Signal transduction is initiated when a cytokine binds to the extracellular domains of its receptors, bringing them together and triggering a complicated sequence of events inside the cell. In this issue, LaPorte et al. (2008) present crystal structures of three signaling complexes of the cytokines interleukin-4 and interleukin-13 with their receptors, showing how events taking place outside th...

Bottromycins were first isolated from Streptomyces bottropensis by Waisvisz et al.1} and are especially active against Gram-positive bacteria and Mycoplasma1"3^.The complete structure of bottromycin A2 (1), the main active component of the complex, was first proposed by Nakamura et al. in 1966 as a linear peptide4'5), but the structure was revised in 1976 by Takahashi et al.6) to a partly cycli...

The title compound, C10H10BrClN2OS, adopts a trans-cis conformation with respect to the position of the 3-chloro-propanoyl and 4-bromo-phenyl groups, respectively, against the thiono C=S bond across their C-N bonds. The benzene ring makes a dihedral angle of 9.55 (16)° with the N2CS thio-urea moiety. Intra-molecular N-H⋯O and C-H⋯S hydrogen bonds occur. In the crystal, mol-ecules are linked int...