Rita Levi-Montalcini and her major contribution to neurobiology
Tóm tắt
In this paper, I shall illustrate the personality of Rita Levi-Montalcini and highlight how she first emerged within a prestigious school, while under the direction of Giuseppe Levi, a most inspiring and stimulating figure. Between 1919 and 1938, he created a rich environment capable of influencing the minds of innumerable students; among them, three future Nobel Prize winners, Renato Dulbecco, Salvador Luria, and Rita Levi-Montalcini, who were companions in the same classroom. In 1938, due to the racial laws for the defence of the race, Luria and Levi-Montalcini were banned from entering the university premises. In a small working space in her bedroom—“a minuscule laboratory not unlike a convent cell”—Levi-Montalcini, supported by Levi, made a most outstanding discovery that opened a new chapter in neurobiology. Further collaborations with Viktor Hamburger and Stanley Cohen led Levi-Montalcini to the discovery of the nerve growth factor (NGF): a remarkable accomplishment which turned out to represent a milestone in the development of modern cell biology.
Tài liệu tham khảo
Angeletti PU, Levi-Montalcini R, Calissano P (1968) The nerve growth factor (NGF): chemical properties and metabolic effects. Adv Enzymol Relat Areas Mol Biol 31:51–75
Brunso-Bechtold JK, Hamburger V (1979) Retrograde transport of nerve growth factor in chicken embryo. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 76(3):1494–1496
Bueker ED (1948) Implantation of tumors in the hind limb field of the embryonic chick and the developmental response of the lumbosacral nervous system. Anat Rec 102(3):369–389
Cattaneo A (2013) Immunosympathectomy as the first phenotypic knockout with antibodies. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 110(13):4877–4885
Chao MV (2010) A conversation with Rita Levi-Montalcini. Annu Rev Physiol 72:1–13
Cohen S (1960) Purification of a nerve-growth promoting protein from the mouse salivary gland and its neurotoxic antiserum. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 46(3):302–331
Cohen S (1962) Isolation of a mouse submaxillary gland protein accelerating incisor eruption and eyelid opening in the newborn animal. J Biol Chem 237:1535–1562
Cohen S (2008) Origins of growth factors: NGF and EGF. J Biol Chem 283:33793–33797
Cohen S, Levi-Montalcini R (1956) A nerve growth-stimulating factor isolated from snake venom. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 42(9):571–574
Cohen S, Levi-Montalcini R, Hamburger V (1954) A nerve growth-stimulating factor isolated from sarcomas 37 and 180. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 40(10):1014–1018
Cowan WM (1981) Viktor Hamburger’s contribution to developmental neurobiology: an appreciation. In: Cowan WM (ed) Studies in developmental neurobiology: essays in honor of Viktor Hamburger. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 3–21
Cowan WM (2001) Viktor Hambuxrger and Rita Levi-Montalcini: the path to the discovery of nerve growth factor. Annu Rev Neurosci 24:551–600
Hamburger V (1925) Über den Einfluss des Nervensystems auf die Entwicklung der Extremitäten von Rana fusca. Wilhelm Roux Arch Entwickl Mech Org 105(1):149–201
Hamburger V (1934) The effects of wing bud extirpation on the development of the central nervous system in chick embryo. J Exp Zool 68(3):449–494
Hamburger V (1958) Regression versus peripheral control of differentiation in motor hypoplasia. Am J Anat 102(3):365–409
Hamburger V (1975) Cell death in the development of the lateral motor column of the chick embryo. J Comp Neurol 160(4):535–546
Hamburger V (1989) The journey of a neuroembryologist. Annu Rev Neurosci 12:1–12
Hamburger V (1993) The history of the discovery of the nerve growth factor. J Neurobiol 24(7):893–897
Hamburger V (1996) Viktor Hamburger. In: Squire LR (ed) The history of neuroscience in autobiography 1. Society for Neuroscience, Washington, DC, pp 222–250
Hamburger V, Levi-Montalcini R (1949) Proliferation, differentiation and degeneration in the spinal ganglia of the chick embryo under normal and experimental conditions. J Exp Zool 111(3):457–501
Hamburger V, Brunso-Bechtold JK, Yip JW (1981) Neuronal death in the spinal ganglia of the chick embryo and its reduction by nerve growth factor. J Neurosci 1:60–71
Harrison RE (1907) Observations on the living, developing nerve fiber. Anat Rec 1(5):116–118
Hogue-Angeletti R, Bradshaw RA (1971) Nerve growth factor from mouse submaxillary gland: amino acid sequence. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 68(10):2417–2420
Hogue-Angeletti R, Mercanti D, Bradshaw RA (1973a) Amino acid sequences of mouse 2.5S nerve growth factor. I. Isolation and characterization of the soluble tryptic and chymotryptic peptides. Biochemistry 12(1):90–100
Hogue-Angeletti R, Hermodson MA, Bradshaw RA (1973b) Amino acid sequences of mouse 2.5S nerve growth factor. II. Isolation and characterization of the thermolytic and peptic peptides and the complete covalent structure. Biochemistry 12(1):100–115
