Instituto de Física, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí, San Luis Potosí, México.
Departamento de Toxicología, Centro de Investigación y de Estudios Avanzados, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, México, México.
J Neurochem. 2020 Oct;155(1):7-9. doi: 10.1111/jnc.15111. Epub 2020 Jul 18.
Hippocampal excitatory glutamatergic transmission is critically involved in cognitive functions such as learning and memory. A severe impairment of spatial memory is associated with the Alzheimer's disease characteristic augmentation of soluble Amyloid-beta which in turn leads to glutamatergic neurotransmission dysfunction. As the molecular basis of such correlations has not been completely understood, this Editorial highlights a study in the current issue of the Journal of Neurochemistry in which Yeung and coworkers provide an elegant anatomical study that sheds light into this problematic. Through a rigorous immunohistochemical approach, a sub-regional expression pattern of ionotropic glutamate receptors and vesicular transporters was determined in control and beta amyloid-injected mouse hippocampus. The selected areas participate in information processing and thus, in memory formation. Furthermore, the authors discuss their findings in the context of cognitive deficits present in Alzheimer's disease patients delivering an intuitive analysis of plausible molecular events that disturb proper glutamate signaling. This study takes an important step toward a better understanding of the complexity of Amyloid-beta and glutamatergic neurotransmission interactions.
海马兴奋性谷氨酸能传递对于学习和记忆等认知功能至关重要。空间记忆的严重损伤与阿尔茨海默病特征性可溶性β淀粉样蛋白的增加有关,而后者又导致谷氨酸能神经传递功能障碍。由于这些相关性的分子基础尚未完全理解,本期《神经化学杂志》的社论强调了一项研究,杨和他的同事们进行了一项精细的解剖学研究,为这一问题提供了线索。通过严格的免疫组织化学方法,确定了对照和β淀粉样蛋白注射小鼠海马体中离子型谷氨酸受体和囊泡转运体的亚区域表达模式。所选区域参与信息处理,因此参与记忆形成。此外,作者还根据阿尔茨海默病患者的认知缺陷对他们的发现进行了讨论,对干扰正常谷氨酸信号的可能分子事件进行了直观分析。这项研究朝着更好地理解β淀粉样蛋白和谷氨酸能神经传递相互作用的复杂性迈出了重要一步。