Major discovery about mammalian brains surprises researchers uni_copenhagen nature
The cover illustration shows vacuolar-type adenosine triphosphatases on a synaptic vesicle from a nerve cell in the mammalian brain. Image: C. Kutzner, H. Grubmüller and R. Jahn/Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences. Credit: C. Kutzner, H. Grubmüller and R. Jahn/Max Planck Institute for Multidisciplinary Sciences.
Until now, such studies were carried on with very stable enzymes from bacteria. Using the new method, the researchers investigated mammalian enzymes isolated from rats' brains for the first time. Today, the study is published inNeurons communicate using neurotransmitters. To transfer messages between two neurons, neurotransmitters are first pumped into small membrane bladders .
"It is nearly incomprehensible that the extremely critical process of loading neurotransmitters in containers is delegated to only one molecule per container. Especially when we find that 40% of the time these molecules are switched off," says Professor Dimitrios Stamou.
"However, we now know neither is necessarily true for the V-ATPase. As a result, it has suddenly become critical to have methods that measure the behavior of individual V-ATPases in order to understand and optimize the desired effect of a drug," says the first author of the article Dr. Elefterios Kosmidis, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, who spearheaded experiments in the lab.
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