Hollyday M, Hamburger V (1976) Reduction of the naturally occurring motor neuron loss by enlargement of the periphery. J Comp Neurol 170(3):311–320
Levi G (1945) La struttura della sostanza vivente. Minerva Med 36:81–86
Levi G, Meyer H (1941) Nouvelles recherches sur le tissu nerveux cultivé in vitro. Morphologie, croissance et relations réciproques des neurons. Arch Biol (Liège) 52:133–278
Levi-Montalcini R (1952) Effects of mouse tumor transplantation on the nervous system. Ann NY Acad Sci 55(2):330–344
Levi-Montalcini R (1975) NGF: an uncharted route. In: Worden FG, Swazey JP, Adelman G (eds) The neurosciences: paths of discovery. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 245–265
Levi-Montalcini R (1982) Developmental neurobiology and the natural history of nerve growth factor. Annu Rev Neurosci 5:341–362
Levi-Montalcini R (1986) Nobel lecture: the nerve growth factor: thirty-five years later. http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1986/levi-montalcini-lecture.html. Accessed 3 Oct 2018
Levi-Montalcini R (1988) In praise of imperfection: my life and work. Basic Books, New York (It transl: Elogio dell’imperfezione. Garzanti, Milano 1987)
Levi-Montalcini R, Booker B (1960a) Destruction of the sympathetic ganglia in mammals by an antiserum to a nerve-growth protein. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 46(3):384–391
Levi-Montalcini R, Booker B (1960b) Excessive growth of the sympathetic ganglia evoked by a protein isolated from mouse salivary glands. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 46(3):373–384
Levi-Montalcini R, Hamburger V (1951) Selective growth stimulating effects of mouse sarcoma on the sensory and sympathetic nervous system of the chick embryo. J Exp Zool 116(2):321–361
Levi-Montalcini R, Hamburger V (1953) A diffusible agent of mouse sarcoma producing hyperplasia of sympathetic ganglia and hyperneurotization of viscera in the chick embyro. J Exp Zool 123(2):233–287
Levi-Montalcini R, Levi G (1942) Les conséquences de la destruction d’un territoire d’innervation périphérique sur le développement des centres nerveux correspondants dans l’embryon de Poulet. Arch Biol (Liège) 53:537–545
Levi-Montalcini R, Levi G (1943) Recherches quantitatives sur la marche du processus de différenciation des neurons dans les ganglions spinaux de l’embryon de poulet. Arch Biol (Liège) 54:189–206
Levi-Montalcini R, Levi G (1944) Correlazioni nello sviluppo tra varie parti del sistema nervoso. I. Conseguenze della demolizione dell’abbozzo di un arto sui centri nervosi nell’embrione di pollo. Comment (Pont Acad Sci), VIII:527–575
Levi-Montalcini R, Meyer H, Hamburger V (1954) In vitro experiments on the effects of mouse sarcomas 180 and 37 on the spinal and sympathetic ganglia of the chick embryo. Cancer Res 14(1):49–57
Levi-Montalcini R, Revoltella R, Calissano P (1974) Microtubule proteins in the nerve growth factor mediated response. Interaction between the nerve growth factor and its target cells. Recent Prog Horm Res 30:635–669
Lillie FR (1903) Experimental studies on the development of the organs in the embryo of the fowl (Gallus domesticus). Biol Bull 5(2):92–124
Lillie FR (1904) Experimental studies on the development of the organs in the embryo of the fowl (Gallus domesticus). II. The development of defective embryos, and the power of regeneration. Biol Bull 7(1):33–54
Lillie FR (1908) The development of the chick: an introduction to embryology. Henry Holt, New York
Martinez Arias A, Steventon B (2018) On the nature and function of organizers. Development 145(5):dev159525
Martyn I, Kanno TY, Ruzo A, Siggia ED, Brivanlou AH (2018) Self-organization of a human organizer by combined Wnt and nodal signalling. Nature 558:132–135
Oppenheim RW (2001) In memoriam: Viktor Hamburger (1900–2001): journey of a neuroembryologist to the end of the millennium and beyond. Neuron 31(2):179–190
Pourquié O (2018) Human embryonic stem cells get organized. Nature 558:35–36
Purves D, Sanes JR (1987) The 1986 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. Trends Neurosci 10(6):231–235
Scott J, Selby M, Urdea M, Quiroga M, Bell GI, Rutter WJ (1983) Isolation and nucleotide sequence of a cDNA encoding the precursor of mouse nerve growth factor. Nature 302:538–540
Shooter EM (2001) Early days of the nerve growth factor proteins. Annu Rev Neurosci 24:601–629
Shorey ML (1909) The effect of destruction of peripheral areas on the differentiation of the neuroblasts. J Exp Zool 7(1):25–63
Shorey ML (1911) A study of the differentiation of neuroblasts in artificial culture media. J Exp Zool 10(1):85–93
Spemann H, Mangold H (1924) Über Induktion von Embryonanlagen durch Implantation artfremder Organisatoren. Arch Mikrosk Anat Enwicklmech 100(3–4):599–638
Willier BH (1957) Frank Rattray Lillie. Biographical memoirs 30. National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC, pp 77–236