Author: BL

What is the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor? The α7 nicotinic acetylcholine receptor plays critical roles in the central nervous system and in the cholinergic inflammatory pathway. The receptor has three states: resting, active, and desensitized. This image was created with information from rcsb.org, The top view shows the Ca2+ channel going into the cell. Note that… Continue reading venoms and brain acetylcholine receptors

Ten years ago miRNA was the hot cargo of exosomes. This image came from the review of Tefani and coauthors (2016) [1] The main point is that exosomes contain bits distressed mitochondria, cell membranes and membrane proteins of the cell of origin, DNA, mRNA, and miRNA. The contents of phagosomes is another interesting possibility. 2.… Continue reading Proteins in exosomes

Disclaimer, I still don't know! At first I thought that the lipid nanoparticles (LNP) simply fused with whatever cells they came into contact when they were injected into my left tricep. My myocytes died in the process of producing this alien protein. Then antigen presenting marcophage came in to gobble up the mess of my… Continue reading How the mRNA vaccine works