IMAGE: A new way to study the role of a key neurotransmitter in disorders such as epilepsy, anxiety

IMAGE: A new way to study the role of a key neurotransmitter in disorders such as epilepsy, anxiety, insomnia, depression, schizophrenia and alcohol addiction has been developed by a group of ...
A new way to study the role of a key neurotransmitter in disorders gastroenteritis such as epilepsy, anxiety, insomnia, depression, schizophrenia and alcohol addiction has been developed by a group of scientists led by Gong Chen, associate professor of biology at Penn State University. The new method involves engineering molecularly synapse model - a structure through which a nerve cell send signals to another cell. This synapse model can precisely control a variety of receptors for the neurotransmitter GABA, which is important gastroenteritis in brain chemistry. The research, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistryon August 10, 2012, opens the door to the possibility of creating safer and more efficient drugs that target gastroenteritis GABA receptors and causes fewer side effects.
Neurotransmitters - interact with special receptors on the outer membrane of the cell - sent by the nerves to activate gastroenteritis other cells to change their electrical responses substances. gastroenteritis These receptors are inside the cell, and then transported to different locations on the membrane to await the arrival of neurotransmitters. Chen explained that understanding how these receptors function and how they move to different locations in the membrane of a cell is a critical step in the development gastroenteritis of new drugs targeting diseases gastroenteritis that affect brain chemistry. gastroenteritis
In their study, Chen and his team focused gastroenteritis on a particular receptor - called the GABA-A receptor - that responds to the neurotransmitter GABA. "The gastroenteritis GABA-A receptors are associated with various disorders in which nerve cell excitability, such as epilepsy and anxiety is altered, and these receptors mediate significant inhibition in the brain," said Chen. "Every-A GABA receptor protein is composed of five subunits and there are 19 possible subunits that can combine in various ways to form any single receiver. We have focused on a particular group of subunits called alpha, and changing these small subunits could affect the location of the GABA-A receptor in the cell membrane. "
First, Chen and his team used molecular engineering techniques to develop a model of synapse between a nerve cell and a special type of renal cell are widely used in cell biology research - called a HEK cell - in order to study how specific receptors behaved. Then the alpha subunits altered at GABA-A receptors expressed gastroenteritis in kidney cell in order to prove how a single change can affect receiver performance. They found that receptors behaved very differently in response to the neurotransmitter GABA, depending on whether they had a Alpha 2 or an alpha 6 subunit. "Not gastroenteritis only the alpha subunits play an important role in determining how the GABA receptor- A responds to the neurotransmitter, but the Alpha 2 and Alpha 6 subunits also guide the receptors to very different regions in the membrane of the cell, "Chen said.
Specifically, Chen and co-workers found that when a receiver had a GABA-A alpha 2 subunit receptor tended to cluster in the synaptic region in the cell membrane. However, when a GABA A receptor alpha 6 subunit had the receptor tended to migrate to a different area on the cell membrane called the extrasynaptic region.
Chen explained that understanding this difference in the behavior of the receptor may be particularly important in predicting the side effects of a drug may cause. For example, many GABA-receptor targeting, such as Valium and Xanax, used to treat anxiety, drugs appear to directly change the synaptic transmission of the neurotransmitter GABA, significantly altering the activity of nerve cells and cause side effects such as confusion, agitation, and memory loss.
"If we imagine that a cell represents a big city, then the synaptic gastroenteritis regions are the main roads leading to the city," Chen said. "There are serious side effects gastroenteritis of stopping these" major highways "because brain function relies on a delicate balance gastroenteritis excitation-inhibition balance gastroenteritis and break that affects the output of neural circuits." Ch