Maarten E. A. Reith - Böcker

A team of leading experts comprehensively review and synthesize the most recent advances in our understanding of the role of cerebral signaling in neuronal and cerebral function. The authors emphasize the functional role of the various signaling pathways in memory, apoptosis and degeneration, depression, and drug dependence in both health and diseased states. By taking full advantage of the newfound ability to selectively remove, reduce, or enhance specific components of the signaling pathways, the investigators writing here illuminate the varied signaling cascades, their crosstalk, and the many possibilities for changes in gene expression underlying long-term changes in brain function. Cutting-edge and comprehensive, Cerebral Signal Transduction: From First to Fourth Messengers advances our understanding of the mechanistic underpinnings of complex behavioral processes and clinically relevant brain diseases. A major contribution to the development of the novel pharmacotherapeutics targeting downstream events in the cascade of second, third, and fourth messengers, it will serve experimental and clinical neuroscientists as the best and most complete guide to neuronal signaling.

Maarten Reith and his contributors fully update all the material in his widely acclaimed first edition, expanding it to include the important progress made in characterizing the structure, function, regulation, and physiological relevance of each transporter. The new material includes discussions of gene organization and the relationship of polymorphisms of monoamine transporters with a variety of diseases, transgenic animals carrying altered genes for plasma membrane monoamine transporters, and the regulation of transporters by trafficking in relation to their phosphorylation state. Also addressed are transporter imaging techniques that allow in vivo measurement in men and animals, chimera and site-directed mutagenesis of transporters, and transporter electrophysiology. Neurotransmitter Transporters: Structure, Function, and Regulation, Second Edition continues to be the most informative and useful review of the field, allowing comparison between the characteristics of various neurotransmitter transporters and their biological roles in such a way that progress for one transporter can help move the field of another transporter forward.

Since the pioneering discovery of cyclic AMP four decades ago, a multitude of signaling pathways have been uncovered in which an extracellular signal (first messenger) impacts the cell surface, thereby triggering a cascade that ultimately acts on the cell nucleus. In each cascade the first messenger gives rise to the appearance of a second messenger such as cyclic AMP, cyclic GMP, or diacylglycerol, which in turn triggers a third messenger, a fourth messenger, and so forth. Many advances in elucidating such pathways have been made, including efforts to link messenger molecules to brain processes operative in health or disease. However, the latter type of information, relating signaling pathways to brain function, is scattered across a variety of publication media, which makes it difficult to integrate the multiple roles of different signaling cascades into our understanding of brain function in health and disease. The primary aim of Cerebral Signal Transduction: From First to Fourth Messengers, therefore, is to offer a comprehensive picture of the recent advances made in the signaling field as it relates to neuronal and cere­ bral function. The current state of progress provides an exciting opportunity for such a comprehensive focus because molecular tools have become available to selectively remove, reduce, or enhance spe­ cific components in the signaling pathways, e. g. , by interfering with the genes encoding key proteins. In addition, the increased awareness of crosstalk between different signaling cascades has revealed many possibilities for changes in gene expression underlying long-term changes in brain function.

An illuminating summary of our current understanding of the interactive role of dopamine and glutamate in psychiatric diseases and the therapeutic strategies and possibilities for future treatment. Among the new ideas presented are hypotheses on the role of dopamine and glutamate in aggression, the glutamate system in anxiety disorders, glutamate and neurodegeneration, and on the origin and progression of Parkinson's disease. Additional chapters offer novel insights into a variety of psychiatric diseases, including ADHD, stress, aggression, addiction, schizophrenia, depression, social phobias, dementias, bulimia, and neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's diseases. Each chapter summarizes the prevalence and symptoms of the disease and explains the involvement of dopamine and/or glutamate systems using the newer molecular approaches such as transgenic knockout or knockin mice and recent brain imaging techniques.

Maarten Reith and his contributors fully update all the material in his widely acclaimed first edition, expanding it to include the important progress made in characterizing the structure, function, regulation, and physiological relevance of each transporter. The new material includes discussions of gene organization and the relationship of polymorphisms of monoamine transporters with a variety of diseases, transgenic animals carrying altered genes for plasma membrane monoamine transporters, and the regulation of transporters by trafficking in relation to their phosphorylation state. Also addressed are transporter imaging techniques that allow in vivo measurement in men and animals, chimera and site-directed mutagenesis of transporters, and transporter electrophysiology. Neurotransmitter Transporters: Structure, Function, and Regulation, Second Edition continues to be the most informative and useful review of the field, allowing comparison between the characteristics of various neurotransmitter transporters and their biological roles in such a way that progress for one transporter can help move the field of another transporter forward.