Protein 'Kiss of Death' Team Win Chemistry Nobel

Wed 6 October, 2004 23:41
By Simon Johnson and Stephen Brown

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Two Israelis and an American won the 2004 Nobel Prize for Chemistry on Wednesday for helping to understand how the human body gives the "kiss of death" to rogue proteins to defend itself from diseases like cancer.

Aaron Ciechanover and Avram Hershko and American Irwin Rose won for work in the 1980s that could help treat illnesses like leukemia and cystic fibrosis by identifying how the body "degrades" unwanted proteins.

"When the degradation does not work correctly, we fall ill. Cervical cancer and cystic fibrosis are two examples," said the Academy in its citation, adding that such knowledge "offers an opportunity to develop drugs against these diseases and others."

The scientists found that the unwanted proteins which could, for example, lead to errors in cell replication or genetic coding are "labeled" for destruction with a molecule called ubiquitin. It sends them to "waste disposal" units, called proteasomes, where they are chopped into small pieces.

"We are not a building that stays still, we are all the time exchanging our proteins, synthesizing and destroying them," said an elated Ciechanover. "Some proteins get spoilt. We discovered the process by which the body exercises quality control."

Lars Thelander of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry said the trio's work was highly relevant for cancer research.

Ciechanover told Reuters it had already "led to development of numerous drugs for degenerative diseases and malignancies that big pharmaceutical companies are busy working on."

One drug based on the research is the bone marrow cancer drug Velcade made by Millennium Pharmaceuticals.