Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine, the University of Cambridge in the U.K. and collaborating institutions have shown that serotonin 2C receptor in the brain regulates memory in people and animal models.
The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, not only provide new insights into the factors involved in healthy memory but also in conditions associated with memory loss, like Alzheimer's disease, and suggest novel avenues for treatment. Serotonin, a compound produced by neurons in the midbrain, acts as a neurotransmitter, passing messages between brain cells. Serotonin-producing neurons reach out to multiple brain regions including the hippocampus, a region essential for short- and long-term memory.
" Dr. Yong Xu, co-corresponding author, professor of pediatrics – nutrition and associate director for basic sciences at the USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center at Baylor Serotonin communicates messages to brain cells by binding to receptors on the cell surface, which signal the receiving cell to carry on a certain activity. In this study, the Xu lab, with expertise in basic and genetic animal studies, and the human genetics lab of co-corresponding author Dr.
I. Sadaf Farooqi, professor of metabolism and medicine at the University of Cambridge, focused on serotonin 2C receptors, which are abundantly present in the brain's ventral hippocampal CA1 region (vCA1), investigating the role of the receptor in memory in humans and animal models. "We had previ.