Scientists have found the brain's most miserable molecule - a protein involved in all our feelings of stress, anxiety and depression - paving way for development of new drugs to control it.
Researchers used the Diamond Light Source. Diamond Light Source is the UK’s national synchrotron facility, located at the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire. By accelerating electrons to near light-speed, Diamond generates brilliant beams of light from infra-red to X-rays which are used for academic and industry research. It generates some of the world's most powerful x-ray beams that researchers used to study molecules that jut from the outer surfaces of cells in the brain's pituitary gland.
It is already known that the pituitary plays a crucial role in anxiety and depression by releasing stress chemicals into the blood. However, it was not known how the response was triggered, although a protein named CRF1 was a suspect, 'The Sunday Times' reported.
Researchers work on the protein CRF1 structure, which tells us how it works and, potentially, means they can design drugs to control it.
CRF1 is embedded in the outer membranes of pituitary cells where it looks out for stress molecules released by the hypothalamus.
When it detects one it activates its parent cell to release hormones that, over long periods, cause anxiety and depression.
The powerful accelerator that scientists used illuminated the molecule's entire atomic structure - including a crevice within it that could prove an ideal target for new drugs.
The results were published in journal Nature
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