Academic literature on the topic 'Sub-synaptic localization'

Abstract Background Evidence from clinical and preclinical studies has led to the hypothesis that impaired glutamatergic transmission and NMDA receptor hypofunction play an important role in cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia (CIAS). Second messenger pathways depending on cAMP and/or cGMP are key regulators of glutamatergic transmission and NMDA receptor related pathways. Therefore, the specific cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases (PDEs) PDE2 and PDE9, expressed in cognition relevant brain regions such as cortex and hippocampus, are putative targets for cognition enhancement in neuropsychiatric disorders (Dorner-Ciossek et al., 2017; Zhang et al., 2017). In fact, it has previously been shown that either PDE2 or PDE9 inhibition increases synaptic plasticity, as determined by hippocampal long-term potentiation (LTP), and improves memory performance in animal cognition tasks. However, the exact sub-cellular localization of PDE2 and PDE9 enzymes in neurons is not fully established. Thus, in the present study, co-localization studies of PDE2 and PDE9 with pre- and post-synaptic markers were performed by double immunofluorescence staining. Moreover, the PDE2 inhibitor PF-05180999 (Helal et al., 2018) was characterized regarding enhancement of hippocampal LTP and further investigated in combination with the PDE9 inhibitor Bay 73–6691 (Wunder et al., 2005) for potential synergistic effects on LTP. Methods Brains of adult rats were fixed with formalin and sliced for double immunofluorescence staining of PDE2 or PDE9 enzymes with pre-/post-synaptic markers. Analysis of staining was performed by confocal microscopy. Effects of the PDE2 inhibitor PF-05180999 alone and in combination with the PDE9 inhibitor Bay 73–6691 on synaptic plasticity were evaluated in rat hippocampal slices by using a protein-synthesis independent early LTP paradigm. Results Double immunofluorescence analysis revealed co-localization of PDE2 predominantly with pre-synaptic, but not post-synaptic, markers and mainly in glutamatergic neurons. In contrast, PDE9 showed co-localization with post-synaptic markers. Inhibition of PDE2 by PF-05180999 led to a concentration-dependent enhancement of early LTP. Combination of PF-05180999 with a subthreshold concentration of the PDE9 inhibitor Bay 73–6691 caused a transformation from early LTP into protein-synthesis dependent late LTP. Discussion Immunofluorescence staining suggests that PDE2 is localized pre-synaptically in glutamatergic neurons. This might indicate an involvement of PDE2 in neurotransmitter release via regulating cGMP/cAMP levels at pre-synaptic terminals, whereas PDE9 is located post-synaptically presumably involved in the NMDA receptor signaling cascade via regulation of cGMP. Corroborating previous findings, PDE2 inhibition improves synaptic plasticity as shown by enhanced LTP. Moreover, for the first time, we could show that the combination of a PDE2 with a PDE9 inhibitor acts synergistically on improvement of synaptic plasticity as demonstrated by the shift from early into late LTP, which is considered to be a crucial mechanism for memory formation. References

Synapsin I is abundant in neural tissues. Its phosphorylation is thought to regulate synaptic vesicle exocytosis in the pre-synaptic terminal by mediating vesicle tethering to the cytoskeleton. Using anti-synapsin antibodies, we detected an 85 kDa protein in liver cells and identified it as synapsin I. Like brain synapsin I, non-neuronal synapsin I is phosphorylated in vitro by protein kinase A and yields identical 32P-peptide maps after limited proteolysis. We also detected synapsin I mRNA in liver by northern blot analysis. These results indicate that the expression of synapsin I is more widespread than previously thought. Immunofluorescence analysis of several non-neuronal cell lines localizes synapsin I to a vesicular compartment adjacent to trans-elements of the Golgi complex, which is also labeled with antibodies against myosin II; no sub-plasma membrane synapsin I is evident. We conclude that synapsin I is present in epithelial cells and is associated with a trans-Golgi network-derived compartment; this localization suggests that it plays a role in modulating post-TGN trafficking pathways.

Synapse structures, including neuronal and immunological synapses, can be seen as the plasma membrane contact sites between two individual cells where information is transmitted from one cell to the other. The distance between the two plasma membranes is only a few tens of nanometers, but these areas are densely populated with functionally different proteins, including adhesion proteins, receptors, and transporters. The narrow space between the two plasma membranes has been a barrier for resolving the synaptic architecture due to the diffraction limit in conventional microscopy (~250 nm). Various advanced super-resolution microscopy techniques, such as stimulated emission depletion (STED), structured illumination microscopy (SIM), and single-molecule localization microscopy (SMLM), bypass the diffraction limit and provide a sub-diffraction-limit resolving power, ranging from 10 to 100 nm. The studies using super-resolution microscopy have revealed unprecedented details of the nanoscopic organization and dynamics of synaptic molecules. In general, most synaptic proteins appear to be heterogeneously distributed and form nanodomains at the membranes. These nanodomains are dynamic functional units, playing important roles in mediating signal transmission through synapses. Herein, we discuss our current knowledge on the super-resolution nanoscopic architecture of synapses and their functional implications, with a particular focus on the neuronal synapses and immune synapses.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder characterized by recurrent seizures due to spontaneous changes of chemical synaptic coupling within the central nervous system. Numerous studies have been done in order to increase the level of cognition in epilepsy. Electroencephalography (EEG) as a non-invasive technique with the ability of presenting potentials on the head surface due to neural activity is widely used in epilepsy studies. The signals have been analyzed by brain signal processing techniques which mainly are categorized in feature extraction, feature dimensionally reduction and classification. The limitations such as inapproachability to intracranial in vivo and few seizure occurrences during sampling led to investigate on a model of signals and neural activity. This paper reviews the fundamentals of epilepsy toward using brain signal processing and neuronal modeling in three major branches; detection, prediction and source localization. It resulted a rare number of investigations on seizure epilepsy prediction due to the lack of long-term epilepsy EEG recording ending to the seizure. Subsequently, this review paper suggests to consider brain signal processing techniques in sub-branches of epilepsy detection; status, type, markers and surface localization, whilst it plays a remarkable role targeting to the source localization by neuronal modeling.

