ArticleInternational journal of molecular sciences2021
The Enigmatic Metallothioneins: A Case of Upward-Looking Research.
Article in International journal of molecular sciences, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 9 papers.
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Who cites it
9 citing papers in PubMed, 13 citations in OpenAlex.
- Antioxidants: A Hot Controversy Defused by Cool Semantics.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Metals and metallothionein evolution in snails: a contribution to the concept of metal-specific functionality from an animal model group.Biometals : an international journal on the role of metal ions in biology, biochemistry, and medicine · 2024Review
- Evolution of Cd2+ and Cu+ binding in Helix pomatia metallothioneins.Metallomics : integrated biometal science · 2023Article
- A de novo evolved domain improves the cadmium detoxification capacity of limpet metallothioneins.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Moonlighting enzymes: when cellular context defines specificity.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2023Review
- Metallothionein-2A Protects Cardiomyocytes from Hypoxia/reper-Fusion through Inhibiting p38.Cell biochemistry and biophysics · 2023Article
- Altered zinc homeostasis in a primary cell culture model of the retinal pigment epithelium.Frontiers in nutrition · 2023Article
- Metallothionein 2A with Antioxidant and Antitumor Activity Is Upregulated by Caffeic Acid Phenethyl Ester in Human Bladder Carcinoma Cells.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Bert Vallee-A 20th Century Adventure(r) in Zincology.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
In the mid-1950s, Bert Lester Vallee and his colleague Marvin Margoshes discovered a molecule referred to today as metallothionein (MT). Meanwhile, MTs have been shown to be common in many biological organisms. Despite their prevalence, however, it remains unclear to date what exactly MTs do and how they contribute to the biological function of an organism or organ. We investigate why biochemical research has not yet been able to pinpoint the function(s) of MTs. We shall systematically examine both the discovery of and recent research on Dr. Vallee's beloved family of MT proteins utilizing tools from philosophy of science. Our analysis highlights that Vallee's initial work exhibited features prototypical of a developing research tradition: it was upward-looking, exploratory, and utilized mere interactions. Since the 1960s, MT research has increasingly become intervention- and hypothesis-based while it remained largely upward-looking in character. Whilst there is no reason to think that upward-looking research cannot successfully yield structure-function mappings, it has not yet been successful in the case of MTs. Thus, we suggest it might be time to change track and consider other research strategies looking into the evolution of MTs. Recent studies in mollusks render research in this direction worthy of pursuit.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.