Cyclic ADP-ribose as a universal calcium signal molecule in the nervous system

金沢大学大学院医学系研究科脳細胞分子学β-NAD+ is as abundant as ATP in neuronal cells. β-NAD+ functions not only as a coenzyme but also as a substrate. β-NAD+-utilizing enzymes are involved in signal transduction. We focus on ADP-ribosyl cyclase/CD38 which synthesizes cyclic ADP-ribose (cADPR), a universal Ca2+ mobilizer from intracellular stores, from β-NAD+. cADPR acts through activation/modulation of ryanodine receptor Ca2+ releasing Ca2+ channels. cADPR synthesis in neuronal cells is stimulated or modulated via different pathways and various factors. Subtype-specific coupling of various neurotransmitter receptors with ADP-ribosyl cyclase confirms the involvement of the enzyme in signal transduction in neurons and glial cells. Moreover, cADPR/CD38 is critical in oxytocin release from the hypothalamic cell dendrites and nerve terminals in the posterior pituitary. Therefore, it is possible that pharmacological manipulation of intracellular cADPR levels through ADP-ribosyl cyclase activity or synthetic cADPR analogues may provide new therapeutic opportunities for treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders. © 2007

Extending Erlang for Safe Mobile Code Execution

This paper discusses extensions to the functional language Erlang which provide a secure execution environment for remotely sourced code. This is in contrast to much existing work which has focused on securing procedural languages. Using a language such as Erlang provides a high degree of inherent run-time safety, which means effort can be focused on providing a suitable degree of system safety. We found that the main changes needed were the use of unforgeable (capability) references with access rights to control the use of system resources; the provision of a hierarchy of execution nodes to provide custom views of the resources available and to impose utilisation limits; and support for remote module loading. We then discuss prototype implementations of these changes, used to evaluate their utility and impact on visibility for the users of the language, and mention work in progress using this foundation to specify safety policies by filtering messages to server processes...