Science & Technology - Posted by Bill Hathaway-Yale on Wednesday, December 8, 2010 14:21 - 1 Comment 
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(No Ratings Yet) Loading ...Molecular glue needed to wire brain
Red dots on electron micrograph show SynCAM molecules within a synapse between two brain cells. Yale researchers say the molecules acts as a sort of glue and is crucial to function of neurons. (Credit: Yale U.)
YALE (US) — A single molecule not only connects brain cells but also changes how we learn.
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The text of this article by Futurity is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License.
The findings, reported in the December 9 issue of the journal Neuron, may help researchers discover ways to improve memory and could lead to new therapies to correct neurological disorders.
The junctions between synapses—brain cells over which nerve pulses pass—are crucial for regulating learning and memory and how we think.
Aberrations in the structure and function of synapses have been linked to mental retardation and autism, while synapses are lost in the aging brains of Alzheimer’s patients.
However, the mechanisms that organize synapses in the living brain remain a puzzle. Scientists identified one critical piece of the puzzle, a molecule called SynCAM 1 that spans across synaptic junctions.
“We hypothesized that this molecule might promote new synapses in the developing brain, but were surprised that it also impacts the maintenance and function of these structures,” says Thomas Biederer, associate professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry at Yale University.
“We can now define how this molecule supports the brain’s ability to wire itself.”
Researchers focused on SynCAM 1, an adhesion molecule that helps to hold synaptic junctions together and found that when the SynCAM 1 gene was activated in mice, more synaptic connections formed. Mice without the molecule produced fewer synapses.
When we learn, new synapses can form. However, the strength of synaptic connections also changes during learning, based on the amount of stimuli received—a quality scientists termed “plasticity.”
Together with a group in Germany led by Valentin Stein, the team was surprised to find that SynCAM 1 controls an important form of synaptic plasticity.
Unexpectedly, the researchers also found that mice with high amounts of SynCAM 1 are unable to learn while mice lacking SynCAM 1—and having fewer synapses—learn better.
Apparently an excess of the molecule can be damaging. This builds on recent theories suggesting that having too many connections isn’t always better and that the balance of synaptic activity is crucial for proper learning and memory.
“Synapses are dynamic structures. It appears that SynCAM 1 ties synapses together; some of this molecule is needed to promote contact but too much glues down the synapse and inhibits its function. It may act a bit like a sculptor who helps give synapses their shape.”
Biederer says the molecule is almost identical in mice and man, and likely has the same roles in human brains.
The work was funded by the National Institutes of Health and the March of Dimes Foundation.
More news from Yale University: http://opa.yale.edu/
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This is very useful, identifying yet another factor that is essential in learning (and providing evidence that, as for a number of biological processes, optimum function avoids extremes of absence or excess of some catalyst, precursor, neurotransmitter, or enzyme that has an important function. That is, multiple “causal influences” can have varied effects and sometimes interact in unsuspected ways. My own work has considered a number of neurotoxins, of which lead is the best known, that influence rates and durability of learning. I’ll now want to look at SynCAM 1 (if only to see if there are nutrients, toxins or enzymes that might block its effects. Thank you very much for the posting. (For some of our work, see
roger masters, Dept. of Government, Dartmouth College,Hanover, NH 03755