Sensing the Nobel – Blogology

Come October, the global scientific community is abuzz, for scientists who have spent years researching in their respective fields have waited long enough to get their well-deserved recognition in the form of the most esteemed award: The Nobel Prize.

This year was no different; on the 4th of October, The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet awarded the prize to 2 scientists for their discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch.

The scientists, David Julius, at the University of California, San Francisco, and Ardem Patapoutian, at Scripps Research, La Jolla, California, received the highest honour in the scientific community for their critical work in discovering thermal and mechanical transducers.

So what does this discovery mean? Moreover, what impact does this discovery have on our understanding of stimulus transmission in our body?

Answering the what first, since the 20th century, it has been common knowledge that physical factors such as heat and pressure stimulate different nerves in the skin. However, the knowledge of the molecular transducers ¹ responsible for identifying and converting temperature and pressure stimuli into nerve impulses in the sensory nervous system remained a puzzle.

The discovery has allowed the entire mystery to unravel and present itself. To identify a sensor in the skin’s nerve endings that reacts to heat, David Julius used capsaicin, an aromatic compound from chilli peppers that produces a burning sensation.

Ardem Patapoutian used pressure-sensitive cells to discover a novel group of sensors that respond to mechanical stimuli in the skin and internal organs. These breakthrough discoveries launched intensive research activities leading to a rapid understanding of how our nervous system senses heat, cold, and mechanical stimuli.

Now, to the impact of this discovery on our understanding of stimulus transmission.

Behavioural studies of animal models have been critical for understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying temperature and touch. However, it is impossible to fully recapitulate human somatic sensations ² in animals. Thus, for example, we cannot know whether a rodent is experiencing the physical muscular sensation by merely studying its reactions.

Hence, the studies in human subjects with genetic mutations in TRP ³ in addition to the discovery of PIEZO ⁴ proteins represents an entirely new class of mechanosensitive ⁵ channels without any resemblance to previously known protein channel families.

Therefore, both TRP and PIEZO have provided significant insights into the roles of transducing temperature, pain, touch, vibration, and proprioception ⁶.

This year’s Nobel Laureates’ groundbreaking discoveries of the mechanosensitive channels have allowed us to understand how heat, cold and mechanical forces can be felt and converted into nerve impulses that permit us to sense and acclimate to the world around us.

The TRP channels are pivotal to our ability to recognise temperature and the PIEZO channel enables us to sense touch.

The research done by the laureates enables the understanding of the functions of these receptors in a variety of physiological processes to develop treatments for a wide range of disease conditions, including chronic pain.

Citations:

Biological transducers translate physical or chemical stimuli into electrical or chemical signals which the organism can process.
Bodily sensations of touch, pain, temperature, vibration, and proprioception
TRP and its sub-classes of TRPV1 proteins encoded by the TRPV1 gene detect and regulate body temperature and provide a sense of scalding heat and pain
A mechanosensitive channel protein in humans that is encoded by the gene PIEZO1
They are the sensors for a number of systems including the senses of touch, hearing and balance
Perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body

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