I read this week, in a NY Times profile of Dr. Arthur Horvich, about research by him and his colleagues in understanding a key protein in the human cell (as well as in the cells of other critters) called “Hot Spot Protein 60”, or HSP60 for short.
Proteins start out just as strings of amino acids. But in order to be useful in the cell, they need to fold into particular geometric shapes. Over half a century ago, Christian Anfinsen and others discovered that proteins, removed from a cell and isolated in test tubes, could still fold properly into their useful shape (work for which Anfinsen and his colleagues won the 1972 Nobel Prize in chemistry). Since then biochemists have widely assumed that proteins in the cell can fold properly without needing to be inside a cell.
Unfortunately, things don’t always work out that way inside the cell. Many diseases, including Alzheimer’s, stem from proteins failing to fold properly. The cell is a crowded place, with lots of things going on at the same time. All that bustle and chemical activity can interfere with a protein’s ability to fold correctly.
HSP60, as Dr. Horvich and his colleagues eventually discovered, acts as a tiny barrel-shaped isolation chamber. A single protein enters one side of this barrel, and the barrel lid shuts for about 10 seconds, giving the protein the peace and quiet it needs to fold properly. The lid then opens, the protein drifts out, and another protein gets a chance to have its personal space.
What strikes me about this is what it says about the universality of the need to personal space, for a “time out”. Human lives are complicated. We are constantly bouncing off each other, jostling and jumbling around and interacting with other nearby humans. Sometimes, with all that activity going on, we can find ourselves bent out of shape. And then things don’t work so well.
Most of the time we get by just fine. But every once in a while, we each need to find our own little HSP60.