Neurotransmitter Transporters From The Biophysics Of The Transport Process To Its Implications For Synapse And Circuit Function

This book collates the contributions of a selected number of neuroscientists that are interested in the molecular, preclinical, and clinical aspects of neurotransmission research. The seven chapters in this book address the latest research/review data related to GABA/glutamate system's organization and function, the structure of receptors, subtypes and their ligands, as well as the translational approach and clinical implications. The book offers readers a rich collection of data regarding current and future applications of GABA and glutamate neurotransmission, including promising research strategies and potential clinical benefits.

Understanding the mechanisms that underlie brain activity and function remains one of the major frontiers of biology. All the processes of how we co-ordinate our movements, sense our surroundings, react to stimuli and learn and retain information rely on complicated networks of neurons thatcommunicate with each other and their targets. This fast and accurate intercellular signalling most occurs at synapses, specialized processes of neurons that release chemical signals, called neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters: Frontiers in Molecular Biology will provide the reader withextensive background information on neurotransmitter release. It takes a multidisciplinary approach, but does not assume previous knowledge having basic introductions to most topics. Topics however are covered in enough detail to be of interest to experts in the field. Throughout, emphasis is placedon the rationale by which proteins are assigned specific functions rather than just providing facts about function. The first chapter provides an introduction to the basic features and properties of the synapse and is followed by a chapter detailing several important techniques used to elucidatevarious aspects of release. Chapters 3 describes many of the biochemical approaches used to identify proteins involved in neurotransmitter release and then chapters 4 and 5 focus on more specific aspects of synaptic transmission: the proteins that transport neurotransmitters and the role ofphosphlipids in the process. The next five chapters concentrate on approaches to unravel the function of many proteins in vivo by using toxins, giant squid axons, C. elegans, Drosophila, and mice. The final chapter summarizes current knowledge on endocytosis and recycling. Knowledge of themolecular mechanisms underlying neurotransmitter release has expanded tremendously over the last 10 years. Many of the proteins involved have been isolated, but their roles have yet to be determined. These discoveries will be a major challenge and it is therefore the major aim of this book not onlyto provide information but also to generate excitement.

Cellular and Molecular Neurophysiology, Fifth Edition is the only up-to-date textbook on the market that focuses on the molecular and cellular physiology of neurons and synapses. Hypothesis-driven rather than a dry presentation of the facts, the book promotes a real understanding of the function of nerve cells that is useful for practicing neurophysiologists and students in graduate-level courses on the topic alike. This new edition explains the molecular properties and functions of excitable cells in detail and teaches students how to construct and conduct intelligent research experiments. The content is firmly based on numerous experiments performed by top experts in the field. The new edition contains new chapters on recording neuronal activity, iconotrophic and metabotropic receptors for sensory transduction, and a section containing exercises for further learning. This book will be a useful resource for neurophysiologists, neurobiologists, neurologists, and students taking graduate-level courses on neurophysiology. Authoritative foundational coverage of basic cellular and molecular neurophysiology Includes new chapters on recording neuronal activity, iconotrophic and metabotropic receptors for sensory transduction Provides fifteen appendices that describe how neurobiological techniques are interspersed in the text Presents enhanced coverage of new methodologies and experimental techniques

The transmission of the nervous impulse is always from the dendritic branches and the cell body to the axon or functional process. Every neuron, then, possesses a receptor apparatus, the body and the dendritic prolongations, an apparatus of emission, the axon, and the apparatus of distribution, the terminal arborization of the nerve fibers. I designated the foregoing principle: the theory of dynamic polarization (Cajal 1923). Ever since the beautiful drawings from Golgi and Cajal, we have been familiar with the organisation of neurones into dendritic, somatic and axonal compartments. Cajal proposed that these cellular compartments were specialised, resulting in his concept of ^dynamic polarisation'. He considered dendrites to be passive elements that simply transferred information from inputs to the soma. Since the discovery that dendrites of many neural populations release neuroactive substances and in doing so, alter neuronal output, it is now apparent that this theory requires qualification. This book presents recent developments in the neurophysiology of dendritic release of several chemical classes of transmitters in a number of different areas of the mammalian central nervous system. Once released from a neuron, these substances can act as neurotransmitters and/or neuromodulators, to autoregulate the original neuron, its synaptic inputs, and adjacent cells or, by volume transmission, to affect distant cells. In some systems, dendritic transmitter release is part independent of secretion from axon terminal signifying a selective control of the dendritic compartment.