Astrocytic pathological calcium homeostasis and impaired vesicle trafficking in neurodegeneration

Vardjan, Nina (author), Verkhratsky, Alexei (author), Zorec, Robert (author)

Although the central nervous system (CNS) consists of highly heterogeneous populations of neurones and glial cells, clustered into diverse anatomical regions with specific functions, there are some conditions, including alertness, awareness and attention that require simultaneous, coordinated and spatially homogeneous activity within a large area of the brain. During such events, the brain, representing only about two percent of body mass, but consuming one fifth of body glucose at rest, needs additional energy to be produced. How simultaneous energy procurement in a relatively extended area of the brain takes place is poorly understood. This mechanism is likely to be impaired in neurodegeneration, for example in Alzheimer’s disease, the hallmark of which is brain hypometabolism. Astrocytes, the main neural cell type producing and storing glycogen, a form of energy in the brain, also hold the key to metabolic and homeostatic support in the central nervous system and are impaired in neurodegeneration, contributing to the slow decline of excitation-energy coupling in the brain. Many mechanisms are affected, including cell-to-cell signalling. An important question is how changes in cellular signalling, a process taking place in a rather short time domain, contribute to the neurodegeneration that develops over decades. In this review we focus initially on the slow dynamics of Alzheimer’s disease, and on the activity of locus coeruleus, a brainstem nucleus involved in arousal. Subsequently, we overview much faster processes of vesicle traffic and cytosolic calcium dynamics, both of which shape the signalling landscape of astrocyte-neurone communication in health and neurodegeneration.

• Language: English
• Keywords: Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, neurodegeneration, astrocyte, glia, vesicle traffic, calcium homeostasis, cAMP, neurodegeneration, locus coeruleus, noradrenaline, excitation-energy coupling
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.02 - Review Article
• Organization: MF - Faculty of Medicine
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2017
• Number of pages: 19 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 18, iss. 2, art. 358
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-131263
• UDC: 616.8
• ISSN on article: 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms18020358
• COBISS.SI-ID: 33094617
• Publication date in RUL: 24.09.2021

VARDJAN, Nina, VERKHRATSKY, Alexei and ZOREC, Robert, 2017, Astrocytic pathological calcium homeostasis and impaired vesicle trafficking in neurodegeneration. International journal of molecular sciences [online]. 2017. Vol. 18, no. 2,  358. [Accessed 17 April 2025]. DOI 10.3390/ijms18020358. Retrieved from: https://repozitorij.uni-lj.si/IzpisGradiva.php?lang=eng&id=131263

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: International journal of molecular sciences
• Shortened title: Int. j. mol. sci.
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 1422-0067
• COBISS.SI-ID: 2779162

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 08.02.2017

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: Alzheimerjeva bolezen, Parkinsonova bolezen, nevrodegeneracija