Extracellular proteolytic cascade remodels the ECM to promote structural plasticity
Renato Frischknecht, Jeet Bahadur Singh, Bartomeu Perelló-Amorós, Jenny Schneeberg, Constanze I. Seidenbecher, Alexander Dityatev, Anna Fejtová · FENS Forum 2024
Learning and memory formation require activity-dependent rearrangements of neuronal networks driven by structural plasticity. The brain's perineuronal extracellular matrix (ECM), composed mainly of chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans from the lectican family, suppresses structural plasticity in the mature brain. Several members of this family, such as aggrecan and brevican, undergo proteolytic cleavage by proteases from the ADAMTS family, which may loosen the ECM structure. Therefore, we hypothesize that activity-dependent extracellular proteolysis weakens the ECM, supporting neuronal plasticity
ePoster · Neuroscience