Work done in the lab of Prof. Samir K. Maji at BSBE, IIT Bombay
Dr. Debdeep Chatterjee pursued his graduation and post-graduation degree in Chemistry with a specialization in Organic Chemistry. He has earned his Ph.D. in functional amyloidosis at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) – Bombay and started working as a Post Doctoral Fellow in the DZNE, Göttingen, Germany.
Amyloid is the term frequently associated with protein aggregates and has been established as a hallmark of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Extensive research showed that even healthy tissues can contain amyloid deposits. In line with the observations, protein/peptide hormones can form amyloid aggregate to function as a storage container and release the non-aggregated functional hormone when the body requires so.
Amyloid can be formed by a single protein or by co-aggregation of multiple proteins. Often amyloid fragments, which are termed as “seeds”, can induce aggregation of other protein, for example,amyloid aggregates from Alzheimer’s disease can induce amyloid aggregation of the proteins responsible for Parkinson’s disease and type II diabetes. This raises the possibility that co-aggregation or cross-seeding of proteins can also take place for functional hormones.
In our study, we showed that prolactin and galanin hormones are stored together in the female rat anterior pituitary as amyloid co-aggregate. Further, it was demonstrated that prolactin seeds alone can induce galanin aggregation, however, the galanin seeds were unable to induce prolactin aggregation. We have also shown that co-aggregated amyloids of prolactin and galanin are more efficient in releasing functional hormones compared to the individual hormone amyloid aggregate. Collectively, our study shows that the interplay between prolactin and galanin maintains optimum hormone balance in the body.
Maintaining hormone levels in the body is crucial as dysregulation in hormone storage can lead to diseases like prolactinoma. Our study on prolactin/galanin co-aggregation gives a more elaborate understanding of hormone storage which inturn can give new insights into controlling hormone secretion.
“Our study shows that the interplay between prolactin and galanin maintains optimum hormone balance in the body.”
With the gradual accumulation of the experimental findings, we have understood that co-storage of prolactin and galanin are beneficial for their individual storage and function. This fundamental finding of synergistic relation between two structurally and functionally different hormones was quite exciting and motivating.
Our research has paved the way to explore more possible combinations of hormones of the pituitary which can possess similar structure-function relationships. To dig into these possibilities is another challenging task and I hope to address one such possibility in near future.
There are many factors that keep my motivation up including a healthy work environment, a supportive supervisor and the itch to answer complex and intricate questions.
Indian science has marched forward in manifold aspects, however,some sectors still need to be addressed. Through more collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches and importantly with more funding resources, the goal of Indian science should be to focus more on fundamental research problems.
Debdeep Chatterjee, Reeba S Jacob, Soumik Ray, Ambuja Navalkar, Namrata Singh, Shinjinee Sengupta, Laxmikant Gadhe, Pradeep Kadu, Debalina Datta, Ajoy Paul, Sakunthala Arunima, Surabhi Mehra, Chinmai Pindi, Santosh Kumar, Praful Singru, Sanjib Senapati, Samir K Maji. Co-aggregation and secondary nucleation in the life cycle of human prolactin/galanin functional amyloids. https://elifesciences.org/articles/73835
Edited by: Pragya Gupta
Surabhi Sonam
Surabhi Sonam is an Assistant Professor. Along with teaching and research, she has a very strong interest in science communication. She has written several poems and blogs to communicate scientific principles and concepts. She is also volunteering with several science communication platforms as a content contributor and content editor. Under her supervision, her students have launched a scicomm magazine, Scinion which represents science in verbal and visual forms.
Sejal Dixit
Sejal Dixit is currently a 3rd-year student pursuing BSc triple majors in biotechnology, zoology, and chemistry from CHRIST (Deemed to be University). She loves to read, be it short stories, novels, magazines, or research articles. She is working with her college professor on a few papers, and wishes to pursue her master’s degree in stem cells and regenerative medicines. She has no problem socializing with new people and possesses leadership qualities. Her hobbies are dancing and traveling.
For interview related queries, write to us at interview.biopatrika@gmail.com