Thibault Dominic, Kortleven Christian, Fasano Caroline, Dal Bo Gregory, Trudeau Louis-Eric
Département de pharmacologie, Université de Montréal, Succursale centre-ville, Montréal H3C 3J7, Canada.
Med Sci (Paris). 2010 Feb;26(2):165-70. doi: 10.1051/medsci/2010262165.
Despite the fact that the neurotransmitter dopamine was discovered more than 50 years ago, we still have limited knowledge of its physiological and pathological roles. Recent work has unveiled novel and surprising properties of dopamine neurons and of other key players involved in regulating the dopamine system. For example, the integration of the dopamine signal by its receptors depends on many proteins of diverse signaling pathways and also of other types of receptors that interact with and regulate dopamine receptors: many new promising interactions have been reported during the past few years. Also, we are beginning to discover that chronic treatment with dopamine receptor ligands or other molecules affecting dopaminergic pathways induce long-term molecular, structural and functional rearrangements that could ultimately force us to revisit the mechanism of action of established therapeutic agents. Finally, the discovery of glutamate co-release by dopamine neurons is leading us to reconsider some keys aspects of dopamine neuron physiology.
尽管神经递质多巴胺在50多年前就已被发现，但我们对其生理和病理作用的了解仍然有限。最近的研究揭示了多巴胺神经元以及参与调节多巴胺系统的其他关键因素的新的惊人特性。例如，多巴胺信号通过其受体的整合依赖于多种信号通路的许多蛋白质以及与多巴胺受体相互作用并调节多巴胺受体的其他类型的受体：在过去几年中已经报道了许多新的有前景的相互作用。此外，我们开始发现，用多巴胺受体配体或其他影响多巴胺能通路的分子进行长期治疗会诱导长期的分子、结构和功能重排，这最终可能迫使我们重新审视已确立的治疗药物的作用机制。最后，多巴胺神经元共同释放谷氨酸的发现促使我们重新思考多巴胺神经元生理学的一些关键方面。
