Stroke will become one of the main burdens of disease and loss of quality of life in the near future. However, we still have not found rehabilitation approaches that can scale up so as to face this challenge. Virtual reality based therapy systems are a great promise for directly addressing this challenge. Here we review different approaches that are based on this technology, their assumptions a...

In 1992 Von Korff and his co-workers developed a simple, brief questionnaire to assess the severity of chronic pain problems, the Chronic Pain Grade (CPG). The present study was conducted to analyse the psychometric properties of the translated German version of the CPG within a population of primary care back pain patients (n=130). Factor analysis yielded two factors which accounted for 72% of...

Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome (ARS) (OMIM Nr.: 180500) is a rare autosomal dominant disorder (1 : 200000) with genetic and morphologic variability. Glaucoma is associated in 50% of the patients. Craniofacial and dental anomalies are frequently reported with ARS. The present study was designed as a multidisciplinary analysis of orthodontic, ophthalmologic, and genotypical features. A three-generation...

The N-end rule relates the in vivo half-life of a protein to the identity of its N-terminal residue. We used an expression-cloning screen to search for mouse proteins that are degraded by the ubiquitin/proteasome-dependent N-end rule pathway in a reticulocyte lysate. One substrate thus identified was RGS4, a member of the RGS family of GTPase-activating proteins that down-regulate specific G pr...

RGS14 is a 60 kDa protein that contains a regulator of G protein signaling (RGS) domain near its N-terminus, a central region containing a pair of tandem Ras-binding domains (RBD), and a GPSM (G protein signaling modulator) domain (a.k.a. Gi/o-Loco binding [GoLoco] motif) near its C-terminus. The RGS domain of RGS14 exhibits GTPase accelerating protein (GAP) activity toward Gαi/o proteins, whil...

Neurotransmitter signaling via G protein coupled receptors is crucially controlled by regulators of G protein signaling (RGS) proteins that shape the duration and extent of the cellular response. In the striatum, members of the R7 family of RGS proteins modulate signaling via D2 dopamine and mu-opioid receptors controlling reward processing and locomotor coordination. Recent findings have estab...

Known RGS proteins stimulate GTPase activity of Gi and Gq family members, but do not interact with Gsalpha and G12alpha. To determine the role of specific Galpha residues for RGS protein recognition, six RGS contact residues of chimeric transducin alpha-subunit (Gtalpha) corresponding to the residues that differ between Gialpha and Gsalpha have been replaced by Gsalpha residues. The ability of ...

A previous study identified MoRgs1 as an RGS protein that negative regulates G-protein signaling to control developmental processes such as conidiation and appressorium formation in Magnaporthe oryzae. Here, we characterized additional seven RGS and RGS-like proteins (MoRgs2 through MoRgs8). We found that MoRgs1 and MoRgs4 positively regulate surface hydrophobicity, conidiation, and mating. Ind...

Human PITX2 mutations are associated with Axenfeld-Rieger syndrome, an autosomal-dominant developmental disorder that involves ocular anterior segment defects, dental hypoplasia, craniofacial dysmorphism and umbilical abnormalities. Characterization of the PITX2 pathway and identification of the mechanisms underlying the anomalies associated with PITX2 deficiency is important for better underst...