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Monday, March 18, 2024
March 18, 2024

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Scientists start to understand zinc’s role in brain

The Columbian
Published:

PITTSBURGH — Scientists already knew glutamate was a key biological agent responsible for activating neural-cell signaling in the brain. But they never thought zinc also could serve as a neurotransmitter.

While glutamate is the accelerator of neural signaling, a new study has found zinc to be the brakes.

The University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine study published online recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that free zinc, not bound to proteins or enzymes, plays an important role in neural signaling.

And tracking the metal’s role as a neurotransmitter, as the study did, provides a new tool to understand its role in brain-signaling pathways, with potential to help explain such conditions as Alzheimer’s and Huntington’s.

Neurons are brain cells. Synapses are areas of those cells where electrical and chemical signals are transmitted between neurons. Vesicles are bubbles containing neurotransmitters, including glutamate and zinc, which the neuron releases to activate or modulate communication between neurons.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher Stephen Lippard and his team figured a way to bind a fluorescent agent to zinc and track its actions. The team found that zinc modulated and fine-tuned neural signals.

“We’re talking about a metal that nature is using for signaling. I think it is a fundamental mechanism of the brain and the beginning of an important field of study,” said study leader Thanos Tzounopoulos, associate professor in the school of medicine’s Department of Otolaryngology.

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