2023-09-12 13:05:13
The brain is home to a previously unknown type of cell that is crucial for memory, learning and movement. An international study published in ‘Nature’ rewrites anatomy chapters, in which Italy plays a leading role. The authors discovered that in addition to neurons and glia, a supporting brain structure, there is a third cell type halfway between the other two. The new cells are called glutamatergic astrocytes and having identified them, the researchers hope, will be “extremely useful for understanding the mechanisms that lead to the development of various neurological pathologies”. It will therefore help “the creation of new therapies which, by acting on this mechanism, can influence the course of various brain diseases”.
The work was directed by Andrea Volterra, professor emeritus of the University of Lausanne, also in Switzerland visiting faculty at the Wyss Center for Bio and Neuroengineering in Geneva, and in the past also visiting scientist at the Santa Lucia Irccs Foundation in Rome. Second author of the article is the pharmacologist and neuroscientist Ada Ledonne, now a researcher at the University of Rome Tor Vergata and at the Irccs Santa Lucia, in the Experimental Neurology laboratory directed by the Tor Vergata professor Nicola Biagio Mercuri who contributed to the study.
Scientists – explains a note – have identified a particular type of astrocytes (among the component cells of glia, the non-neuronal part of the brain that provides structure, nourishment and regulates the brain environment), different from those already known because they present neuronal characteristics and are able to put the neurotransmitter glutamate into circulation. These new astrocytes are therefore located halfway between glial cells and neuronal cells, representing a third category of cells necessary for the proper functioning of the brain.
“The results obtained – states Ledonne – demonstrate that glutamatergic astrocytes influence neuronal activity, neurotransmission and synaptic plasticity in important brain circuits such as the cortico-hippocampal circuit and the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system, with implications in the regulation of learning processes and memory, movement control and onset of epileptic seizures”. Furthermore, she adds, “an important role of glutamatergic astrocytes has been highlighted in the control of the brain circuit that regulates movement, the nigrostriatal dopaminergic system, whose functional alteration is at the basis of Parkinson’s disease”.
The discovered cells – the note details – are involved in the mechanisms of neuronal synaptic plasticity that regulate the strength of communication between neurons. In particular, glutamatergic astrocytes appear essential for a form of plasticity called long-term potentiation, which underlies learning processes. In fact, interfering with their function in experimental models causes memory damage.
According to the scholars, “the identification of this new typology of brain cells with intermediate characteristics between astrocytes and neurons resolves previous controversies on the ability of astrocytes to carry out vesicular release of transmitters”. This is “a notable advance in knowledge of the functioning mechanisms of the brain”.
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