Topic: lipid rafts

Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a prevalent global cause of disability, affecting approximately 5% of adults, and has a higher incidence in females. Despite its significant impact, its diverse symptoms and causes lack clear identification, hindering effective treatments. Understanding the underlying mechanisms is crucial. Studies in various brain areas indicate an astrocyte pathology in MDD, revealing reduced numbers and altered morphology, gene, and protein expression. Astrocytes influence synapse remodeling, crucial for neuronal network maturation. Notably, their phagocytic ability, facil

Lipid rafts are liquid-ordered domains where specific enzymes and receptors are located. These membrane platforms play crucial roles in a variety of signaling pathways. Thus, alterations in the lipid environment, such as those elicited by oxidative stress, can lead to important functional disruptions in membrane proteins. Cell membrane microarrays has emerged as a powerful methodology for the study of both lipids and membrane proteins, as they preserved native protein structure and lipid environment. Based on this technology, we developed membrane microarrays with different lipid raft preparat

Fatty acids have long been considered essential for brain development, however, the involvement of fatty acid synthesis in nervous system formation is unclear. Our previous approaches using the proteomics of the growth cone revealed enrichment of the proteins involved in fatty acids (ref. 1), such as fatty acid synthase or fatty acid-binding proteins. To analyze how fatty acids contribute to the neuronal network formation, we generated mice with knockout of GPSN2, an enzyme involved in fatty acid elongation and synthesis of very long-chain fatty acids (VLCFA), and investigated the impact on ne