Abstract

Notable and Anniversary Dates in Biochemistry for 2005

N. P. Voskresenskaya and E. N. Bylinsky, Compilers

Department of History of Medicine and Public Health, National Institute of Public Health, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Moscow, Russia

150th anniversary of the discovery of the ability of the liver to secret glucose and introduction of the term “internal secretion” (C. Bernard, 1855).

150th anniversary of the introduction of the concept of catalysis in chemistry (J. Berzelius, 1855).

125th anniversary of the organization of the journal Science (USA, 1880).

100th anniversary of the discovery of carnitine, an extractible substance in muscles (V. S. Gulevich, R. P. Krimberg, 1905).

100th anniversary of the isolation of the first coenzyme, cozymase (NAD) (A. Harden, W. Joung, 1905).

100th anniversary of the discovery of beta-oxidation of fatty acids (F. Knoop, 1905).

100th anniversary of the synthesis of epinephrine (this was the first synthesis of a hormone, F. Stolz, H. D. Dakin, 1905).

100th anniversary of the organization of The Journal of Biological Chemistry (Bethesda, USA, 1905).

75th anniversary of the discovery of respiratory phosphorylation at the cell level, i.e., of the aerobic resynthesis of ATP coupled with cell respiration (V. A. Engelhardt, 1930-1932).

75th anniversary of the preparation of crystalline pepsin (J. Northrop, 1930).

75th anniversary of “Die Chemische Vorgange im Muskel” (Chemical Processes in Muscle, O. Meyerhof, 1930).

75th anniversary of the First Moscow Medical Institute (now Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy) (1930).

50th anniversary of the finding in hypothalamus of a substance stimulating secretion of adrenocorticotropic hormone (corticotropin) (R. Guillemin, B. Rosenberg, 1955).

January 11 - 100th anniversary of the birth of Vasilii Nikolaevich Orekhovich (1905-1997, born in village of Aleshino Bronnitskii Uezd, Moscow Guberniya), Russian biochemist, Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Director of the Institute of Biological and Medical Chemistry (1949-1989) (now Orekhovich Institute of Biomedical Chemistry, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences). His main works concern chemistry and biochemistry of proteins and protein structure in connection with their specific functions in the body; studied changes in enzymes during tissue regeneration, embryogenesis, and malignization; proposed a theory of dependence of the organism's susceptibility to tumors and the rate of tumor growth on resistance of tissue proteins. He discovered a new group of collagen proteins, procollagens, and studied their chemical structure and pathways of transformation in the body; discovered a new proteolytic enzyme carboxycathepsin, studied its properties, and showed the role in regulation of production and degradation of angiotensins and bradykinin, of vascular tonus and production of the releasing factor stimulating secretion of some pituitary hormones. His studies on chemistry of the eye lens proteins gained world recognition (in 1957 he was awarded a medal of the French Biochemical Society). He interpreted the structure of human thrombin. Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third edition; Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences Prof. V. I. Orekhovich (1980) Vopr. Med. Khim., No. 2, 278-279; Biologists: Reference Book on Biographies (1984) Naukova Dumka, Kiev, p. 473.

January 11- 200th anniversary of the death of F. Fontana (1730-1805), Italian chemist and naturalist. In 1774, he determined the content of oxygen in atmospheric air; in 1777 discovered (concurrently with K. Scheele) an ability of a freshly annealed charcoal to absorb gases. In 1782, he found that an inflammable gas (mixture of H₂ with CO) was produced when water was passed through glowing charcoal. In the second half of the XVIII century, he showed (among others) infectiousness of smut, ergot, rust, and other plant diseases. In 1781, he published drawings of animal cells with nuclei. Literature: Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Juia, M. (1975) History of Chemistry [Russian translation from Italian], Second Edition, Moscow.

