Otto Loewi

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Otto Loewi (1936)
Otto Loewi

Otto Loewi (born June 3, 1873 in Frankfurt am Main , † December 25, 1961 in New York ) was a German - Austrian - American pharmacologist . For their discoveries in the chemical transmission of nerve impulses , he and Henry H. Dale received the 1936 Nobel Prize in Medicine .

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Youth and Studies

Otto Loewi was born on June 3, 1873 in Frankfurt am Main as the son of the Jewish wine merchant Jacob Loewi and Anna Willstätter. Here Loewi attended the municipal high school from 1882 to 1891 and then began his medical studies at the universities in Munich and Strasbourg . In Strasbourg he became a member of the Germania fraternity in the winter semester of 1891 . As a student, however, Loewi rarely attended lectures in medicine, but often went to courses in the philosophical faculty. Exceptions were the anatomical courses with Gustav Schwalbe and the summer of 1893, in which he prepared intensively for his physics . He took his exam in 1894 without his relationship to medicine having fundamentally changed by then.

In 1896 Otto Loewi received his doctorate from the University of Strasbourg on the work of and under Oswald Schmiedeberg , who is considered one of the fathers of modern pharmacology . At this point he was already carrying out experiments on isolated frog hearts . In addition, it was, among others, the internist Bernhard Naunyn as well as Oskar Minkowski and Adolph Magnus-Levy (1865–1955) who were responsible for his medical training.

After receiving his doctorate, Otto Loewi worked on inorganic and analytical chemistry in Frankfurt . He then worked for a few months at the Institute for Biochemistry with Franz Hofmeister in Strasbourg. From 1897 to 1898 Loewi was Carl von Noorden's assistant at the municipal hospital in Frankfurt. Loewi decided against a career as a general practitioner, particularly because of his work with patients with advanced tuberculosis or pneumonia , who very often died with no chance of recovery. Instead, he took the path of basic medical research, especially clinical pharmacology.

From Marburg to Graz

In 1898 Otto Loewi became the assistant to Professor Hans Horst Meyer at the Pharmacological Institute of the University of Marburg and completed his habilitation here in 1900. In 1904 he went to Vienna with Meyer . 1905 Otto Loewi became assistant professor to Meyer at the pharmacological institute in Vienna. He took on Austrian citizenship, although he also kept German.

In 1907 he met Guida Goldschmiedt, the daughter of the professor for chemistry, Doctor Guido Goldschmiedt , and married her in 1908. He had four children with her (Hans, Victor, Guido and Anna). In 1909 Loewi received his own chair for pharmacology at the Karl-Franzens University in Graz .

Otto Loewi's work in Marburg concentrated on the large field of metabolic research . His results on the effect of phlorizin , which triggers glucosuria , and others on nucleic acid metabolism in humans, earned him his first position as a private lecturer as early as 1900 . In 1901 Loewi demonstrated that the animal organism is not able to synthesize carbohydrates from fats , in 1902 he published his work on protein synthesis in the animal body , in which he shows that animals are able to make their proteins on the basis of amino acids make yourself. At that time, this area and knowledge was new territory, and it thus represented an important contribution to nutritional science. Also in 1902, the first part of a series of publications about experiments in the physiology and pharmacology of kidney function followed . In the same year Loewi spent a few months in Ernest Starling's laboratory , working with William Bayliss . It was here that Otto Loewi first met Henry Dale , with whom he would share the Nobel Prize in Medicine a few years later.

After his return to Marburg, he concentrated again on his examinations of kidney function, especially on the functionality of diuretics . In 1905, after his employment in Vienna, he took up the issue of carbohydrate metabolism again. In this context Loewi could prove that a preference for fructose compared to glucose occurs not only in dogs, which the pancreas was removed, but also in such experimental animals in which glycogen absent other circumstances, such as a phosphorus ver poisoning . This enabled him to refute the hypothesis published by Oskar Minkowski . He was also able to prove that the heart , unlike the liver , cannot store fructose. He also demonstrated the fact that starved rabbits (who accordingly no longer have glycogen reserves) regain normal glycogen levels with regular injections of adrenaline , although they continue to starve.

In addition to this research on carbohydrate metabolism, Otto Loewi worked with Alfred Fröhlich on research into the autonomic nervous system . His best-known publication in this field, About an increase in the release of adrenaline by cocaine , appeared in 1910 with the result that even small doses of cocaine potentiate the irritability of the sympathetically enervated organs.

As a professor in Graz Otto Loewi finally had the opportunity to prove and cultivate his qualities as a speaker and teacher. At the same time, he continued his studies on carbohydrate metabolism, concentrating primarily on the circumstances of hyperglycemia , which is triggered by adrenaline.

The elucidation of the synapse function and the Nobel Prize

In 1921 Otto Loewi discovered the chemical transmission of nerve impulses . He managed to stimulate the vagus nerves of frog hearts in a saline solution in which other previously consciously excited hearts were already lying. Loewi was able to prove that a chemical substance had to be responsible for the transmission of a nerve impulse to the heart, which he called the "vagus substance" and which Henry Dale was later able to identify as acetylcholine . In this way he had found the first neurotransmitter and thus established a field of research which he and his colleagues were able to advance massively in the following years.

