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AMPA receptor associated protein

Neuroscience Campus investigator Guus Smit and Kawan Li publish their work in Science.

AMPA receptor anchroing revisited

Guus Smit and Ka Wan publish the latest on AMPA receptor anchoring and short-term plasticity. Already since 2002 the group of Smit has been hunting for postsynaptic receptor anchoring proteins, in particular looking for postsynaptic density protein are functionally involved in regulating the ion channel-receptor activity in glumate-synapses. In their latest work, in collaboration with the University of Heidelberg, a new AMPA receptor associated protein was found, CKAMP44, using state of the art proteomics technology.

CKAMP44 is a brain-specific type I transmembrane protein that associates with AMPA receptors in synaptic spines. CKAMP44 expressed in Xenopus oocytes reduced GluA1- and A2-mediated steady-state currents, but did not affect kainate- or N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor–mediated currents. Mouse hippocampal CA1 pyramidal neurons expressed CKAMP44 at low abundance, and overexpression of CKAMP44 led to stronger and faster AMPA receptor desensitization, slower recovery from desensitization, and a reduction in the paired-pulse ratio of AMPA currents. By contrast, dentate gyrus granule cells exhibited strong CKAMP44 expression, and CKAMP44 knockout increased the paired-pulse ratio of AMPA currents in lateral and medial perforant path–granule cell synapses. CKAMP44 thus modulates short-term plasticity at specific excitatory synapses.

Von Engelhardt & Mack et al. Science 327 (2010) 1518-1522

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