Jayateerth S. Bhavikatti, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune, India
Neuroscientist Theanne Griffith says she is amazed by the research on Usherin proteins, as most researchers thought neurons alone participated in passing sensory signals to the brain. The Usherin protein is responsible for touch sensitivity, especially that of tiny vibrations. Gary Lewin et al report that these proteins are present in a microscopic capsule-like structure, viz. “Meissner corpuscle,” surrounding the nerve cells in fingers, in mice and humans.
To investigate the role of Usherin, Gary Lewin and colleagues conducted an experiment with 65 normal healthy human individuals and 13 human individuals with Usher syndrome. Usher syndrome is a result of a mutation in the gene USH2A, due to which the patients suffer from deafness, blindness, and inability to sense small pain(s) in the fingertips. They also conducted experiments using mouse models. The experiments showed that people with Usherin were four times more likely to pick up on the 125-Hz vibrations and 1.5 times more likely to detect the 10-Hz vibrations. In conclusion, this finding adds to the knowledge that some molecules surrounding neurons, which were thought to only support or protect them, also play a vital role such as helping us sense the touch!
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Reference: doi:10.1126/science.abg1226
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