Affiliations: Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut Health, Farmington, CT, USA
Correspondence:
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Correspondence to: Riqiang Yan, PhD, Department of Neuroscience, University of Connecticut Health, Farmington, CT 06032, USA. Tel.: +1 860 679 3527; E-mail: riyan@uchc.edu.
Abstract: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by the presence of neuritic plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. The impaired synaptic plasticity and dendritic loss at the synaptic level is an early event associated with the AD pathogenesis. The abnormal accumulation of soluble oligomeric amyloid-β (Aβ), the major toxic component in amyloid plaques, is viewed to trigger synaptic dysfunctions through binding to several presynaptic and postsynaptic partners and thus to disrupt synaptic transmission. Over time, the abnormalities in neural transmission will result in cognitive deficits, which are commonly manifested as memory loss in AD patients. Synaptic plasticity is regulated through glutamate transmission, which is mediated by various glutamate receptors. Here we review recent progresses in the study of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs) in AD cognition. We will discuss the role of mGluRs in synaptic plasticity and their modulation as a possible strategy for AD cognitive improvement.
Keywords: Alzheimer’s disease, cognition, ionotropic glutamate receptors, long term depression, long term potentiation, metabotropic glutamate receptors, synapse, synaptic plasticity
