Astrocytic transporters in Alzheimer's disease

Ugbode, C., Yuhan, H., Whalley, B., Peers, C., Rattray, M. and Dallas, M. L. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5190-0522 (2017) Astrocytic transporters in Alzheimer's disease. Biochemical Journal, 474 (3). pp. 333-355. ISSN 1470-8728 doi: 10.1042/BCJ20160505

Abstract/Summary

Astrocytes play a fundamental role in maintaining the health and function of the central nervous system. Increasing evidence indicates that astrocytes undergo both cellular and molecular changes at an early stage in neurological diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. These changes may reflect a change from a neuroprotective to a neurotoxic phenotype. Given the lack of current disease modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, astrocytes have become an interesting and viable target for therapeutic intervention. The astrocyte transport system covers a diverse array of proteins involved in metabolic support, neurotransmission and synaptic architecture. Therefore, specific targeting of individual transporter families has the potential to suppress neurodegeneration, a characteristic hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease. A small number of the four hundred transporter superfamilies’ are expressed in astrocytes, with evidence highlighting a fraction of these are implicated in Alzheimer’s disease. Here we review the current evidence for six astrocytic transporter subfamilies involved in Alzheimer’s disease, as reported in both animal and human studies. This review confirms that astrocytes are indeed a viable target, highlights the complexities of studying astrocytes and provides future directives to exploit the potential of astrocytes in tackling Alzheimer’s disease.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/68361
Identification Number/DOI	10.1042/BCJ20160505
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Interdisciplinary Research Centres (IDRCs) > Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics (CINN) Life Sciences > School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy > School of Pharmacy > Division of Pharmacology
Publisher	Portland Press
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