New Mechanism of Dopamine —”Recovery Pump”

A small G protein can significantly change the transport efficiency of the dopamine "recovery pump" system. If the Vav2 gene is knocked out, the function of the "recovery pump" increases abnormally, which will make the dopamine content of brain nucleus increases significantly. In order to find the "switch" to control the dopamine "recovery pump", the researchers use the method of molecular biology to screen the GDNF receptor Ret. The results of the study was published in July 7th in the Nature of Neuroscience.

Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter in the brain, can participate in many physiological and pathological activities in human and mammals. It plays a key role in regulation during exercise, learning, memory and drug addiction process. The neurons to produce dopamine takes a management mode similar to "returning to the satellite" to the dopamine, that is to release dopamine according to the brain activity. And at the same time, it utilizes the dopamine transporter as dopamine "recovery pump" to recovery the dopamine timely and appropriately. It can both regulate the extracellular concentrations of dopamine adapt to physiological activities and make the reusing of the dopamine. Once the recovery pump system occurs obstruction, there will be a variety of central nervous system diseases.

So, how is the dopamine "recovery pump" precisely regulated? GDNF and RET can be a switch to toggle and regulate dopamine "recycling pump" and play a role. When this "switch" fails (Ret knockout), the animals show a similar expression of Vav2 knockout mice. In the past, GDNF and its receptor Ret were mainly in charge of the survival of dopaminergic neurons. Therefore, this finding extends the traditional understanding of the role of neurotrophic factor GDNF.

The regulation mechanism of the dopamine "recovery pump" has the specificity of the brain region, the "switch" is mainly related to the initiation of the reward and drug addiction. Research results reveal the the difference of nucleus and other major dopamine systems at the molecular level, which will provide an important theoretical basis for understanding and controlling drug addiction in the formation process.

Resource: http://www.creative-animodel.com/blog/index.php/2015/07/23/new-mechanism-of-dopamine-recovery-pump/

Creative Animodel's commitment to developing and producing gene targeted mouse models as effective research tools began with conventional mouse knockouts. Website: www.creative-animodel.com