Viewpoints:

Dispatches from the Frontlines of Research - edited by John W. Nelson

Hadi Al-Hasani, Matthias H. Tschöp, and Samuel W. Cushman

Two Birds with One Stone: Novel Glucokinase Activator Stimulates Glucose-Induced Pancreatic Insulin Secretion and Augments Hepatic Glucose Metabolism
Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 367-370. [Summary] [Full Text] [PDF]  

Mark E. Olah and Charles C. Caldwell

Adenosine Receptors and Mammalian Toll-Like Receptors: Synergism in Macrophages
Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 370-374. [Summary] [Full Text] [PDF]  

R E V I E W S:

José A. Esteban

AMPA Receptor Trafficking: A Road Map for Synaptic Plasticity
Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 375-385. [Summary] [Full Text] [PDF]  

Key to the processes of learning and memory is the concept of synaptic plasticity. Synapses form and dissociate depending upon reinforcement of established synapses. Because {alpha}-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionate (AMPA) receptors mediate much of the excitatory signaling in the brain, it is not surprising that the presence of these receptors is important to the plastic process of neuron-neuron communication. AMPA receptors shuttle to and from synapses through a combination of constitutive and regulated pathways. Great strides have been made in understanding the processes underlying synaptic plasticity.

Leslie C. Griffith, Cecilia S. Lu, and Xiu Xia Sun

CaMKII, an Enzyme on the Move: Regulation of Temporospatial Localization
Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 386-403. [Summary] [Full Text] [PDF]  

How do cells regulate the activities of ubiquitous kinases that use many different substrates? In neurons, calcium-calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII) participates in regulating neuronal and behavioral plasticity, but how is this regulator regulated? Different isozymes, alternatively spliced variants, and the use of differing combinations of phosphorylation sites create many different versions of CaMKII that are localized to different subcellular compartments associated with discrete CaMKII functions. Additionally, different forms of CaMKII can associate with different binding proteins, which may further specify the location in time and space of CaMKIIs in the neuron, leading to changes in synapses.

Hiroyuki Miyamoto and Takao K. Hensch

Reciprocal Interaction of Sleep and Synaptic Plasticity
Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 404-417. [Summary] [Full Text] [PDF]  

Repetition has long been accepted as an important, if somewhat laborious, pedagogical device. The replay of neuronal events that occur during learning is now recognized as an important function of sleep, and the extinction of neuronal activity that is no longer relevant to new learning tasks may be similarly regarded as an active function of the brain "at rest." The systems and techniques that are now available for sleep researchers are yielding new insights into brain function and neuronal plasticity. The classically known characteristics of the sleeping brain, as established by electroencephalography, also prove to be influenced in specific ways by waking experience. An understanding of the reciprocal relationship between sleep and experience may lead to therapeutics that not only alleviate sleep disorders per se, but that may also facilitate learning itself.

D E P A R T M E N T S:

Erratum:

Erratum
Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 423. [Full Text] [PDF]  

Reflections:

Science in the cultural context

Stanley Scheindlin

Ephedra: Once a Boon, Now a Bane
Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 358-360. [Full Text] [PDF]  

CrossTalk:

Interviews with people in the world of pharmacology

Candace Pert: Paradigms from Neuroscience: When Shift Happens
Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 361-366. [Full Text] [PDF]  

Beyond the Bench:

Representations of pharmacology and science in the media

Christie Carrico

Payoff in Biotech
Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 418. [Full Text] [PDF]  

Outliers:

Cartoon

Mol. Interv. 2003 3: 424. [Full Text] [PDF]  

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