experiments in Fig. 5, the cultured microglia (see Supplementary Figure) that had been preincubated with or without ATP (50 mM) were injected intrathecally in normal rats (see Supplementary Methods for full details). ImmunohistochemistryTransverse L5 spinal cord sections (30 mm) were cut and processed for immunohistochemistry with anti-P2X4R antibody (Alomone). Identification of the type of P2X 4 R-positive cells was performed with the following markers: for microglia, OX42 (Chemicon) and iba1 (a gift from S. Kohsaka); for astrocytes, GFAP (Boehringer Mannheim); for spinal cord neurons, NeuN (Chemicon) and MAP2 (Chemicon). To assess immunofluorescence staining of cells quantitatively, we measured the immunofluorescence intensity of the P2X 4 R or OX42 as the average pixel intensity within each cell (see also Supplementary Methods). Western blottingWestern blot analysis of P2X 4 R expression in the membrane fraction from L4-L6 spinal cord was performed with anti-P2X4R polyclonal antibody (Oncogene) as described in detail in the Supplementary Methods. Microglial cultureRat primary cultured microglia were prepared in accordance with the method described previously 28 . In brief, mixed glial culture was prepared from neonatal Wistar rats and maintained for 10-16 days in DMEM medium with 10% fetal bovine serum. Immediately before experiments, microglia were collected by a gentle shake as the floating cells over the mixed glial culture. The microglia were transferred to coverslips or to Eppendorf tubes for subsequent intrathecal administration. StatisticsStatistical analyses of the results were made with Student's t-test, Student's paired t-test or the Mann-Whitney U-test. Lancet 353, 1959Lancet 353, -1964Lancet 353, (1999. 2. Woolf, C. J. & Salter, M. W. Neuronal plasticity: Increasing the gain in pain. Science 288, 1765Science 288, -1769Science 288, (2000. 3. Bo, X., Zhang, Y., Nassar, M., Burnstock, G. & Schoepfer, R. A P2X purinoceptor cDNA conferring a novel pharmacological profile. FEBS Lett. 375, 129-133 (1995). 4. Buell, G., Lewis, C., Collo, G., North, R. A. & Surprenant, A. An antagonist-insensitive P2X receptor expressed in epithelia and brain. EMBO J. 15, 55-62 (1996). 5. Seguela, P., Haghighi, A., Soghomonian, J. J. & Cooper, E. A novel neuronal P2X ATP receptor ion channel with widespread distribution in the brain. J. Neurosci. 16, 448-455 (1996). 6. Soto, F. et al. P2X4: an ATP-activated ionotropic receptor cloned from rat brain. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 93, 3684-3688 (1996). 7. Wang, C. Z., Namba, N., Gonoi, T., Inagaki, N. & Seino, S. Cloning and pharmacological characterization of a fourth P2X receptor subtype widely expressed in brain and peripheral tissues including various endocrine tissues. Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 220, 196-202 (1996 Amyloid diseases are characterized by an aberrant assembly of a specific protein or protein fragment into fibrils and plaques that are deposited in various organs and tissues 1-3 , often with serious pathological consequences. Non-neuropathic systemic...

15 N-1 H NMR spectroscopy has been used to probe the dynamic properties of uniformly 15 N labeled Escherichia coli ribosomes. Despite the high molecular weight of the complex (Ϸ2.3 MDa), [ 1 H-15 N] heteronuclear single-quantum correlation spectra contain Ϸ100 well resolved resonances, the majority of which arise from two of the four C-terminal domains of the stalk proteins, L7͞L12. Heteronuclear pulse-field gradient NMR experiments show that the resonances arise from species with a translational diffusion constant consistent with that of the intact ribosome. Longitudinal relaxation time (T1) and T1 15 N-spin relaxation measurements show that the observable domains tumble anisotropically, with an apparent rotational correlation time significantly longer than that expected for a free L7͞L12 domain but much shorter than expected for a protein rigidly incorporated within the ribosomal particle. The relaxation data allow the ribosomally bound C-terminal domains to be oriented relative to the rotational diffusion tensor. Binding of elongation factor G to the ribosome results in the disappearance of the resonances of the L7͞L12 domains, indicating a dramatic reduction in their mobility. This result is in agreement with cryoelectron microscopy studies showing that the ribosomal stalk assumes a single rigid orientation upon elongation factor G binding. As well as providing information about the dynamical properties of L7͞L12, these results demonstrate the utility of heteronuclear NMR in the study of mobile regions of large biological complexes and form the basis for further NMR studies of functional ribosomal complexes in the context of protein synthesis. P rotein synthesis in living systems takes place on the ribosome, a complex macromolecular assembly whose structural and functional properties are rapidly emerging from a powerful combination of electron microscopy (EM) and x-ray crystallography (1, 2). In Escherichia coli, the ribosome is composed of 54 different proteins and three RNA molecules (23S, 16S, and 5S rRNA) This 2.3-MDa complex is termed the 70S ribosome and is made up of two components, the 30S and 50S subunits. The translation of genetic information into functional proteins involves a number of auxiliary factors, many of which are GTPases, including IF2, EF-Tu, elongation factor G (EF-G), and RF3 (2). These molecules bind to overlapping sites on the 50S subunit and regulate the transition of the ribosome through various states on the translational pathway. The binding sites are collectively known as the GTPase-associated region, due to the role of this region in stimulating the GTPase activity of the auxiliary factors.The GTPase-associated region (GAR) includes helices 42-44 and 95 (the ␣-sarcin loop) of 23S RNA, and the proteins L10, L11, and L7͞L12 (1). The latter (L7͞L12) is located on the ribosomal stalk and is unique among the ribosomal proteins, because it is the only protein present in multiple copies (four proteins per ribosomal particle). Although atomic details of much of the GAR have been reve...