X-Message-Number: 17372
From: "Jan Coetzee" <>
Subject: caveolae
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2001 16:11:08 -0400

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Maybe a cryo protectant can be designed to enter through these caveolae.

Cells Provide Hiding Places for Some Invaders
By Merritt McKinney 


NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Tiny craters in cell membranes seem to provide 
refuge to HIV, E. coli and other disease-causing agents, researchers report. 


Learning more about these structures, known as caveolae, may lead to new types 
of drugs that attack outside invaders in their hiding places, one of the study's
authors told Reuters Health. 


According to Dr. Soman N. Abraham of Duke University Medical Center in Durham, 
North Carolina, it is well known that many substances ``that enter our cells are
transported to special chambers called lysosomes where they are degraded or 
destroyed.'' But a wide range of disease-causing agents, or pathogens, enter 
cells but are not degraded by lysosomes, he said. 


``Through work from several laboratories including ours, it now seems that 
several of these pathogens enter the cells through distinct craters on the 
surface of the cells called caveolae,'' Abraham said. ``These studies reveal the
existence of a passageway into our cells where the cargo avoids destruction and
remains functional.'' 


Pathogens believed to seek protection in caveolae include HIV, E. coli and the 
malaria parasite, Abraham said. 


Abraham and a colleague at Duke, Jeoung-Sook Shin, co-wrote a review of caveolae
research in the August 24th issue of the journal Science. 


In the report, the authors point out that the flask-shaped craters are found in 
many types of cells in mammals, but the purpose of these structures is unknown.


The next step, according to the Abraham, is to learn more about how the caveolae
passageway works. 


``It is possible that in the future, this passageway could provide us with a 
highly efficient way of delivering large amounts of drugs directly into cells 
and in an intact state,'' Abraham said. He pointed out that a significant 
portion of drugs applied to cells end up being degraded in lysosomes. 


``The drugs could be especially useful for eradicating pathogens hiding within 
our cells, or they could be used to kill cancer cells,'' Abraham explained. 

SOURCE: Science 2001;293. 


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