|
Scientists find potential pheromone
gene
Aug. 28 (HealthSCOUT) -- Whether a pheromone-scented perfume will help
you spot a mate from 100 feet away is still a matter of debate, but a
team of scientists has made what one expert is calling a "pivotal"
discovery in pheromone research.
A pheromone is an organism's chemical equivalent of dropping a
handkerchief, but scientists didn't know whether humans are chemically
capable of picking that hanky up - until now.
For the first time, researchers have identified a candidate that could
be the pheromone receptor gene in humans. The gene called V1RL1
appears to be functional, setting it apart from several non-functional
"pseudogenes" that the pheromone researchers have discovered over the
years. Pseudogenes are not capable of producing a fully functional
protein. "It opens new avenues of research for the future," says
pheromone expert Charles Wysocki, based at the Monell Chemical Senses
Center in Philadelphia.
It's certainly enough to excite senior author Dr. Peter Mombaerts, the
head of the Laboratory of Developmental Biology and Neurogenetics at
Rockefeller University in New York. His team found the gene after
searching for human genes that resembled the rat equivalent of the V1R
receptor gene sequences.
They then screened several types of human tissues and found that V1RL1
was always evident in olfactory tissue. Their findings appear in the
September issue of Nature Genetics.
Little data on human response
Pheromones are odorous substances secreted by various insects and
animals. In subtle and not-so-subtle ways they
can attract other animals or act as a social communicator or sexual
stimulant. For example, certain male moths can smell - and will
seek out - a female in heat from miles away, while female pigs will
take a specific mating posture if exposed to a male pheromone while in
heat.
But in humans, there has been little data showing that humans respond
to pheromones. The most well known evidence describes how groups of
human females living in groups, such as women living in college
dormitories, tend to develop synchronized menstrual cycles.
Generally, pheromones are sensed using the vomeronasal organ (VNO), a
structure inside the nose. In some animals, it's relatively large, but
in humans, the millimeters-long groove is inactive. Some people don't
even have one. That, says neuroscientist Charles Wysocki, may suggest
that humans detect pheromones through the olfactory cells lining our
nose, where the researchers have found the active V1RL1 gene.
But while it remains speculative, pheromones could have clinical uses,
says Mombaerts. "If this receptor is involved in
sexual arousal, for instance, you could use it to enhance the quality
of sexual activities," he says. "It could lead to hormonal
changes. You could interfere with the ovulatory cycle and influence
the timing of ovulation during fertility treatments and diminish the
effects of premenstrual syndrome."
What To Do:
You can find out more about pheromones from
New York State Agricultural Experiment Station.
You can BUY Concentrated Pheromones From:
Primal Instinct (Pheromones)
Absolute Pheromones USA
All Offer Worldwide Delivery
Copyright © 2002 Rx Remedy, Inc. |
