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Astrocytic Pathological Calcium Homeostasis and Impaired Vesicle Trafficking in Neurodegeneration

Although the central nervous system (CNS) consists of highly heterogeneous populations of neurones and glial cells, clustered into diverse anatomical regions with specific functions, there are some conditions, including alertness, awareness and attention that require simultaneous, coordinated and sp...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Vardjan, Nina, Verkhratsky, Alexej, Zorec, Robert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5343893/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28208745
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms18020358
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author Vardjan, Nina
Verkhratsky, Alexej
Zorec, Robert
author_facet Vardjan, Nina
Verkhratsky, Alexej
Zorec, Robert
author_sort Vardjan, Nina
collection PubMed
description Although the central nervous system (CNS) consists of highly heterogeneous populations of neurones and glial cells, clustered into diverse anatomical regions with specific functions, there are some conditions, including alertness, awareness and attention that require simultaneous, coordinated and spatially homogeneous activity within a large area of the brain. During such events, the brain, representing only about two percent of body mass, but consuming one fifth of body glucose at rest, needs additional energy to be produced. How simultaneous energy procurement in a relatively extended area of the brain takes place is poorly understood. This mechanism is likely to be impaired in neurodegeneration, for example in Alzheimer’s disease, the hallmark of which is brain hypometabolism. Astrocytes, the main neural cell type producing and storing glycogen, a form of energy in the brain, also hold the key to metabolic and homeostatic support in the central nervous system and are impaired in neurodegeneration, contributing to the slow decline of excitation-energy coupling in the brain. Many mechanisms are affected, including cell-to-cell signalling. An important question is how changes in cellular signalling, a process taking place in a rather short time domain, contribute to the neurodegeneration that develops over decades. In this review we focus initially on the slow dynamics of Alzheimer’s disease, and on the activity of locus coeruleus, a brainstem nucleus involved in arousal. Subsequently, we overview much faster processes of vesicle traffic and cytosolic calcium dynamics, both of which shape the signalling landscape of astrocyte-neurone communication in health and neurodegeneration.
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spelling pubmed-53438932017-03-16 Astrocytic Pathological Calcium Homeostasis and Impaired Vesicle Trafficking in Neurodegeneration Vardjan, Nina Verkhratsky, Alexej Zorec, Robert Int J Mol Sci Review Although the central nervous system (CNS) consists of highly heterogeneous populations of neurones and glial cells, clustered into diverse anatomical regions with specific functions, there are some conditions, including alertness, awareness and attention that require simultaneous, coordinated and spatially homogeneous activity within a large area of the brain. During such events, the brain, representing only about two percent of body mass, but consuming one fifth of body glucose at rest, needs additional energy to be produced. How simultaneous energy procurement in a relatively extended area of the brain takes place is poorly understood. This mechanism is likely to be impaired in neurodegeneration, for example in Alzheimer’s disease, the hallmark of which is brain hypometabolism. Astrocytes, the main neural cell type producing and storing glycogen, a form of energy in the brain, also hold the key to metabolic and homeostatic support in the central nervous system and are impaired in neurodegeneration, contributing to the slow decline of excitation-energy coupling in the brain. Many mechanisms are affected, including cell-to-cell signalling. An important question is how changes in cellular signalling, a process taking place in a rather short time domain, contribute to the neurodegeneration that develops over decades. In this review we focus initially on the slow dynamics of Alzheimer’s disease, and on the activity of locus coeruleus, a brainstem nucleus involved in arousal. Subsequently, we overview much faster processes of vesicle traffic and cytosolic calcium dynamics, both of which shape the signalling landscape of astrocyte-neurone communication in health and neurodegeneration. MDPI 2017-02-08 /pmc/articles/PMC5343893/ /pubmed/28208745 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms18020358 Text en © 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Vardjan, Nina
Verkhratsky, Alexej
Zorec, Robert
Astrocytic Pathological Calcium Homeostasis and Impaired Vesicle Trafficking in Neurodegeneration
title Astrocytic Pathological Calcium Homeostasis and Impaired Vesicle Trafficking in Neurodegeneration
title_full Astrocytic Pathological Calcium Homeostasis and Impaired Vesicle Trafficking in Neurodegeneration
title_fullStr Astrocytic Pathological Calcium Homeostasis and Impaired Vesicle Trafficking in Neurodegeneration
title_full_unstemmed Astrocytic Pathological Calcium Homeostasis and Impaired Vesicle Trafficking in Neurodegeneration
title_short Astrocytic Pathological Calcium Homeostasis and Impaired Vesicle Trafficking in Neurodegeneration
title_sort astrocytic pathological calcium homeostasis and impaired vesicle trafficking in neurodegeneration
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5343893/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28208745
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms18020358
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