Modeling of Biomolecular Systems Interactions, Dynamics, and Allostery: Bridging Experiments and Computations - September 10-14, 2014, Istanbul, Turkey

Modeling of Biomolecular Systems Interactions, Dynamics, and Allostery Poster Session II

49-POS Board 2 Spatio-Temporal Modelling of Neurotransmitter Transport Cihan Kaya , Bing Liu, James R. Faeder, Ivet Bahar. University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Learning and memory are two of the most fundamental and widely studied processes which underlie neuroscience. The mechanisms facilitating these processes are collectively known as synaptic plasticity. Through the modulation of synapse strength depending on the activity of neurons, synaptic plasticity reshapes the neural network over time. Synaptic plasticity is caused by the release of glutamate from pre-synaptic neurons and the activity of the synapse is mediated by glutamate receptors (AMPA and NMDA), excitatory amino acid transporters (EAAT), Calmodulin (CAM) and related protein kinases (CAMKII) and phosphatases (PP1). The crucial mechanism is that the ion transport into the post-synaptic compartment through ion transporters affects ion conductance and the number of ion transporters. In this study, parameters are estimated for a spatio-temporal model of the synapse and post-synaptic neuron. The effect of different initial concentrations of ions and neurotransmitters in different compartments are compared to understand the mechanism of severe neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and Huntington disease. Overall, the modelling of the synapse and post- synaptic neuron complex will provide significant information about vulnerable targets for drug design.

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