Nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) and Ca2+ mobilization.

Many physiological processes are controlled by a great diversity of Ca2+ signals that depend on Ca2+ entry into the cell and/or Ca2+ release from internal Ca2+ stores. Ca2+ mobilization from intracellular stores is gated by a family of messengers including inositol-1,4,5-trisphosphate (InsP3), cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR), and nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP). There is increasing evidence for a novel intracellular Ca2+ release channel that may be targeted by NAADP and that displays properties distinctly different from the well-characterized InsP3 and ryanodine receptors.

Prototype perception and smoking: are negative or positive social images more important in adolescence?

It is suggested that a more profound understanding of cigarette smoking among adolescents should include the social images they have of smokers. The main goal of the present study was to investigate the role of smoker prototypes in adolescents' smoking status and to compare the role of negative and positive smoker images. Data were collected from high school students in two counties of the Southern Plain Region of Hungary (N=548; ages between 14 and 21 years).

Children's perceptions of health and illness: images and lay concepts in preadolescence.

Despite a growing body of research into children's concepts of illness, many basic questions still remain. This study aims to describe 8- to 11-year olds' lay beliefs of health, illness, health promotion and disease prevention. Children responded to open-ended questions about health and illness by drawing and writing their responses.

Ca2+ release triggered by NAADP in hepatocyte microsomes.

NAADP (nicotinic acid-adenine dinucleotide phosphate) is fast emerging as a new intracellular Ca2+-mobilizing messenger. NAADP induces Ca2+ release by a mechanism that is distinct from IP3 (inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate)- and cADPR (cADP-ribose)-induced Ca2+ release. In the present study, we demonstrated that micromolar concentrations of NAADP trigger Ca2+ release from rat hepatocyte microsomes.

[Medical implications of the lay concepts of health: children's opinions of health and illness].

Introduction: Lay concepts of health and illness give additional important information to the biomedical models. According to the literature of lay beliefs, these concepts significantly affect population's health and illness behaviors and their health consciousness. Detecting children's lay concepts of health means a special professional challenge since they are not able to think in an abstract and systematic way yet, particularly to express this verbally.

Triazine dyes are agonists of the NAADP receptor.

NAADP has been shown to be a potent calcium-releasing second messenger in a wide variety of cell types to date. However, research has been hampered by a lack of pharmacological agents, with which to investigate NAADP-induced calcium release, and by the molecular identity of its cellular target protein being unknown. In the present paper, the sea urchin egg model was used to investigate whether triazine dyes, which can act as nucleotide mimetics, can bind to the NAADP receptor, induce Ca(2+) release and be used for affinity chromatography of the receptor.

Effect of luminal and extravesicular Ca2+ on NAADP binding and release properties.

Nicotinic acid adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NAADP) has been shown to be a powerful Ca2+ release agent in numerous systems, including echinoderms, plants, and mammalian cells. NAADP has been shown to release Ca2+ via a separate mechanism to IP3 and ryanodine receptors, and specific binding sites have recently been characterised. However, functional studies have shown that there is a functional interplay between the NAADP-sensitive mechanism and the other two.