Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg
A complicated interaction between different proteins is needed for information to pass from one nerve cell to the next. Researchers at the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) have now managed to study this process in the synaptic vesicles, which play an important role in this process. The study appeared in the journal Nature Communications.
Several billion nerve cells communicate with each other in the body so that humans and other living beings can perceive and react to their environment. A host of complex chemical and electrical processes occur within a few milliseconds. “Special messenger substances – known as neurotransmitters – are released at the synapses of the nerve cells. They transmit information between the individual nerve cells,” explains Dr Carla Schmidt, an assistant professor at the Centre for Innovation Competence HALOmem at MLU. The messenger substances are packed into small vesicles called synaptic vesicles, which fuse with the cell membrane in response to an electrical impulse and release the messenger substances. The messenger substances are then recognised by special receptor proteins in the next nerve cell. For this to succeed, numerous proteins have to work together, meshing like cogs in a clockwork mechanism. However, too little is currently known about how this process precisely works, says Schmidt.