Caffeine whispers...

Coffee...as one might look at it, it is just a daily beverage for many, but for me its quite close to an obsession. The very sip that I swoop in, in about 10 minutes after I wake up fuels me for the day. There is no particular reason why am I writing this down. Its just because I wanted to write something (consider it a part of my useless tasks I keep throwing on myself). But the best one can talk/write endlessly is about what you are obsessed with. And I find that in my mug every morning and evening - my daily coffee. Many ask me what is there after all to obsess about this brown beverage. Ummm...the answer lies in an interesting fellow, weighing about 250mg happily floating inside my mug and we call him - Caffeine. In spite of many sources accusing our pal to having stirred up the ‘world’s greatest addiction’, my nepotism drives me to use the word ‘obsession’ instead of ‘addiction’(I find this word so derogatory). Family and friends keep asking me to stay off the alkaloid listing a hundred reasons for how it would be a potential causative for a malaise. However, my research on this still maintains an undiscerning status on the well being of the human body, therefore I shall continue to surrender my senses to its charms.

It looks good, It tastes good, it smells good...yeah we all know its a goody bag. But I’m totally hung over it. And why is it so? What is after all so special about it? It keeps me up all night and helps me pass my exams. So, what exactly is it doing inside the body, is precisely what this blog entry is about. To understand this we need to have a little insight on how our giant natural machinery – the human body works. Remember the game Chinese whispers you used to play when you were young? In which a single message is to be passed without any ambiguity along a battery of people? A lot of fellows in the body seem to be actively playing around the very same game. Interestingly they do it all the time and are pretty good at it, as in they aren’t lousy like us to screw the message and most importantly, when they finish a round, they cause a change (favourable/unfavourable) to happen. Biologically we term it signalling. This game is extensively played among members of the same cell or neighbouring cells or between cells lying no where in each other’s vicinity...as in, even cells can go international! So I can say, signalling can be either intracellular or intercellular. There is a signalling involved behind almost anything your body wants to do. They play a game, you feel hungry; they play the game, you feel like singing a song; they play a game, you get frustrated; they play a game, you are dying to use the loo. So you know, these molecules inside our body are pretty playful and there is literally a network of Chinese whispers woven inside us. Some play it quick, some are lazy; there are all kinds of players playing in all kinds of tempo. And what are we concerned with? The Chinese whispers of sleep. When our body is tired and wants to rest, a veteran player named Adenosine from the proud family of the great Purines begins the round of whispers. What he does is, fix is butt on his comfortable customised chair called the A2a receptors fixed on the smooth tiled flooring of the Nuclear accumbems (NA) in the brain. Once his hinds are fixed on this chair, and he shakes the chair with his hands, the legs of which (penetrated across the floor, projecting on to the other side) become restless and kick some other molecule inside NA and the whispers go on from one molecule to another, who all by the way have their own customised chairs with legs that can go restless, until the message finally reaches your mommy-like molecule named melatonin who sings the lullaby to our brain. These players in the game are biologically addressed as signalling molecules or ligands and their respective chairs are called receptors. And the reason why I keep mentioning about the customization of these chairs is because it has a profound relevance in the sound functioning of these signalling series (as in every round of the game). It makes sure that, only one kind of player is able to sit and get the legs of his customized chair restless and no other. Technically phrasing it, ligand-receptor binding is highly specific. The restlessness of the chair is technically known as ligand-activation of the receptor, which is triggered by altering its structure. So you see, millions of players inside you are playing this game simultaneously, still you breathe soundly, behave normally, function flawlessly coz they have absolutely no confusion where to pass the message. Thanks to the customization. So let’s see how is the game disturbed when you drain off a coffee mug. Caffeine here you see, is a cousin of adenosine. They look pretty alike owing to the fact that they are the descendants of the same great purine family. These cousins share the same butt size. So caffeine comfortably goes and buries his butt on the A2a receptors. (Curious cats reading this can google on antagonistic inhibition). Poor adenosine is seatless. But is caffeine able to shake the chair enough to get its legs restless? Nope. After all they are cousin, not twins. The structural features these two molecules share enable them to take a common seat but the differences in the same disable them to perform the same function. That is where this round of game is blocked. No further messaging, no melatonin mommy, and you are wide awake. Once these occupied chairs are recycled and caffeine is flushed out of your system (for which you can thank the liver) you let yourself over-work and conjure the adenosine, you’re body is back to playing another round of sleep whispers.

That’s me.....caffeine driven nocturnal zombie. But there are quite many who fail to keep themselves up even after a strong shot of espresso. How is that? There are three reasons for that:
One: Too much of caffeine causes something that is called desensitization, wherein these A2a receptors lose the sensitivity to any sort of blockade. In other words they get so used to the adenosine-caffeine altercation, that to get themselves restless, (as in turn on the signalling) all they need is a hind resting on them and no requisite shake. This happens only if you are on insane levels of caffeine over a long, long time.
Two: One need to note here is that when I say one adenosine sitting over one A2a-receptor, you might get the wrong perception. If you want to picture it right, then amplify the players, the chairs and the message signals. They always take place in bulk. If I stay up after a cup of coffee and my friend doesn’t, its probably because I might have more A2a receptors on my NA floor than him. Or it may also be because it takes about 250mg of caffeine to keep me up, while about 400mg of it for him pull an all nighter.
Three: Genes, that decide every single pico-detail of your body, are like geminines. They're unique, unpredictable and can go crazy any time any place.