Date Time
Protein Linked to Sex Differences in Age-Related Neuron Loss
It is not every day that scientists come across a phenomenon so fundamental that it is observed across fruit flies, rodents and humans.
In a paper published today in Aging Cell, neuroscientists from the University of Pittsburgh Schools of the Health Sciences discovered that a single protein a glutamate transporter on the membrane of vesicles that carry dopamine in neurons is key to regulating sex differences in the brain’s vulnerability to age-related neuron loss.
The protein named VGLUT was more abundant in dopamine neurons of female fruit flies, rodents and human beings than in males, correlating with females’ greater resilience to age-related neuron loss and mobility deficiencies, the researchers found. Excitingly, genetically reducing VGLUT levels in female flies diminished their protection from neurodegeneration associated with aging, suggesting that VGLUT could be a new target for prolonging dopamin
Study explains why antipsychotic medications lead to weight gain, promote metabolic syndrome
Why do patients who receive antipsychotic medications to manage schizophrenia and bipolar disorder quickly gain weight and develop prediabetes and hyperinsulemia? The question remained a mystery for decades, but in a paper published today in
Translational Psychiatry, researchers from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine finally cracked the enigma.
Antipsychotic drugs, scientists showed, not only block dopamine signaling in the brain but also in the pancreas, leading to uncontrolled production of blood glucose-regulating hormones and, eventually, obesity and diabetes.
There are dopamine theories of schizophrenia, drug addiction, depression and neurodegenerative disorders, and we are presenting a dopamine theory of metabolism. We re seeing now that it is not only interesting to study dopamine in the brain, but it is equally interesting and important to study it in the periphery.