February - 25th anniversary of the death of W. Stein (1911-1980), American biochemist, member of the American National Academy of Sciences. He performed analysis of amino acids detected in various proteins, with special attention to ribonuclease. Jointly with S. Moore, he established the amino acid sequence of ribonuclease, and highly purified samples of this enzyme were prepared by ion-exchange chromatography. By destruction of chemical bonds in the protein, a mixture of 15 peptides was obtained which were separated by chromatography. They established the amino acid sequence and elaborated an automated setup for determination of amino acid composition of protein hydrolyzates. In 1972, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (jointly with S. Moore and C. Anfinsen) for contribution to elucidation of relation between the chemical structure and catalytic effect of the active center of the ribonuclease molecule. Bibliography: The Composition of Elastin (1938). Literature: The Nobel Prize Winners, in The Encyclopedia: M-Ya (1992) Progress, Moscow; Science (1972) November 3; Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition, 3, 206; 16, 20; Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition, 24, 398.

February 19 - 125th anniversary of the death of Nikolai Nikolaevich Zinin (1812-1880), Russian chemist, Academician of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Paris Academy of Sciences. He was the author of a fundamental discoveries in chemistry, the universal method of synthesis of aromatic amines (aniline, etc.) by reducing nitro compounds (the so-called Zinin reaction). In 1856 from aniline and other amines, first synthetic dyes were obtained, and many of which are still used in medicine and histology (Methylene Blue, Brilliant Green, etc.). The Zinin reaction is used in production of many drugs (sulfonamides, Novocain, analginum). He was one of founders of the Russian Chemical Society and its first President (1868-1878). Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition.

March 11 - 50th anniversary of the death of A. Fleming (1881-1955), English microbiologist and biochemist, member of the London Royal Society (1943). From 1946 to 1954, he was Leader of the Institute of Microbiology in London. His studies concern problems of vaccination, diagnosis, and etiology of infectious diseases, bacteriological diagnosis, and development of approaches to treatment of wound infection. He proposed a serological micro method for diagnosis of syphilis and was the first in England who used salvarsan in the treatment of syphilis. He studied the etiologic role of hemophilic bacillus in wound infection, developed quantitative methods for determination of efficiency of various antiseptics applied to different microorganisms. He discovered antibiotics lysozyme (1922) and penicillin (1929), but in the early 1930s, attempts to prepare a stable purified penicillin were unsuccessful. The works with the Penicillium strain were recommenced during the Second World War (1939-1945) in Oxford, and penicillin was isolated and purified, subjected to biomedical studies, and its use in patients was started. In 1945, he shared the Nobel Prize with H. Flory and E. Chain for discovery of penicillin, its preparation, and use in medicine. Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia and Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Editions; The Nobel Prize Winners, in Encyclopedia: M-Ya (1992) Progress, Moscow.

May 20 - 100th anniversary of the birth of E. T. Sorenyi (1905-1959), Hungarian biochemist, member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, winner of the USSR State Prize (1952). From 1934 he worked in the Institute of Biochemistry, Academy of Sciences of Ukrainian SSR, from 1944 was Leader of the Laboratory of Tissue Proteins. From 1949, he was Chief of the Institute of Biochemistry, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, which was organized by him in Budapest. His main works concern problems of tissue metabolism and enzymology. He studied cell respiration and the mechanism of the Pasteur effect. He was the first to prepare the enzyme ATP-argininepherase in a crystalline form. He studied (jointly with M. F. Guloi) chemistry of the antibiotic microcide, studied properties of crystalline enzymes of muscles, their structure and active centers. Literature: Biologists: Reference Book on Biographies (1984) Naukova Dumka, Kiev, pp. 588-589.

August 11 - 100th anniversary of the birth of E. Chargaff (1905-?), American biochemist, member of the American National Academy of Sciences. His main studies concerned chemical composition and structure of nucleic acids and determined quantitative ratios of nitrogen bases in them. He found (1950-1953) that the total number of adenine residues in each DNA molecule equals to the number of thymine residues, and the number of guanine residues equals to the number of cytosine residues. This discovery (the Chargaff rule) was used by F. Crick and J. Watson for designing the model of DNA structure. Chargaff showed that DNA was species-specific. He was awarded the Pasteur Gold Medal of the French Biochemical Society (1949) and by the C. Neuberg Medal of the American Society of Chemists and Pharmacists (1958). See: Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition, 3, 206; 5, 256; 26, 67; 27, 245; Biologists: Reference Book on Biographies (1984) Naukova Dumka, Kiev, p. 685.

