The SWISS-PROT protein knowledgebase and its supplement TrEMBL in 2003

The SWISS-PROT protein knowledgebase (http://www.expasy.org/sprot/ and http://www.ebi.ac.uk/swissprot/) connects amino acid sequences with the current knowledge in the Life Sciences. Each protein entry provides an interdisciplinary overview of relevant information by bringing together experimental results, computed features and sometimes even contradictory conclusions. Detailed expertise that goes beyond the scope of SWISS-PROT is made available via direct links to specialised databases. SWISS-PROT provides annotated entries for all species, but concentrates on the annotation of entries from human (the HPI project) and other model organisms to ensure the presence of high quality annotation for representative members of all protein families. Part of the annotation can be transferred to other family members, as is already done for microbes by the High-quality Automated and Manual Annotation of microbial Proteomes (HAMAP) project. Protein families and groups of proteins are regularly reviewed to keep up with current scientific findings. Complementarily, TrEMBL strives to comprise all protein sequences that are not yet represented in SWISS-PROT, by incorporating a perpetually increasing level of mostly automated annotation. Researchers are welcome to contribute their knowledge to the scientific community by submitting relevant findings to SWISS-PROT at [email protected]

The pathophysiology of allergic bronchoconstriction in conscious guinea pigs

Pulmonary resistance was measured in conscious, spontaneously breathing guinea pigs sensitized to horseradish peroxidase before and during 2 aerosolized challenges with this antigen. The first challenge was administered to ensure that all animals were sensitized. A second challenge was administered 10-30 minute later, with the animal having received either atropine or indomethacin. The increase in resistance during the second challenge was similar to that of the first challenge in the indomethacin treated group, but decreased significantly in the atropine treated group. These results show that vagal reflexes are important in allergic bronchoconstriction and that indomethacin in doses large enough to block the synthesis of prostaglandins had no effect on this model of allergic airway disease