High-affinity nicotinic acetylcholine receptor expression and trafficking abnormalities in psychiatric illness

摘要: Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are a critical component of the cholinergic system neurotransmission in brain that modulates important physiological processes such as reward, cognition, and mood. Abnormalities this accordingly implicated multiple psychiatric illnesses, including addiction, schizophrenia, mood disorders. There is significantly increased tobacco use, therefore nicotine intake, patient populations, pharmacological agents act on various nicotinic receptor subtypes ameliorate clinical features these Better understanding molecular mechanisms underlying dysfunction disease will permit more targeted design novel therapeutic agents. The objective review to describe cellular pathways through which chronic exposure regulates nAChR expression, juxtapose with evidence for altered expression high-affinity nAChRs human illness. Here, we summarize studies from pre-clinical animal models vivo imaging post-mortem experiments demonstrating changes regulation We conclude mechanistic explanation abnormalities illness arise fuller normal trafficking, along detailed study tissue, perhaps using biotechnological advances, induced pluripotent stem cells.