Role of Neuroreceptors in Health and Disease
A special issue of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425). This special issue belongs to the section "Neuropharmacology and Neuropathology".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (23 May 2023) | Viewed by 2113
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
The general understanding of neuroreceptors is founded in the age-old question, “How is information processed within the brain?” The first answers to this question go back to 300 B.C. where the Pneumatic theory, a “theorie” of the functioning of the nervous system by the ancient Greeks, was postulated. Milestones in further understanding the communication of neurons were achieved much later, e.g., by the discovery of action potentials (1848, Du Bois-Reymond), the birth of the Neuron Doctrine (1888 Cajal), or the work of Sherrington (1906): “The integrative action of the nervous system”, which is postulated as the start of modern neurophysiology.
Much more has been discovered since; neuroreceptors have been well-studied and understood as being key players in the communication between and within neuronal networks. Located at the surface of neuronal or glial cells, neuroreceptors—including neurotransporters—can either excite, inhibit, or modulate their following neuron. Neuroreceptors can be activated via neurotransmitters (ligand-gated or ionotropic receptors) or via second messengers/G proteins (metabotropic receptors). Therefore, neuroreceptors shape excitatory and inhibitory synapses.
Disturbances or changes within the molecular structure of such receptors/transporters or the surrounding synapse lead to a wide spectrum of neurodegenerative or neuropsychiatric diseases (e.g., ALS, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, schizophrenia, startle disease). Understanding the molecular pathomechanisms of neurodegenerative or neuropsychiatric diseases has become a central topic in molecular, structural, and pharmacological neurobiology and neurophysiology. Recent research has the challenge of including and overcoming massive datasets, due to the development of more precise methods. For example, the creation and enlargement of databases, GEWAS studies, gaining precise detailed structural data, genetic applications and recent studies in pharmacology need to be analyzed. Further research is needed to provide answers to outstanding questions, and to explain insufficiently understood mechanisms.
The aim of the current Special Issue is to present recent findings within this broad field of molecular, physiological, and pharmacological neuroreceptor/transporter research, in order to provide new mechanistic and molecular insights into the understanding of molecular pathomechanisms in neurodegenerative and neuropsychiatric diseases caused by the malfunctioning of neuroreceptors within excitatory and inhibitory synapses.
In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following: neurodegenerative diseases, synaptic transmission, modulation of neuroreceptors or transporters, and new techniques to study neuroreceptors/transporters.
Dr. Natascha Schaefer
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- neuroreceptors
- neurotransmitters, synaptic transmission
- neurodegenerative diseases
