Deficiency in synaptic protease neurotrypsin: Its effects on synaptic plasticity, learning behaviors, and learning-induced dendritic spine remodeling in mice
Shaobo Jia, Maura Ferrer-Ferrer, Rahul Kaushik, Jenny Schneeberg, Izabela Figiel, Stepan Aleshin, Andrey Mironov, Motahareh Safari, Renato Frischknecht, Jakub Wlodarczyk, Oleg Senkov, Alexander Dityatev · FENS Forum 2024
Introduction: Neurotrypsin (NT) is a neuronal trypsin-like serine protease whose mutations cause severe mental retardation in humans. NT is activated in vitro by Hebbian-like conjunction of pre- and postsynaptic activities, which promote the formation of dendritic filopodia via proteolytic cleavage of the proteoglycan agrin. Aims: 1) to examine the functional importance of NT for synaptic plasticity, learning, and extinction of memory in juvenile and matured mice, and 2) to evaluate the therapeutic potential of an NT-generated fragment of agrin, agrin-22. Methods: 1-month-old “Juvenile” NT−/−