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The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1994
Alfred G. Gilman, Martin Rodbell
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1994
Nobel Prize Award Ceremony
Alfred G. Gilman
Martin Rodbell
Press Release
NOBELFÖRSAMLINGEN KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET
THE NOBEL ASSEMBLY AT THE KAROLINSKA INSTITUTE
10 October 1994
The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska
Institute has today decided to award the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine for 1994 jointly to
Alfred G. Gilman and Martin Rodbell
for their discovery of "G-proteins and the role of these
proteins in signal transduction in cells".
Summary
It has been known for some time that cells communicate with
each other by means of hormones and other signal
substances, which are released from glands, nerves and
other tissues. It is only recently that we have begun to
understand how the cell handles this information from the
outside and converts it into relevant action - i.e. how
signals are transduced in cells.
The discoveries of the G-proteins by the Americans
Alfred G. Gilman and Martin Rodbell have been
of paramount importance in this context, and have opened up
a new and rapidly expanding area of knowledge.
G-proteins have been so named because they bind guanosine
triphosphate (GTP). Gilman and Rodbell found that
G-proteins act as signal transducers, which transmit and
modulate signals in cells. G-proteins have the ability to
activate different cellular amplifier systems. They receive
multiple signals from the exterior, integrate them and thus
control fundamental life processes in the cells.
Disturbances in the function of G-proteins - too much or
too little of them, or genetically determined alterations
in their composition - can lead to disease. The dramatic
loss of salt and water in cholera is a direct consequence
of the action of cholera toxin on G-proteins. Some
hereditary endocrine disorders and tumours are other
examples. Furthermore, some of the symptoms of common
diseases such as diabetes or alcoholism may depend on
altered transduction of signals through G-proteins.
Signal transduction in cells
We are made up of thousands of billions of cells that must
act in concert to allow us to perform our daily activities
and to meet challenges. This cooperation is achieved partly
by cells communicating with each other through chemical
signals. Hormones and other signal molecules are released
from glands, nerves and other tissues. The chemical signals
attach to specific recognition molecules, receptors,
on the cell surface. These receptors transmit the signals
to the interior of the cell. The important features of the
communication between cells have been known for some
time. On the other hand, the transduction of signals in
cells was unclear until Alfred G. Gilman and
Martin Rodbell made their discoveries.
The cell is surrounded by a membrane, largely composed of
lipids, that effectively separates the outside of the cell
from its inside. Earl
Sutherland, USA, received the Nobel Prize in 1971 for
his discoveries concerning the mechanism of action of
hormones. He showed that the signal that is used to
communicate between cells ("the first messenger") is
converted to a signal that acts inside the cell ("the
second messenger"). It was known that this signal
conversion occurred in the cell membrane, but not much more
was understood about the processes involved.
Martin Rodbell and his coworkers at the National Institutes of Health in
Bethesda, USA, demonstrated, in a set of pioneering
experiments conducted in the late 1960's and early 1970's,
that the signal transduction through the cell membrane
involves a cooperative action of three different functional
entities (Fig. 1).
It all starts with the chemical signal binding specifically
to its receptor in the cell membrane. Since the receptor
determines which signal molecules it will bind it
functions, to use Rodbell's nomenclature, as a
discriminator.
The amplifier generates large amounts of the
intracellular "second messenger", for example cyclic AMP.
Rodbell was one of the first to realize that the
discriminator/receptor was distinct from the amplifier.
However, his major discovery was the demonstration of a
separate transducer function. It provides a link
between the discriminator and the amplifier and thus plays
a key role in signal transduction. Rodbell found that the
transducer was driven by guanosine 5'-triphosphate, GTP, an
energy rich compound. He also found that there may be
several transducers.
Figure 1. Martin Rodbell showed in 1971 that the transduction of a message from the exterior of the cell to its interior requires the cooperation of three functional units: 1) a discriminator (receptor) that recognizes different extracellular signals (first messengers), 2) a transducer that requires GTP, and 3) an amplifier that generates large quantities of a second messenger.
Alfred G. Gilman, working at the University of
Virginia in Charlottesville, USA, decided to determine
the chemical nature of Rodbell's transducer. He used several
kinds of leukemia cells with altered genetic setup. Gilman
found that one mutated leukemia cell possessed a normal
receptor and a normal amplifier protein that generated cyclic
AMP as a second messenger. Despite this, the cell failed to
respond normally when challenged with signals from outside -
nothing happened.
