Until the late 1990s, little was known about how the body actually senses temperature and pressure. This is why the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, whose independent research uncovered the receptors that allow us to sense touch and temperature.
The discoveries made by Julius and Patapoutian help solve questions many people have been asking for years, showing us how these stimuli are converted into nerve signals at a molecular level. These discoveries may also have important implications for developing treatments for a variety of conditions, including chronic pain, in the future.
Both researchers began working on this topic in the 1990s, but they approached it in different ways. Julius and his colleagues at the University of California focused on an unconventional compound known as capsaicin, the chemical responsible for the burning sensation we experience when we touch or eat chili peppers. While researchers already knew that capsaicin activated nerve cells causing sensations of pain, Julius aimed to identify which sensors in the nerve endings actually respond to the heat from this compound.
Using lab-grown neurons—human nerve cells—Julius and his team created a library of millions of DNA strands corresponding to genes in the sensory neurons that react to pain, heat, and touch. This eventually led them to identify a single gene responsible for making cells sensitive to capsaicin. The gene allows cells to build a protein called TRPV1, which causes these receptors to perceive the heat from capsaicin as painful.
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