelligent and more advanced civilizations exist on other planets then its a good bet that some of these civilizations turned to asteroid mining long ago. If so, the hallmarks of their mining activities, such as unusual dirty halos of cast-off dust and debris around large asteroids, might be detectable from earth.

The post Evidence of asteroid mining in our galaxy may lead to the discovery of extraterrestrial civilizations appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.




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Infrared survey reveals fewer near-Earth asteroids than previously thought

New observations by NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer, or WISE, show there are significantly fewer near-Earth asteroids in the mid-size range than previously thought.

The post Infrared survey reveals fewer near-Earth asteroids than previously thought appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.




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X-ray flares observed by Chandra are asteroids being torn to pieces in a black hole

A new study provides a possible explanation for the mysterious flares. The suggestion is that there is a cloud around Sgr A* containing hundreds of trillions of asteroids and comets, which have been stripped from their parent stars.

The post X-ray flares observed by Chandra are asteroids being torn to pieces in a black hole appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.





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Asteroid diversity = “snow globe” Solar System

Our solar system seems like a neat and orderly place, with small, rocky worlds near the Sun and big, gaseous worlds farther out, all eight […]

The post Asteroid diversity = “snow globe” Solar System appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.




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Give us the telescopes and we’ll find the asteroid mines!

An 880-pound asteroid moving at 38,000 miles per hour hit the moon last September with a blast equivalent to 15 tons of TNT. While errant […]

The post Give us the telescopes and we’ll find the asteroid mines! appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.




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Asteroids: Breaking up is Hard to Do

Hundreds of thousands of asteroids are known to orbit our Sun at distances ranging from near the Earth to beyond Saturn. The most widely known […]

The post Asteroids: Breaking up is Hard to Do appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.




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Carotenoid pigments make extinct duck a rare bird indeed

The pink-headed duck was no lucky duck. In 1948 a single specimen of this waterfowl, Rhodonessa caryophyllacea, was donated to the Division of Birds of […]

The post Carotenoid pigments make extinct duck a rare bird indeed appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.




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Primary myeloid cell proteomics and transcriptomics: importance of ss tubulin isotypes for osteoclast function [RESEARCH ARTICLE]

David Guerit, Pauline Marie, Anne Morel, Justine Maurin, Christel Verollet, Brigitte Raynaud-Messina, Serge Urbach, and Anne Blangy

Among hematopoietic cells, osteoclasts (Oc) and immature dendritic cells (Dc) are closely related myeloid cells with distinct functions; Oc participate skeleton maintenance while Dc sample the environment for foreign antigens. Such specificities rely on profound modifications of gene and protein expression during Oc and Dc differentiation. We provide global proteomic and transcriptomic analyses of primary mouse Oc and Dc, based on original SILAC and RNAseq data. We established specific signatures for Oc and Dc including genes and proteins of unknown functions. In particular, we showed that Oc and Dc have the same α and β tubulin isotypes repertoire but that Oc express much more β tubulin isotype Tubb6. In both mouse and human Oc, we demonstrate that elevated expression of Tubb6 in Oc is necessary for correct podosomes organization and thus for the structure of the sealing zone, which sustains the bone resorption apparatus. Hence, lowering Tubb6 expression hindered Oc resorption activity. Overall, we highlight here potential new regulators of Oc and Dc biology and illustrate the functional importance of the tubulin isotype repertoire in the biology of differentiated cells.




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Glucocorticoids rapidly inhibit cell migration through a novel, non-transcriptional HDAC6 pathway [RESEARCH ARTICLE]

Stephen Kershaw, David J. Morgan, James Boyd, David G. Spiller, Gareth Kitchen, Egor Zindy, Mudassar Iqbal, Magnus Rattray, Chris M. Sanderson, Andrew Brass, Claus Jorgensen, Tracy Hussell, Laura C. Matthews, and David W. Ray

Glucocorticoids (GCs) act through the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) to regulate immunity, energy metabolism, and tissue repair. Upon ligand binding, activated GR mediates cellular effects by regulating gene expression, but some GR effects can occur rapidly without new transcription. We show GCs rapidly inhibit cell migration, in response to both GR agonist and antagonist ligand binding. The inhibitory effect on migration is prevented by GR knockdown with siRNA, confirming GR specificity, but not by actinomycin D treatment, suggesting a non-transcriptional mechanism. We identified a rapid onset increase in microtubule polymerisation following glucocorticoid treatment, identifying cytoskeletal stabilisation as the likely mechanism of action. HDAC6 overexpression, but not knockdown of αTAT1, rescued the GC effect, implicating HDAC6 as the GR effector. Consistent with this hypothesis, ligand-dependent cytoplasmic interaction between GR and HDAC6 was demonstrated by quantitative imaging. Taken together, we propose that activated GR inhibits HDAC6 function and thereby increases the stability of the microtubule network to reduce cell motility. We therefore report a novel, non-transcriptional mechanism whereby GCs impair cell motility through inhibition of HDAC6 and rapid reorganization of the cell architecture.




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Asteroid Mission carries Student X-ray Experiment

At 7:05 pm (EDT), Thursday, Sept. 8, NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu. Among that spacecraft’s five instruments is […]

The post Asteroid Mission carries Student X-ray Experiment appeared first on Smithsonian Insider.