We examined the suitability of freeze-substitution and Lowicryl HM20 embedding of aldehyde-fixed rat brain to localize several neural antigens at the ultrastructural level. The following rabbit polyclonal and mouse monoclonal antibodies were used: affinity-purified polyclonal immunoglobulins G raised to B-50/GAP43 (a membrane-anchored, growth-associated protein); affinity-purified polyclonal immunoglobulins G to human glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP; a subunit of glial filaments); a polyclonal antiserum raised to adrenocorticotropic hormone[25-39] (a neuropeptide present in dense-core granules); a polyclonal antiserum raised to myelin basic protein (a protein present in compact myelin of the central nervous system); and mouse monoclonal antibodies to synaptophysin (an integral membrane protein of small synaptic vesicles). Rat mesencephalon was fixed by perfusion with buffered 2% glutaraldehyde and 4% paraformaldehyde, cryoprotected, and frozen in liquid nitrogen. Freeze-substitution of tissue was performed with anhydrous methanol and 0.5% uranyl acetate at -90 degrees C. Semi-thin Lowicryl sections were used for light microscopic visualization of B-50 in the ventromedial mesencephalic central gray substance. The procedure preserves well the ultrastructure of this region and the immunoreactivity of the selected antigens. This study shows that dehydration by freeze-substitution, combined with Lowicryl HM20 embedding at sub-zero temperature, provides a successful method of preparation of fixed brain tissue for ultrastructural studies, allowing immunogold localization of several neural antigens by double labeling in the same section and in serial sections.

AbstractThe physiological actions of biogenic amine and amino-acid neurotransmitters are terminated by their removal from the synaptic cleft by specific high-affinity transport proteins. The members of the Na+- and Cl−-dependent neurotransmitter transporter family expressed in bovine retina and responsible for the uptake of biogenic amine and amino-acid neurotransmitters were identified using a reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction-based approach. cDNA clones encoding bovine homologues of glycine (GLYT-1), γ-aminobutyric acid (GAT-1) creatine (CreaT), and orphan (NTT4) transporters were identified using this strategy. The expression pattern of mRNAs encoding these proteins in the retina was determined by in situ hybridization histochemistry GLYT-1 CreaT NTT4 and GAT-1 mRNAs were expressed in the retina by cells in the inner nuclear inner plex, iform and ganglion cell layers They were not expressed at detectable levels in the photoreceptor cells whose cell bodies are in the outer nuclear layer and are the most abundant cell type in the retina GLYT-1 mRNA was present exclusively in the proximal inner nuclear layer GAT-1 mRNA was localized to both the inner nuclear and ganglion cell layers CreaT mRNA was expressed in all cell types in the retina except photoreceptors and NTT4 mRNA was expressed by a sub subpoulation of cells in the ganglion cell laver. Elucidation of the expression pattern of these neurotransmitter transporter mRNAs in the retina provides a basis for studies of the role of glycine γ-aminobutyric acid and creatine transporters in retinal function.

Abstract Cytotoxic T lymphocytes (CTLs) exert their cytotoxic activity through the polarized secretion of cytotoxic granules at the immunological synapse (IS). Because soluble NSF attachment receptor (SNARE) proteins mediate numerous intra- and intercellular fusion events and are essential effectors of exocytosis of synaptic granules in neurons, we examined the contribution of specific SNARE proteins to the formation of the IS. To determine the functional significance of specific SNAREs, our lab has examined the expression profile of more than 40 SNARE proteins by RT-PCR and quantitated various protein levels of these SNAREs in resting and activated CTLs. We have found that the expression profile of some SNARE proteins is up or down-regulated upon CTL maturation. In conjunction with these studies, we have also analyzed the sub-cellular localization and mobilization following IS formation of all SNAREs that are expressed in CD8+ T-cells for which specific antibodies are available. Some but not all SNARE proteins are translocated towards the immunological synapse and some co-localized with cytotoxic lytic granules at the immunological synapse. We found that syntaxin 4, syntaxin 6, VAMP 3, and VAMP 8, among other proteins, seem to polarize and colocalize with cytotoxic granule markers at the immune synapse suggesting they play important roles in cytotoxic granule secretion. Grant/ other support: DFG RE 1092/6-1