scholarly journals Incorporation of inwardly rectifying AMPA receptors at silent synapses during hippocampal long-term potentiation

2014 ◽  
Vol 369 (1633) ◽  
pp. 20130156 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daiju Morita ◽  
Jong Cheol Rah ◽  
John T. R. Isaac

Despite decades of study, the mechanisms by which synapses express the increase in strength during long-term potentiation (LTP) remain an area of intense interest. Here, we have studied how AMPA receptor subunit composition changes during the early phases of hippocampal LTP in CA1 pyramidal neurons. We studied LTP at silent synapses that initially lack AMPA receptors, but contain NMDA receptors. We show that strongly inwardly rectifying AMPA receptors are initially incorporated at silent synapses during LTP and are then subsequently replaced by non-rectifying AMPA receptors. These findings suggest that silent synapses initially incorporate GluA2-lacking, calcium-permeable AMPA receptors during LTP that are then replaced by GluA2-containing calcium-impermeable receptors. We also show that LTP consolidation at CA1 synapses requires a rise in intracellular calcium concentration during the early phase of expression, indicating that calcium influx through the GluA2-lacking AMPA receptors drives their replacement by GluA2-containing receptors during LTP consolidation. Taken together with previous studies in hippocampus and in other brain regions, these findings suggest that a common mechanism for the expression of activity-dependent glutamatergic synaptic plasticity involves the regulation of GluA2-subunit composition and highlights a critical role for silent synapses in this process.

2003 ◽  
Vol 358 (1432) ◽  
pp. 727-733 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dimitri M. Kullmann

At several cortical synapses glutamate release events can be mediated exclusively by NMDA receptors, with no detectable contribution from AMPA receptors. This observation was originally made by comparing the trial-to-trial variability of the two components of synaptic signals evoked in hippocampal neurons, and was subsequently confirmed by recording apparently pure NMDA receptor-mediated EPSCs with stimulation of small numbers of axons. It has come to be known as the ‘silent synapse’ phenomenon, and is widely assumed to be caused by the absence of functional AMPA receptors, which can, however, be recruited into the postsynaptic density by long-term potentiation (LTP) induction. Thus, it provides an important impetus for relating AMPA receptor trafficking mechanisms to the expression of LTP, a theme that is taken up elsewhere in this issue. This article draws attention to several findings that call for caution in identifying silent synapses exclusively with synapses without AMPA receptors. In addition, it attempts to identify several missing pieces of evidence that are required to show that unsilencing of such synapses is entirely accounted for by insertion of AMPA receptors into the postsynaptic density. Some aspects of the early stages of LTP expression remain open to alternative explanations.


2017 ◽  
Vol 114 (27) ◽  
pp. 7136-7141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier Díaz-Alonso ◽  
Yujiao J. Sun ◽  
Adam J. Granger ◽  
Jonathan M. Levy ◽  
Sabine M. Blankenship ◽  
...  

The amino-terminal domain (ATD) of AMPA receptors (AMPARs) accounts for approximately 50% of the protein, yet its functional role, if any, remains a mystery. We have discovered that the translocation of surface GluA1, but not GluA2, AMPAR subunits to the synapse requires the ATD. GluA1A2 heteromers in which the ATD of GluA1 is absent fail to translocate, establishing a critical role of the ATD of GluA1. Inserting GFP into the ATD interferes with the constitutive synaptic trafficking of GluA1, but not GluA2, mimicking the deletion of the ATD. Remarkably, long-term potentiation (LTP) can override the masking effect of the GFP tag. GluA1, but not GluA2, lacking the ATD fails to show LTP. These findings uncover a role for the ATD in subunit-specific synaptic trafficking of AMPARs, both constitutively and during plasticity. How LTP, induced postsynaptically, engages these extracellular trafficking motifs and what specific cleft proteins participate in the process remain to be elucidated.


2006 ◽  
Vol 96 (3) ◽  
pp. 1478-1491 ◽  
Author(s):  
William R. Holmes ◽  
Lawrence M. Grover

Experimental evidence supports a number of mechanisms for the synaptic change that occurs with long-term potentiation (LTP) including insertion of AMPA receptors, an increase in AMPA receptor single channel conductance, unmasking silent synapses, and increases in vesicle release probability. Here we combine experimental and modeling studies to quantify the magnitude of the change needed at the synaptic level to explain LTP with these proposed mechanisms. Whole cell patch recordings were used to measure excitatory postsynaptic potential (EPSP) amplitude in response to near minimal afferent stimulation before and after LTP induction in CA1 pyramidal cells. Detailed neuron and synapse level models were constructed to estimate quantitatively the changes needed to explain the experimental results. For cells in normal artificial cerebrospinal fluid (ACSF), we found a 60% average increase in EPSP amplitude with LTP. This was explained in the models by a 63% increase in the number of activated synapses, a 64% increase in the AMPA receptor single channel conductance, or a 73% increase in the number of AMPA receptors per potentiated synapse. When the percentage LTP was above the average, the required increases through the proposed mechanisms became nonlinear, particularly for increases in the number of receptors. Given constraints from other experimental studies, our quantification suggests that neither unmasking silent synapses nor increasing the numbers of AMPA receptors at synapses is sufficient to explain the magnitude of LTP we observed, but increasing AMPA single channel conductance or vesicle release probability can be sufficient. Our results are most compatible with a combination of mechanisms producing LTP.


