Too sweet for too long?

Too long for translocation?

JCB • VOLUME 181 • NUMBER 4 • 2008 570 Too long for translocation? P eptides that are made too quickly can’t get into the ER, say Asvin Lakkaraju, Katharina Strub (University of Geneva, Switzerland), and colleagues. It seems that the peptides become too long for the translocation machinery to deal with. The signal sequence at the amino terminal of a growing peptide chain is required for translo...

Oh Canada! Too many children in poverty for too long.

Despite continued economic growth, Canada's record on child poverty is worse than it was in 1989, when the House of Commons unanimously resolved to end child poverty by the year 2000. Most recent data indicate that nearly 1.2 million children - almost one of every six children - live in low-income households. Campaign 2000 contends that poverty and income inequality are major barriers to the he...

Statin-induced diabetes: too sweet a deal?

Bottom line Statins modestly increase blood glucose levels, which leads to 1 in 250 or so patients crossing the “diabetic threshold” in a 5-year period. Pre-existing elevated blood glucose levels, other diabetes risk factors, or higher statin doses might slightly increase the risk. This should not change statin prescribing, as statins reduce cardiovascular events and allcause mortality in appro...

Living too long

S hould medical research be focused on increasing the quantity or quality of life? For a variety of reasons, past research has focused more on quantity of life, but the resultant life extension, without reducing ageing, has increased the extent of ageing and age-related disease, plus pension, and social and medical costs, in an unsustainable way. I argue here that medical research urgently need...

The QT interval: too long, too short or just right.