Current Protein and Peptide Science - Volume 15, Issue 7, 2014

This special issue is based on a mini-symposium in the area of neurosciences with the title "Understanding the role of heteroreceptor complexes in the central nervous system" held at the Nobel Forum, Karolinska Institutet on December 17th, 2012, organized by Kjell Fuxe, Dasiel O. Borroto-Escuela and Luigi F. Agnati. It consists of seven mini-reviews in the field receptor heteromers. The early work on negative cooperativity a Read More

G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) are a widespread family of transmembrane receptors with different physiologically relevant functions. Alterations in the structure and function of these receptors at different levels (ligand binding, signaling and trafficking) may result in a number of pathological conditions which represent a major health problem. Mutations in these receptors are also linked to different inherited disea Read More

Dopamine receptors are G protein-coupled receptors critically involved in locomotion, reward, and cognitive processes. Export of dopamine receptors to the plasma membrane is thought to follow the default secretory pathway, whereby proteins travel from the endoplasmatic reticulum (ER), through the Golgi apparatus, to arrive at the cell surface. Several observations indicate that trafficking from the ER to the plasma Read More

The presence of Galanin and Neuropeptide Y and/or their receptors in several areas of the brain involved in memory, mood, cardiovascular control and food intake indicates that Galanin, and Neuropeptide Y could equilibrate the physiological actions of each other. There is evidence for the existence of interactions between Galanin Receptor and Neuropeptide Y Receptor in the nucleus of the solitarii tract (NTS), hypothalamu Read More

Striatal dopamine adenosine A2A and D2 receptors interact to modulate some aspects of motor and motivational function. The demonstration of A2A/D2 receptor heteromerization in living cells constituted a progress for understanding the neurobiology of dopamine D2 and adenosine A2A receptors. In fact, the existence of putative striatalA2A/D2 receptor heteromers has been suggested to be important for striatal function Read More

The tridecapeptide neurotensin (NT) acts as neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and in the periphery. NT and NT receptors are largely localized in dopamine (DA)-enriched regions of the mammalian brain. Accordingly, numerous studies indicate the presence of close functional interactions between DA neurons and the peptide. Among others mechanisms, it has been suggested that NT could modulate nigrostriat Read More

Acetylcholine, acting on both nicotinic receptors (nAChRs) and muscarinic receptors (mAChRs), plays a role in the regulation of synaptic plasticity, being involved in the regulation of cellular processes and cognitive functions, such as learning, memory and attention. Recently, G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), including mAChRs, have been reported to transactivate tyrosine-kinase receptors (RTK), such as epidermal growth fa Read More

Two far-reaching theoretical approaches, namely “Neuro-semeiotics” (NS) and “Free-energy Minimization” (FEM), have been recently proposed as frames within which to put forward heuristic hypotheses on integrative brain actions. In the present paper these two theoretical approaches are briefly discussed in the perspective of a recent model of brain architecture and information handling based on what we suggest calling J Read More

The secretion of extracellular membrane vesicles (EMVs) is a common phenomenon that occurs in archaea, bacteria, and mammalian cells. EMVs contain biologically active proteins, which have diverse roles in biological processes. The outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) of Gram-negative bacteria and membrane vesicles (MVs) of Gram-positive bacteria have been discovered in various species. The main issues related to b Read More

Aim of this review is to study the role of the TRPV2 channel, a member of the TRPV subfamily of TRP channels, in tumor progression. Physiologically, the triggering of TRPV2 by agonists/activators (e.g., growth factors, hormones and cannabinoids), by inducing TRPV2 translocation from the endosome to the plasmatic membrane, inhibit cell proliferation and induce necrosis and/or apoptosis. Thus, loss or alterations Read More

This review paper aims at discussing the major recent achievements in the field of the heparin-binding proteins (HBPs), primarily chemokines and defensins, and their complexes with glycosaminoglycans examined by solution nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. As opposed to the HBPs involved in coagulation (mainly antithrombin and thrombin), and growth factors (especially fibroblast growth factors 1 and 2), which wer Read More