News Releases & Research Results High-speed analysis of small motions of a protein that perceives "heat" and "pain" - Guidelines for the development of new analgesics with fewer side effects -

News Releases & Research Results

Outline

The results of the research project conducted by Professor Yuji Sasaki of the Department of Advanced Materials Science, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, the University of Tokyo, Lab Team Leader Kazuhiro Mio and Research Fellow Shoko Fujimura of the Biomolecular Dynamics Team, AIST-UTokyo Advanced Operando-Measurement Technology Open Innovation Laboratory (OPERANDO-OIL), National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), and Professor Yasuteru Shigeta of the Division of Life Sciences, Center for Computational Sciences, University of Tsukuba.

The key results of this research project are as follows:

  • The intramolecular motion of a single “TRP (Transient Receptor Potential) channel,” which perceives heat and pain in humans, was successfully measured in real-time on the order of microseconds for the first time in the world.
  • The TRP channel was demonstrated to bind to capsaicin, a component of hot pepper, for stimulus transmission with extremely gentle clockwise twisting motions.
  • The results of this research project should bolster the understanding of pain perception mechanisms and the development of new analgesics.

This project was conducted with the support of the Advanced Research and Development Programs for Medical Innovation (AMED-CREST) by AMED.

The results of this research project were published online in Journal of Physical Chemistry on December 9.

Article

Fujimura S., et al. Agonist and antagonist diverted twisting motions of single TRPV1 channel The Journal of Physical Chemistry
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcb.0c08250

12/15/20

Last updated 12/15/20