The researchers who won the award published works showing how information networks in the body work and their importance.
By David Issachari
Two characteristics distinguish this year's award recipients. The first is dealing with networks, which of course has received tremendous momentum in recent years in the direction of "artificial networks" of communication and ICT, and especially the Internet. Here we have works showing how information networks in the body work and their importance.
The second is to demonstrate how real the achievements of real science are compared to the many vanity sciences in blah blah, and no balm grows from them for a single Parkinson's patient, and especially the effect of biochemistry on psychopharmacology, the effect on brain activity and their understanding, by understanding biochemistry of the processes there.
I listed the names of the researchers and the institutions from which they came, in a previous news, now I would like to focus a little more on the details.
Each of the three winners has a unique contribution to the understanding of how cellular communication works. In particular, they all contributed to one way of transmitting signals called "slow synaptic transmission". As part of this mechanism, the well-known substance dopamine functions, and a number of drugs have been developed based on it. Benhan, L-Dopa is a drug that is accepted today for the unsympathetic Parkinson's disease, and no less important for the development of Prozac, a drug that lifts our mood wonderfully, especially for those who suffer from depression, or by its professional name Fluoxetine.
Dr. Kalson won the award due to the very important discovery that dopamine is the transmitter, which plays a crucial role in controlling muscle movement. He also had crucial contributions in discovering the mechanisms that lead to schizophrenia. Dr. Gringard's research dealt with mechanisms related to dopamine and other transmitters. He showed that neurotransmitters interact with receptors on the surface of the cell, causing a chain reaction that generates the cell's regulatory proteins. The processes of phosphorylation and dephosphorylation of these proteins change the shape of the proteins and their function. In doing so, they cause the signal to pass through the nervous system.
Dr. Kandel's part was in important discoveries related to the efficiency of processes in the synapse (an area where one neuron transmits a chemical signal to another), and thus to the mechanisms of the transition between short and long-term memory.
D. Kandel also showed that there are areas of the brain where there are very high levels of dopamine. This area is called the basal ganglia, and it is of crucial importance in muscle control. In Parkinson's patients, these nerve endings that reach England - die. This fact causes symptoms such as tremors, muscle stiffness, and movement difficulties.
The signals that pass from one nerve cell to another pass through an area called a synapse, using different substances. Dopamine is made from tyrosine and L-dopa and is stored in the glands at the nerve endings. When a signal passes through the cell, dopamine spills into the synapse and reacts with the substance released by the signal. In the treatment of Parkinson's patients, L-dopa is given as a drug, which turns into dopamine. and compensates for the lack of dopamine in the patient.
Dr. Gringard showed how dopamine and other transmitters exert their effects in nerve cells. When the receptor senses the presence of a transmitter in the synapse, the level of a sending molecule such as cAMP increases. The above activates a protein kinase enzyme, which causes some "key proteins" to undergo phosphorylation (transformation with phosphate). These proteins cause changes in the function of several other proteins in the cell, changing the function of the entire cell.
Thus, step by step, (real) science progresses in a boring but safe way, to reveal the mysteries of life, and to satisfy human needs with medicines.
