How do we process
thoughts and store memories? Part of the answer is that brains in mammals
modify a particular protein in a unique way, which alters the protein's normal
function.
When our memories are being formed, nerve cells, or neurons, communicate with each other through electrical impulses at specialized connections. To strengthen these connections, the neurons require new proteins - key molecules needed for all forms of cellular activity.
A protein called 4E-BP2 controls the process of producing new proteins in the nervous system.
This process, known as protein synthesis or
translation, is the major focus of research in Sonenberg's laboratory. Before
the team's discovery, no one knew 4E-BP2
could be chemically altered in such a manner as the team described in its work,
much less that this could have an effect on neurone function.
"We found a
modification to a protein that controls the cellular protein-synthesis
machinery. This modification seems to affect the ability of nerve cells to
communicate with each other and is thought to be part of the processes
underlying memory."
[Dr Michael Bidinosti]
He explains that study of protein synthesis
and of memory are increasingly converging fields.
Collaboration was critical to the discovery
as the team includes researchers from the Universite de Montreal, the Montreal
Neurological Institute, the University of Toronto, Baylor College of Medicine
in Houston, and the University of Bergen in Norway.
'Better
understanding of protein synthesis in the brain is crucial to the advancement
of neuroscience, particularly as researchers discover that altered proteins may
have a direct impact on the memory process,' says Dr Anthony
Phillips, Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
(CIHR) Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction. 'CIHR hopes
that these new findings will lead to more research aimed at ultimately solving
memory loss issues.'
The team of researchers headed by Dr Nahum Sonenberg of McGill's Department of Biochemistry and Goodman Cancer Centre.
