Researchers at the Medical University of Vienna have made immense strides toward knowing how humans perceive heat. Their latest study describes details on cellular mechanisms involved in the recognition of heat, which largely was unknown until now about the process underlying this sensation.
The team of researchers led by the head of the Centre for Physiology and Pharmacology, Michael Fischer from MedUni Vienna, has now investigated how the human organism perceives noxious levels of heat. In the latest study, which has just been published in the journal Science Advances, 48 healthy volunteers were subjected to a newly developed heat pain model that allows researchers, for the first time, to investigate the involvement of cellular elements in heat perception.
The research team found that, surprisingly, heat pain detection is vastly different between humans and mice. Some of the cell structures known to play roles in the detection of heat in mice include TRPV1, TRPA1, TRPM3, and ANO1. These are important proteins critical for both environmental and internal condition detection. Surprisingly, however, the researchers found that three out of these four cell structures. TRPA1, ANO1, and TRPM3-do do not contribute to heat detection in humans.
With this new heat pain model, the authors excluded the participation of TRPA1, ANO1, and TRPM3 in the human heat perception process. This discovery has become important because it underlines a key difference in mechanisms of heat detection between mice and humans. Furthermore, it has also been verified that the protein highly recognized, TRPV1, which has already been noted for detecting spicy foods. It is the most sensitive component in recognizing heat in humans.
Surprisingly, the study also found that, although TRPV1 has continuously been important in detecting injurious heat. There exists, in real life, other unidentified molecular mechanisms that play a main role in avoiding heat and pain perception. Thus, while inhibiting TRPV1 greatly reduced pain due to high temperatures, most heat-induced pain was resistant to this inhibition. Therefore, our understanding of the detection of heat is incomplete and there are other factors.
It is significant, according to Michael Fischer, who led the research. “These findings open up new avenues in research into recognizing and preventing heat damage. And could lead to new therapies in the long term,” he said. The fact that the discovery of TRPV1 is central in the detection of heat. While other mechanisms by which it promotes the avoidance of heat are less well known, does make further research promising. Since each finding makes the whole process more complex about how we perceive and react to heat.
In this respect, the investigation at hand significantly furthers the discipline of sensory physiology. It offers an opportunity not only for a fuller explanation of the mechanism of heat reception. But also for the treatment of heat-related ailments. Continuing to study these mechanisms, researchers may find ways to restrict the destructive effect of heat. And increase our ability to resist extreme temperatures.
In all, results from the Medical University of Vienna give important insights into human heat perception. Identifying the key role of TRPV1 and further investigation of other molecular mechanisms point to a further understanding of how we perceive heat and will also open the door to future therapeutic developments.
ANI
