Hartikka, J.

Pharmacological activities in thermal proteins: relationships in molecular evolution

The model of protobiological events that has been presented in these pages has increasing relevance to pharmacological research. The thermal proteins that function as key substances in the proteinoid theory have recently been found to prolong the survival of rat forebrain neurons in culture and to stimulate the growth of neurites. A search for such activity in thermal proteins added to cultures of modern neurons was suggested by the fact that some of the microspheres assembled from proteinoids rich in hydrophobic amino acids themselves generate fibrous outgrowths.