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The UNESCO-Russia Mendeleev International Prize in the Basic Sciences

Life Sciences International Postgraduate Educational Center is glad to inform that the government of Armenia, in consultation with Armenian National Commission of UNESCO has nominated Prof. Sinerik Ayrapetyan for the 2021 edition of the UNESCO-Russia Mendeleev International Prize in the Basic Sciences.

 

Prof. Sinerik Ayrapetyan has been nominated for his discovery on “Metabolic generation of water efflux from cells as a fundamental mechanism, controlling  quantum-sensitive  semipermeability of cell membrane, the dysfunction of which is a primary mechanism of cell pathology” (the summary of the discovery can be found below)

 

The UNESCO-Russia Mendeleev International Prize in the Basic Sciences aims to promote and honour excellence in the basic sciences, defined to include the disciplines of chemistry, physics, mathematics and biology, the foundation on which scientific knowledge can be propagated and which are fundamental to the advancement of innovation and sustainable development.

 

The UNESCO-Russia Mendeleev International Prize in the Basic Sciences aims to raise awareness of the importance of these disciplines for peaceful and prosperous societies. It was created to foster scientific progress, science popularization and international cooperation.

 

Sinerik Ayrapetyan’s discovery on
“Metabolic generation of water efflux from the cell as a fundamental mechanism, controlling  quantum-sensitive semipermeability of cell membrane, the dysfunction of which is a primary mechanism of cell pathology”

 

 

Sinerik Ayrapetyan is a pioneer in discovering the Na/K pump-dependent   component of membrane potential (MP) of neurons in 1969. The electrogenic Na/K pump function predicts that due to its 3Na:2K stoichiometry and activation of oxidative phosphorylation-induced water formation, it generates net water efflux from cells. Since the Na/K pump in the theory of Nobel laureates Hodgkin and Huxley (HH) was considered as neutral and the water fluxes effects on membrane ionic currents were not considered at all, the physiological role of the Na/K pump in the regulation of cell function was the subject of Ayrapetyan’s  previous 5 decades’ research, leading to the suggestion that the Na/K pump-generated water efflux from cells is a fundamental mechanism, controlling semipermeable properties of cell membrane, the dysfunction of which a primary mechanism of cell pathology. This suggestion was based on Ayrapetyan’s following discoveries:
a)    Transmembrane water fluxes activate ionic currents having the same direction and inactivate those having opposite direction. 
b)    The Na/K pump-generated water efflux controls low Na inward and high K outward permeability of membrane at cell resting state. 
c)    As cell membrane is more permeable to water than to ions, osmotic driving water fluxes precede Na inward and K outward currents through the cell membrane, as in case of generation of action potentials. 
d)    Membrane proteins are in functionally active and inactive (reserve) states depending on the cell membrane surface.
e)    Due to the negative feedback between Na/K pump activity and cell volume, the Na/K pump-induced autoregulation and regulation of membrane excitability and receptor functions are realized.
f)    Negative correlation between the Na/K pump and adenylate cyclase activities, has a crucial protective role in controlling the Na/K pump activity, which is realized by cAMP-dependent activation of Na/Ca exchange in reverse (R) mode. 
g)    Two quantum-sensitive cell membrane mechanisms were discovered   through which the intracellular Ca ([Ca]i)-dependent control of the Na/K pump activity is realized. They are cGMP-dependent Ca efflux from the cell and cAMP-dependent R Na/Ca exchange, which are activated by (10-11-10-10M and 10-9-10-8M) ouabain receptors in cell membrane, respectively. Both families of receptors, having non-canonic ouabain receptor functions, serve as targets through which biological effects of quantum-mechanical signals on cells are realized. 
h)    The activation of cAMP-dependent R Na/Ca exchange because of [Ca]i increase, causes neuronal swelling and muscle contractility, which serves as a key mechanism for neuromuscular pain generation.  
 
These discoveries complement the HH theory in terms of the metabolic regulation of cell membrane function and open a green avenue for new drug development and therapy of different diseases, reinforcing research and education in biophysics, which serves as a powerful tool for solving a number of biotechnological and environmental health control problems, including agro-biotechnology, biosafety for food and water security, as well as in estimation of environmental pollution from the point of public health.