Issue Cover (September 2017)

Abstract

Front cover: This review originated from the first International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) and Journal of Neurochemistry (JNC) Flagship School held in Alpbach, Austria (Sep 2016), and uses its curriculum and discussions as a framework to review some of the current knowledge in the field of synaptic plasticity. The cover image depicts the pathways and mediators of synapse-to-nucleus communication and local proteostasis in synaptic plasticity. 1. Long-term potentiation (LTP) induces a cascade of events via increased Ca2+ levels and glutamate receptor activity. This, in turn, leads to proteasomal protein turnover and hence synaptic plasticity. The elevated Ca2+ levels also lead to increased CREB-dependent transcription of LTP-enhancing genes and their local synaptic translation. 2. Conversely, long-term depression (LTD) leads to decreased Ca2+ influx through glutamate receptors, LTD-dependent transcription in turn reducing pro-LTP gene expression. Read the full article ‘The malleable brain: plasticity of neural circuits and behavior – a review from students to students’ by N. Schaefer, C. Rotermund, E.-M. Blumrich, M. V. Lourenco, P. Joshi, R. U. Hegemann, S. Jamwal, N. Ali, E. M. García Romero, S. Sharma, S. Ghosh, J. K. Sinha, H. Loke, V. Jain, K. Lepeta, A. Salamian, M. Sharma, M. Golpich, K. Nawrotek, R. K. Paidi, S. M. Shahidzadeh, T. Piermartiri, E. Amini, V. Pastor, Y. Wilson, P. A. Adeniyi, A. K. Datusalia, B. Vafadari, V. Saini, E. Suárez-Pozos, N. Kushwah, P. Fontanet and A. J. Turner (J. Neurochem. 2017, vol. 142 (6), pp. 790–811) on doi: 10.1111/jnc.14107