The human body’s sense of touch is so important it can be found throughout the body, not just on the skin. Two tiny sensors of touch, Piezo1 and Piezo2, signal the lightest pressures and can be found monitoring the circulatory system, telling the body where its limbs are in space, and even sounding the alarm for bladder pressure. But a new study from Duke University shows that Piezo1 works differently than everyone thought.
“Due to the mechanism that we found, we can basically say this signal that comes from Piezo is also picked up by other proteins, and therefore this really expands how mechanical forces are transduced,” said Jörg Grandl, an associate professor of neurobiology at Duke. “There are other signals that a cell can work with and further understand and interpret. So it opens up a new dimension of signaling.”
The discovery of the existence and ubiquity of Piezo1 and other touch sensors was part of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and has become a hot research topic. Scientists all over the world are a pursuing deeper understanding of these crucial bits of physiology in the hope of being able to develop new therapies for pain and itching sensations and a host of other problems.
By Karl Leif Bates, Duke University
Article can be accessed on: phys.org