August 12 - 50th anniversary of the death of J. Sumner (1887-1955), American biochemist, member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA). His main works concern protein chemistry and enzyme crystallization. In 1926 he discovered an enzyme catalyzing degradation of urea, isolated it in crystalline form, and named urease (it was the first crystalline enzyme); developed approaches for crystallization of a number of enzymes. He was the first to show that preparation of a crystalline enzyme canavalin (from beans) was a pure protein. He was an author of a four-volume work about enzymes (jointly with K. Mirbeck). In 1946, he shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with W. Stanley and J. Northrop for preparation of crystalline protein. Bibliography and literature: see Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition.

August 20 - 90th anniversary of the death of P. Ehrlich (1854-1915), German physician, pharmacologist, immunologist, and biochemists, one of initiators of chemotherapy. He established the existence of different kind of leukocytes, the significance of bone marrow for generation of granulocytes, differentiated certain forms of leukemia, and proposed a dual theory of hemopoiesis (1880-1898). He found in connective tissue the so-called mast cells and was the first to detect the existence of a blood-brain barrier. He elaborated specific staining of tuberculosis mycobacteria and multicolor staining of blood smears and histological preparations (the Ehrlich-Biondy staining). He developed approaches for determination of activity of antitoxic sera and in vitro study of the antigen-antibody reaction. He suggested that cells responsible for immune reactions should have on their surface antigen-recognizing structures, receptors. Jointly with Y. Margenroth, he established the ability of antigens to selectively bind the corresponding antigens in immune serum (1899); introduced concepts of hetero-, iso-, and autohemolysins. His works on treatment human spirillosis and syphilis with organic arsenic compounds became known. In 1907, he developed the highly effective preparation 606 salvarsan for treatment of syphilis. He proposed for clinical practice a number of laboratory reactions, including the determination of indole and its derivatives (Ehrlich's reaction). In 1908, he won the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine (jointly with I. I. Mechnikov) for works in immunology. Bibliography: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Grundlagen und Erfolge der Chemotherapie (1911), Leipzig. Literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; The Nobel Prize Winners, in the Encyclopedia: M-Ya (1992) Progress, Moscow; William, J. H. (1951) Between Life and Death.

August 29 - 100th anniversary of the birth of Andrei Nikolaevich Belozersky (1905-1972, born in Tashkent), Russian biochemist, Academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Vice-President of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1971-1972). From 1946 to 1960, he was leader of a laboratory in the Bach Institute of Biochemistry, the USSR Academy of Sciences, from 1960 Chief of the Chair of Plant Biochemistry, Moscow State University. From 1965 to 1972, he was Director of the Inter-Faculty Laboratory of Bioorganic Chemistry created by him (Moscow State University). He worked in the field of chemistry and biochemistry of nucleic acids; was the first to detect (1936) in nuclear nucleoproteins non-alkaline proteins and studied their structure and location. He found two types of bonds between nucleic acids and proteins: “fast” and salt-like ones; revealed the dependence of growth and development of organisms on content and biosynthesis of nucleic acids, established regularities in nucleic acid changes during ontogeny of plants, showed the species-associated specificity of nucleic acids, and found the relation between the nucleic acid composition and phylogeny of organisms and their systematic position. In 1957, he predicted (jointly with A. S. Spirin) the discovery of messenger RNA. He also studied composition and biochemical functions of subcellular structures in microorganisms, structure and nucleotide sequence of DNA, biological role of polyphosphates, etc. Bibliography: Molecular Biology Is a New Step in Knowledge of Nature (1970), Sovetskaya Rossiya, Moscow; Biochemistry of Nucleic Acids and Nucleoproteins: Selected Works (1976) Nauka, Moscow. Literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia and Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Editions; A. N. Belozersky (1973) Biokhimiya, No. 1, 1-2; Mel'gunov, V. I. (1981) Biol. Nauki, No. 10, 107-112; Biologists: Reference Book on Biographies (1984) Naukova Dumka, Kiev, pp. 54-55; Spirin, A. S. (1985) Vestn. Akad. Nauk SSSR, No. 8, 127-132.

