A U.S. study
has determined a new role for a brain protein in a finding that might lead
to new treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.
Researchers
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Picower Institute for Learning
and Memory have shown the same proteins -- septins -- that enable a yeast
cell to bud into two daughter cells also helps neurons grow branch-like
protrusions that are used to communicate with other neurons.
"In yeast, septin
is localized exactly at the neck between the yeast mother cell and the
bud or emerging daughter cell," said study leader Professor Morgan Sheng.
"Amazingly, we found septin protein localized at the base of the neck of
neuronal dendritic spines and at the branchpoint of dendritic branches."
Moreover, in
the cultured hippocampal neurons the researchers used in the study, septin
was found essential for normal branching and spine formation. An abundance
of septin made dendrites grow and proliferate, while a dearth of septin
made them small and malformed.
The research
that also included Alyson Simonetta and Matthew Batterton of MIT, Picower
postdoctoral associates Tomoko Tada and Dieter Edbauer and Makoto Kinoshita
of Kyoto University appears in the journal Current Biology.
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