2023-10-04 15:21:00
THE synaptic networks make it possible to constantly send phenomenal amounts of information. The synapse is the structure where one neuron comes into contact with another through neurotransmitters, such as glutamate. “More than 50% of neurons in the brain use glutamate [un aminoacide] to transmit information at the synapse level,” explains Andrea Volterra. In this way, neurons send messages, elaborate and integrate signals.
The neurons send an electrical message, which allows very rapid communication from one neuron to another via synapses. Glial cells are not involved in producing an electrical signal, but rather in chemical communication. It is in the synapses that “the electrical neuronal message is transformed into a chemical signal,” adds Andrea Volterra. The electrochemical information is mixed and integrated to produce a complete signal.
Researchers have made an astonishing discovery: certain types of astrocytes, subtypes of glial cells, function strangely close to that of neurons. For several years, neuroscientists have been aware of a particular activity of astrocytes, but their functioning and their specificities had never before been observed.
“Thanks to the molecular techniques we use, we discovered that there are a multitude of astrocyte subtypes, 90% similar, but with specificities,” explains Andrea Volterra. It is one of these subgroups, the glutamatergic astrocyte, which has striking similarities with the functioning of synaptic neurons. “They have a role as transmitters.” Neurons are therefore not the only cells capable of communicating with each other.
Located in the cerebral region of the hippocampus, which governs spatial memory in particular, as well as in the center of the brain, a control point for motor skills, glutamatergic astrocytes are capable of stimulating the vesicles and releasing their contents, to communicate with other cells, as in the classical neurological pattern.
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