September 20 - 80th anniversary of the birth of Igor Petrovich Ashmarin (1925, born in Leningrad), Russian biochemist, Academician of Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, the State Prize Winner (1977). Chief of the Chair of Biochemistry, Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) University (1965-1975), from 1975 to 1980 Professor of the Chair of Biochemistry, and from 1987 Chief of the Chair of Human and Animal Physiology, Moscow State University. His works concern biochemistry of contractile muscle proteins, comparative biochemistry of chromatin from various tissues, phylogenetic relations between composition of chromosomal DNA of bacteria with their ecological features. He also studied antibacterial and antiviral activities of cationic proteins of chromatin and lysosomes, revealed (with colleagues) cooperativity in the action of cationic proteins and excreted enzymes of lysosomes that resulted in revision of the role of exocytosis in defensive functions of leukocytes. He proposed the hypothesis about the evolutionary unity of different forms of biological memory and developed a concept about involvement of immunochemical mechanisms in some forms of memory, showed the effect of stimulators of immunogenesis on long-term memory. I. P. Ashmarin and his school develop a fundamentally new method of immunoregulation of physiological functions, which seems promising for prolonged correction of such conditions as alcoholism and depressions. Bibliography: see Great Medical Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Elements of Pathophysiology and Pathobiochemistry (1992), MGU Publishers, Moscow. Literature: I. P. Ashmarin (2000) Vestn. Ros. Akad. Med. Nauk, No. 9, 59-60.

September 24 - 100th anniversary of the birth of S. Ochoa (1905-1993), American biochemist, member of the American National Academy of Sciences, President of the International Union of Biochemists (1961-1967), foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences (1966). His main works concern biochemistry of nucleic acids, enzymatic transformations of carbohydrates and lipids, the mechanism of photosynthesis. He found in bacteria an enzyme (he named it polynucleotide phosphorylase) that polymerized ribonucleoside diphosphates with production of polynucleotides. He was the first to enzymatically synthesize RNA (1955), which was similar to natural RNA in physicochemical and biochemical properties. He studied cell metabolism, enzymatic metabolism of carbohydrates (he identified a number of intermediary products), involvement of coenzymes in the synthesis of carbohydrates, and mechanism of enzymatic assimilation of carbon dioxide, enzymatic mechanisms of transmission of genetic information. In 1959, he won the Nobel Prize (jointly with A. Kornberg) for discovery of mechanism of biosynthesis of nucleic acids. Bibliography and literature: see Great Medical Encyclopedia and Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Editions; Biologists: Reference Book on Biographies (1984) Naukova Dumka, Kiev, p. 475.

November 18 - 25th anniversary of the death of F. Shorm (1913-1980), Czech organic chemist and biochemist, member of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences and its President for 1962-1965, foreign member of the USSR Academy of Sciences. His main works concern chemistry of natural organic substances, such as alkaloids and terpenes, biochemistry of proteins and nucleic acids. He discovered and synthesized a number of new antimetabolites of nucleic acids and carcinostatic compounds, in particular, 6-azauridine. He established (1963) the amino acid sequence in chymotrypsinogen molecules. He proposed the theory that considers specific features of the primary structure of biopolymers to be a result of their phylogeny. He elaborated methods for production of antibiotics chloramphenicol and cycloserine. See: Biologists: Reference Book on Biographies (1984) Naukova Dumka, Kiev, pp. 713-714.

December 13 - 75th anniversary of the death of F. Pregl (1859-1930), Austrian physiologist and chemist. He initiated quantitative organic microanalysis and developed special apparatuses. His methods provided rapid progress in synthesis of hormones, vitamins, and other intricate natural compounds. In 1923, he won the Nobel Prize for elaboration of microanalysis of organic compounds. Microanalytical works promoted the development of biochemistry. Bibliography: see Great Soviet Encyclopedia, Third Edition; Quantitative Organic Microanalysis (1920). Literature: The Nobel Prize Winners, in Encyclopedia: M-Ya (1992) Progress, Moscow; Fritz Pregl and Karl Berthold Hoffman (1989) Graz.