Cellular Signalling and Transport
Communication between neurons has a bearing on everything we do, from seeing and remembering our children's faces to being able to walk across the room.
Neurons contact each other at synapses, highly specialised signalling apparatus comprising complex protein structures on the sending and receiving cells. For neuronal networks to function correctly, this molecular assembly must send signals and also modulate their strength and duration.
Synapses are continually being formed, broken and renewed throughout life; indeed this is thought to underlie learning and memory. To maintain synapses, neurons must traffic the necessary protein components from their cell body down long, thin cellular extensions to these distant sites. This transport process is fundamental to neuronal and synaptic activity but is particularly vulnerable to damage resulting in the deterioration of contacts and ultimately neuronal death. The effects of synapse loss are clinically wide-ranging and devastating, including memory loss, dementia and movement disorders.
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