Exploring synapse disruption

Ira Milosevic

Instituto Multidisciplinar del Envejecimiento, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal

The synapses between neurons are the main points for transmitting information from one cell to another and is the basis for the functioning of the central nervous system. To enable this, the nerve cells in the brain release signalling molecules or neurotransmitters. These cells also have mechanisms for recycling a part of these molecules, which tend to accumulate in homogeneously sized synaptic vesicles within the cell itself. In fact, it is these vesicles that enable synapses to maintain neurotransmission over many decades of life.

However, when the mechanism by which the cells form these vesicles is altered, they begin to accumulate pathological structures and accumulate endosomes, which are membrane and protein sorting organelles, at the synapses. This may promote neurodegeneration and, ultimately, the premature death of these cells. In fact, alterations in this mechanism are behind many neurological diseases.

The researchers in this project will investigate selective aspects of cell membrane trafficking at synapses occurring in the hippocampus and cortex, with particular attention to synaptic endosomes.

The dynamic membrane traffic at the neuronal synapse: Endosomal sub-compartments in health and disease

€492,837.85