Before the discovery of neurotransmitters, this point in the nerve conduction to the executing organ was completely unknown. It was assumed that there had to be an impulse from the nerves to the organ, but how this happened was the subject of a research dispute. While a large number of researchers thought electrical conduction was the right solution, there were some scientists like Otto Loewi who believed in chemical transmission. Loewi has now been able to prove this on the basis of his experiments. It also enabled a new understanding of physiological processes such as B. Various paralyzes . For the substance hyoscyamine, it could be clarified that it does not paralyze the nerves, but rather works on the receptors in the signal-receiving synapses . Through further experiments, the breakdown of acetylcholine by an enzyme , acetylcholinesterase , as well as the inhibiting effect of breakdown by alkaloids could be discovered.

Nobel diploma from Otto Loewi

For this research and results, Loewi and Dale received the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1936, as this led to a completely new view of neuromedicine. According to his own statement, the actually very simple experiment with the frog heart seemed to him in a dream.

The time after the Nobel Prize

On March 12, 1938, Austria was annexed to National Socialist Germany and the anatomist and SA functionary Eduard Pernkopf , who teaches at the University of Vienna , was one of the people charged with bringing the university into line and "cleaning it up". Otto Loewi, now 65, was imprisoned as a Jew for a few months and then pressured to leave the country. Before that, however, he had to instruct the Swedish bank in Stockholm to transfer the prize money for the Nobel Prize to a bank controlled by the National Socialists.

"Forced by the Nazi authorities to leave Austria, I departed from Graz on September 28, 1938, for London. Before leaving, in the presence of Gestapo men, I had to order the Swedish bank in Stockholm to transfer the Nobel prize money, deposited with the bank in 1936, to a prescribed Nazi-controlled bank. "

- Otto Loewi

Otto Loewi went to the Université Libre in Brussels and the Nuffield Institute in Oxford as a visiting professor before accepting the offer from New York University in 1940 and taking up a position as professor of pharmacology there. He worked here with George Wallace. In 1946 Otto Loewi received American citizenship. He died on December 25, 1961.

It was only in the summer of 1958 that he returned to Austria for a few days as a guest of honor at the 4th International Congress for Biochemistry in Vienna.

Honors

Selected Works

  • About protein synthesis in the animal body . Arch. Exp. Pathologie und Pharmacologie 48 (1902), pp. 303-330
  • About humoral transferability of the cardiac nerve effect. Pflüger's archive for the entire physiology of humans and animals . 189: 239-242 (1921)
  • About humoral transferability of the cardiac nerve effect. II. Communication. Pflüger's archive for the entire physiology of humans and animals. 193 (1922), pp. 201-213
  • with E. Navratil: About the humoral transferability of the cardiac nerve effect. VI. Message. Pflüger's archive for the total physiology of humans and animals, Vol. 36 (1924), pp. 123-134
  • Otto Loewi and E. Navratil: About the humoral transferability of the cardiac nerve effect. VII. Communication. Pflüger's archive for the total physiology of humans and animals 206 (1924), pp. 135-140
  • with E. Navratil: About the humoral transferability of the cardiac nerve effect. X. Communication: About the fate of the vagus substance. Pflüger's archive for the total physiology of humans and animals 214 (1926), pp. 678–688
  • with E. Navratil: About the humoral transferability of the cardiac nerve effect. XI. Communication: On the mechanism of the vagus action of physostigmine and ergotamine. Pflüger's archive for the total physiology of humans and animals 214 (1926), pp. 689-696
  • The Ferrier Lecture: On problems connected with the principle of humoral transmission of nervous impulses. Proceedings of the Royal Society 118 B (1935), pp. 299-316
  • From the workshop of discoveries. University of Kansas Press, 1953
  • Introduction. Pharmacological Reviews 6 (1954), pp. 3-6
  • A scientist's tribute to art: Essays in honor of Hans Tietze. Gazette of Beaux Arts 1958, pp. 389-392
  • An autobiographical sketch. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 4 (1960), pp. 3-25

literature

Web links

Commons : Otto Loewi  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Eduard Pernkopf, Prof. Dr. on the history website of the University of Vienna on November 14, 2017, accessed on August 19, 2019
  2. ^ Otto Loewi: An autobiographical sketch , in: Perspectives in Biology and Medicine . Vol. 4 (1960), pp. 3-25. Available at: https://muse.jhu.edu/article/404651/pdf
  3. ^ Thomas Chorherr and Pia Maria Plechl (eds.): Great Austrians . Overjoyed .
  4. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF file) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed January 2, 2020 .
  5. ^ Entry on Loewi, Otto (1873 - 1961) in the archive of the Royal Society , London
This version was added to the list of articles worth reading on August 29, 2005 .
personal data
SURNAME Loewi, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-Austrian-American pharmacologist
DATE OF BIRTH June 3, 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 1961
Place of death New York City