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From: NIH news releases and news items [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
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Sent: July 13, 2011 12:53
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Subject: NIH INVESTIGATORS DISCOVER NEW MECHANISM THAT MAY BE IMPORTANT FOR
LEARNING AND MEMORY
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIH News
National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
<http://www.niehs.nih.gov/>
Embargoed for Release: Wednesday, July 13, 2011, 12 p.m. EDT
CONTACT: Robin Arnette, (919) 541-5143, <e-mail:[log in to unmask]>
NIH INVESTIGATORS DISCOVER NEW MECHANISM THAT MAY BE IMPORTANT FOR LEARNING
AND MEMORY
New findings in mice suggest that the timing when the neurotransmitter
acetylcholine is released in the brain's hippocampus may play a key role in
regulating the strength of nerve cell connections, called synapses.
Understanding the complex nature of neuronal signaling at synapses could
lead to better understanding of learning and memory, and novel treatments
for relevant disorders, such as Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia.
Neurons in the hippocampus, one of the parts of the brain that is thought to
have a critical function in learning and memory, communicate with each other
at synapses by releasing various neurotransmitters, including acetylcholine
and glutamate, which stimulate electrical signals in the adjacent neurons.
For years, neuroscientists have been working to determine which cellular
processes allow humans to learn from experience and store memories, and how
these processes are compromised by conditions such as schizophrenia and
Alzheimer's disease. Now, researchers from the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which is part of the National
Institutes of Health, believe they have found one such mechanism for
synchronizing changes in the strength of synapses. The results of the study
will be published online July 13 in the journal Neuron.
"We've demonstrated that when we stimulate the release of acetylcholine at
just the right time in the hippocampus, we can induce a cellular change at
synapses that use glutamate," said Jerrel Yakel, Ph.D., a senior
investigator in the NIEHS Laboratory of Neurobiology and co-author of the
paper.
Previous work by other researchers had established that learning and memory
is mediated by the strengthening or weakening of synapses, where electrical
signals that last less than a hundredth of a second release
neurotransmitters that change the electrical impulses of the connected
neurons. In this study, Yakel and Zhenglin Gu, Ph.D., a research fellow in
Yakel's group and co-author of the publication, used molecular biology
techniques to get some of the neurons in mouse brain cells to produce a
special light-sensitive protein, and then used a laser to stimulate these
neurons to release acetylcholine.
"A change of even a few hundredths of a second in the timing of
acetylcholine release can make a difference," said Gu. "No one had shown
this was important until now."
Yakel said the findings are also a potentially important step in the study
of disorders that affect learning and memory, such as Alzheimer's disease
and schizophrenia, where the acetylcholine system and hippocampus are known
to play critical roles. For example, amyloid beta peptide is the major
component of plaques that form in the brains of Alzheimer's patients and is
thought to participate in the memory loss associated with Alzheimer's
disease. In this report, Yakel and Gu expand upon earlier findings that
amyloid beta peptide disrupts acetylcholine's ability to regulate synaptic
strength.
The NIEHS supports research to understand the effects of the environment on
human health and is part of NIH. For more information on environmental
health topics, visit <www.niehs.nih.gov>. Subscribe to one or more of the
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events, and publications.
About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical
research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of
the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal
agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical
research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both
common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs,
visit <www.nih.gov>.
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