Two American Scientists Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Two American Scientists Win Nobel Prize in Chemistry
Tharun Sankar
Summary: Two scientists, Dr. Robert J. Lefkowitz and Dr. Brian K. Kobilka just recently won the Nobel prize in Chemistry for finally bringing an understanding of how protein receptors work in the human body. Before the discovery of these Lefkowitz and Kobilka, scientists knew that there were receptor proteins sticking out of the cell membrane that took signals from other places in the body. For example, adrenaline never enters cells, but it still triggers reactions like focused vision and it causes a person's heart to beat faster than normal. Scientists knew that the adrenaline interacted with receptor proteins, causing a class of proteins called G proteins to set off a chain of reactions, but they did not understand exactly how these receptor proteins worked. Lefkowitz and Koblika found that the receptor proteins changed shape when a substance such as adrenaline was inserted, and this changed in shape allowed the receptor protein to touch a G protein next to the receptor, setting off the chain. This discovery can help medicine development in the future because many drugs attach to unintended receptors, causing side effects. Now that scientists know the structure of these proteins and how they work, they could make drugs more selective for their intended purpose.
Relevance: This article is relevant to our studies because we have been discussing cells, cell membranes, and the different kinds of proteins that are in our cell membranes. This article goes more in-depth and reveals more information about one of the kind of proteins that is found in our cell membranes, the receptor protein. It also talks about the discovery of the previously unknown structure of the receptor protein.
Author: Kenneth Chang
Date of Publication: 10/10/2012
How were the scientists able to understand how protein receptors worked?
ReplyDeleteShawnae: The scientists first isolated the gene that created these receptor proteins to possibly show how the proteins were made and their structure. After going through the painstaking process of isolating the gene, they realized that the structure of the protein, in this case a protein that binded with adrenaline, was very similar to the structure of the light receptor in the eye. This led them to believe that all receptor proteins had a similar structure. This discovery led them to eventually mapping the protein out.
DeleteWhat are some possible medicines that this discovery can lead to?
ReplyDeleteLuke: While in my research I could not find any specific drugs, many medicines rely on interacting with these receptor proteins. Knowing their structure can help eliminate many side effects and become more "focused" on the intended task. Some categories of medicines that use receptor proteins are beta blockers, which are used to protect the heart from a second heart attack, antihistamines, which are used for allergies in reaction to certain proteins, and many psychiatric medications.
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