Dopamine as a growth differentiation factor in the mammalian brain

The catecholamine,dopamine,plays an important role in the central nervous system of mammals,including executive functions,motor control,motivation,arousal,reinforcement,and reward.Dysfunctions of the dopaminergic system lead to diseases of the brains,such as Parkinson’s disease,Tourette’s syndrome,and schizophrenia.In addition to its fundamental role as a neurotransmitter,there is evidence for a role as a growth differentiation factor during development.Recent studies suggest that dopamine regulates the development ofγ-aminobutyric acidergic interneurons of the cerebral cortex.Moreover,in adult brains,dopamine increases the production of new neurons in the hippocampus,suggesting the promoting effect of dopamine on proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells and progenitor cells in the adult brains.In this mini-review,I center my attention on dopaminergic functions in the cortical interneurons during development and further discuss cell therapy against neurodegenerative diseases.

BDNF pro-peptide：a novel synaptic modulator generated as an N-terminal fragment from the BDNF precursor by proteolytic processing

Most growth factors are initially synthesized as precursors and it was cleaved into bioactive mature domain and pro-domain.However,compared with the expression and function of bioactive mature domain,the biological role of the pro-domain is poorly understood.Unexpectedly,we found that the pro-domain（or pro-peptide）of brain-derived neurotrophic factor（BDNF）,which is well-known neurotrophic factor in brain,has a potential ability to facilitate hippocampal long-term depression.Furthermore,a BDNF polymorphism Val66Met,which substitute valine into methionine at 66 amino acid,impacted the biological activity of the BDNF pro-peptide.We lastly discuss the possible roles of BDNF and its pro-peptide in the generation of neural stem cells and progress of ischemia.