Regulation of gene expression by muscarinic acetylcholine receptors

TL;DRAbstract

In the brain, muscarinic acetylcholine receptors (mAChRs) are involved in higher cognitive functions including synaptic plasticity and memory. In Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients the cholinergic nervous system is severely damaged. In order to reinforce the cholinergic system, clinical tests were started to use cholinomimetic drugs to treat AD patients. To identify the genes involved in mAChR signalling, we used a differential display approach and found 11 genes that were readily activated by mAChR with 1 hour of activation. These included the transcription factors Egr-1, Egr-2, Egr-3, c-Jun, Jun-D and Gos-3; the growth regulator hCyr61; the signalling factors NGFi-B (nerve growth factor induced gene-B) and Etr101; the unknown gene Gig-2 (for G-protein-coupled receptor induced gene 2); and the acetylcholinesterase gene (ACHE). Our data show that multiple immediate-early genes are under the control of mAChRs, and they suggest that these genes play important roles in coupling receptor st

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