Therapeutic Potentials of Synapses after Traumatic Brain Injury: A Comprehensive Review.

Zunjia Wen,Meifen Shen,Gang Chen,Dong Li

doi:10.1155/2017/4296075

Abstract

Massive studies have focused on the understanding of the pathobiology of cellular and molecular changes and injury mechanisms after traumatic brain injury (TBI), but very few studies have specially discussed the role of synapses in the context of TBI. This paper specifically highlights the role and therapeutic potentials of synapses after TBI. First, we review and conclude how synapses interact with constant structural, metabolic, neuroendocrine, and inflammatory mechanisms after TBI. Second, we briefly describe several key synaptic proteins involved in neuroplasticity, which may be novel neuronal targets for specific intervention. Third, we address therapeutic interventions in association with synapses after TBI. Finally, we concisely discuss the study gaps in the synapses after TBI, in hopes that this would provide more insights for future studies. Synapses play an important role in TBI; while the understandings on the synaptic participation in the treatments and prognosis of TBI are lacking, more studies in this area are warranted.

Highlights

It is well established that traumatic brain injury (TBI) is closely related to the occurrences, evolvements, and prognosis of psychiatric disorders, neuronal dysfunction, and cognitive impairment [1,2,3]; the mechanisms underlying the diseases at the cellular and molecular levels such as inflammation involvement, metabolic homeostasis imbalance, and synaptic injury remain elusive
Synapse as a basic element for brain structure has been believed to play a significant role in the disadvantageous influences following TBI; the regular fusing of the synaptic vesicle and the plasma membrane and the orderly releasing of neurotransmitters into the synaptic cleft seem to be essential to the normal neuronal interaction [4]
The databases on synapse categories have identified 109 domains involved in synaptic functions and more than 5000 synaptic proteins [11], yet very few of the synaptic proteins have been proven to be related with the synaptic dysfunction after TBI

Summary

Introduction

It is well established that traumatic brain injury (TBI) is closely related to the occurrences, evolvements, and prognosis of psychiatric disorders, neuronal dysfunction, and cognitive impairment [1,2,3]; the mechanisms underlying the diseases at the cellular and molecular levels such as inflammation involvement, metabolic homeostasis imbalance, and synaptic injury remain elusive. TBI is a kind of disease with a lot of factors involved; the prognosis differs from one to another, and it is under the interaction of various mechanisms working unitedly or orderly, which make TBI treatment quite complicated We conducted this comprehensive review on the role of synapse after TBI, which mainly focused on the interactions between different functional mechanisms. Synapses (Figure 1), the related synaptic proteins (Figure 2), and the targeted treatments on improving the synaptic plasticity after TBI, to provide insights into future studies in this area

The Interactions between Functional Mechanisms and Synapses

The Major Synaptic Proteins Involved in TBI

The Treatments Targeted on Synapses after TBI

Study Gaps and Future Direction