2010 ◽  
Vol 38 (2) ◽  
pp. 460-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan G. Hanley

An important mechanism for the regulation of excitatory synaptic transmission in the hippocampus involves tight control of AMPAR [AMPA (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methylisoxazole-4-propionic acid) receptor] trafficking to alter the number or subtype of synaptic receptors. This is achieved via the multiple stages of the endosomal system. AMPARs constitutively cycle through early endosomes and recycling endosomes to maintain synaptic receptor numbers. However, on induction of synaptic plasticity, subtle alterations are made to this cycle by the action of specific AMPAR-interacting proteins and also via a number of additional proteins that regulate endosomal sorting more generally. During long-term depression, receptors are diverted to late endosomes and lysosomes rather than recycling back to the plasma membrane, hence reducing the number of receptors at the synapse. The increased number of synaptic AMPARs after induction of LTP (long-term potentiation) originates from the recycling compartment. In addition, transient changes in subunit composition may arise as a result of retention of AMPAR subtypes within the endosome during LTP. Aberrant trafficking after pathological insults such as oxygen/glucose deprivation or mechanical trauma also involves alterations in synaptic AMPAR subunit composition, leading to calcium influx that ultimately results in cell death.


2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pojeong Park ◽  
John Georgiou ◽  
Thomas M. Sanderson ◽  
Kwang-Hee Ko ◽  
Heather Kang ◽  
...  

AbstractLong-term potentiation (LTP) at hippocampal CA1 synapses can be expressed by an increase either in the number (N) of AMPA (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole propionic acid) receptors or in their single channel conductance (γ). Here, we have established how these distinct synaptic processes contribute to the expression of LTP in hippocampal slices obtained from young adult rodents. LTP induced by compressed theta burst stimulation (TBS), with a 10 s inter-episode interval, involves purely an increase in N (LTPN). In contrast, either a spaced TBS, with a 10 min inter-episode interval, or a single TBS, delivered when PKA is activated, results in LTP that is associated with a transient increase in γ (LTPγ), caused by the insertion of calcium-permeable (CP)-AMPA receptors. Activation of CaMKII is necessary and sufficient for LTPN whilst PKA is additionally required for LTPγ. Thus, two mechanistically distinct forms of LTP co-exist at these synapses.


2008 ◽  
Vol 100 (5) ◽  
pp. 2605-2614 ◽  
Author(s):  
Therése Abrahamsson ◽  
Bengt Gustafsson ◽  
Eric Hanse

AMPA (α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid) unsilencing is an often proposed expression mechanism both for developmental long-term potentiation (LTP), involved in circuitry refinement during brain development, and for mature LTP, involved in learning and memory. In the hippocampal CA3–CA1 connection naïve (nonstimulated) synapses are AMPA signaling and AMPA-silent synapses are created from naïve AMPA-signaling (AMPA-labile) synapses by test-pulse synaptic activation (AMPA silencing). To investigate to what extent LTPs at different developmental stages are explained by AMPA unsilencing, the amount of LTP obtained at these different developmental stages was related to the amount of AMPA silencing that preceded the induction of LTP. When examined in the second postnatal week Hebbian induction was found to produce no more stable potentiation than that causing a return to the naïve synaptic strength existing prior to the AMPA silencing. Moreover, in the absence of a preceding AMPA silencing Hebbian induction produced no stable potentiation above the naïve synaptic strength. Thus this early, or developmental, LTP is nothing more than an unsilencing (dedepression) and stabilization of the AMPA signaling that was lost by the prior AMPA silencing. This dedepression and stabilization of AMPA signaling was mimicked by the presence of the protein kinase A activator forskolin. As the relative degree of AMPA silencing decreased with development, LTP manifested itself more and more as a “genuine” potentiation (as opposed to a dedepression) not explained by unsilencing and stabilization of AMPA-labile synapses. This “genuine,” or mature, LTP rose from close to nothing of total LTP prior to postnatal day (P)13, to about 70% of total LTP at P16, and to about 90% of total LTP at P30. Developmental LTP, by stabilization of AMPA-labile synapses, thus seems adapted to select synaptic connections to the growing synaptic network. Mature LTP, by instead strengthening existing stable connections between cells, may then create functionally tightly connected cell assemblies within this network.


2007 ◽  
Vol 417 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael R. Kasten ◽  
Yuan Fan ◽  
Paul E. Schulz

eLife ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniela Puzzo ◽  
Roberto Piacentini ◽  
Mauro Fá ◽  
Walter Gulisano ◽  
Domenica D Li Puma ◽  
...  

The concurrent application of subtoxic doses of soluble oligomeric forms of human amyloid-beta (oAβ) and Tau (oTau) proteins impairs memory and its electrophysiological surrogate long-term potentiation (LTP), effects that may be mediated by intra-neuronal oligomers uptake. Intrigued by these findings, we investigated whether oAβ and oTau share a common mechanism when they impair memory and LTP in mice. We found that as already shown for oAβ, also oTau can bind to amyloid precursor protein (APP). Moreover, efficient intra-neuronal uptake of oAβ and oTau requires expression of APP. Finally, the toxic effect of both extracellular oAβ and oTau on memory and LTP is dependent upon APP since APP-KO mice were resistant to oAβ- and oTau-induced defects in spatial/associative memory and LTP. Thus, APP might serve as a common therapeutic target against Alzheimer's Disease (AD) and a host of other neurodegenerative diseases characterized by abnormal levels of Aβ and/or Tau.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document