Gilman showed that these mutated cells lacked the transducer
function. After many years of work, he and his collaborators
during the latter years of the 1970's found - and in 1980
eventually purified - a protein in normal cells that when
transferred into the membrane of the cell defective cell
restored its function (Fig 2).
Figure 2. Alfred Gilman and
his coworkers used leukemia cells to identify and
demonstrate G-proteins. Normal leukemia cells respond with
a normal biological response to the appropriate first
messenger. In mutated cells, however, no response was
evoked, because the cells lacked the G-protein. The
function could be restored by G-protein derived from
another tissue such as brain.
Thus, the first G-protein was discovered. It was given the
name now commonly used, G-protein, because it reacts with
GTP. Due to the discoveries of Gilman and Rodbell and their
work, several laboratories turned to the area. Therefore we
now know a great deal about the functions of G-proteins and
how they control the activities of the cell.
A protein in shuttle
service
G-proteins are composed of three separate peptide chains of
different length, each existing in multiple forms. They are
denoted alpha, beta and gamma, the first three letters of
the Greek alphabet. All three are encoded by specific genes
in the cell nucleus. Combinations of the different peptide
chains allow the generation of some hundred different
G-proteins. The alpha subunit, which is the largest, can
bind GTP. When that happens, in a process stimulated by the
receptor, the G-protein is converted to its active form. In
this form it can turn on the formation of the second
messenger, for example cyclic AMP. The G-protein converts
GTP to GDP and reverts to an inactive form (Fig 3). The
G-protein thus shuttles between the hormone receptor and
the amplifier system in the cell membrane, being
alternatively switched on or off.
Figure 3. G-proteins act as
molecular switches. The hormonal signal allows the G-protein
to exchange GDP for GTP. The G-protein is thereby activated
and several different amplifier systems can be activated.
This leads to different changes in the cell. The signal is
switched off again as GTP is converted to GDP.
There are thus several types of G-proteins. Each is activated
by only some receptors and can in turn stimulate some
specific amplifier systems. In this way characteristic
responses in the cells are generated. In the retina of the
eye there are specific G-proteins that convert the light
signal to activation of those nerve fibers that convey visual
stimuli to the brain. Our sense of smell depends on specific
G-proteins in the olfactory cells, and the sensation of taste
is related to yet other types of G-proteins.
Some G-proteins stimulate - other inhibit - the formation of
cyclic AMP and hence the cellular metabolism. Some G-proteins
alter the flux of ions over the cell membranes and thus the
activity of the cell. G-proteins affect protein
phosphorylation, and exert control over cell division and
differentiation.
G-proteins and disease
Many symptoms of disease are explained by an altered function
of G-proteins. A prime example is given by cholera, one of
the most feared gastrointestinal infectious diseases. The
disease is caused by cholera bacteria that produce a very
poisonous cholera toxin. The toxin acts as an enzyme that
alters one of the G-proteins in such a manner that it is
locked in the active form. The traffic light is stuck on
green. This prevents salt and water to be normally absorbed
from the intestines. The resulting loss of water and salt can
lead to dehydration and death. Symptoms after infection with
some coli bacteria appear to have a similar background. A
toxin produced by pertussis bacteria instead prevents the
activation of some G-proteins. This can lead to a compromised
immune defence.
In some common disease states the amounts of G-proteins in
cells are altered. There can be too much or too little of
them. In for example diabetes and in alcoholism there may be
some symptoms that are due to altered signalling via
G-proteins.
In animals it has been shown that a reduced expression of
G-proteins can lead to altered development and to metabolic
disturbances. In man it has been shown that mutated and
overactive G-proteins are a characteristic of some tumors. An
overactive G-protein is also found in a rare genetic
endocrine disorder - McCune-Albrights syndrome - that is also
characterized by so called cafe au lait spots on the skin.
Yet another mutation of a G-protein, in this case causing a
reduced activity, leads to disrupted calcium metabolism and
skeletal deformations.
MLA style: "Physiology or Medicine 1994 - Press Release". Nobelprize.org. 7 Jun 2011 http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1994/press.html