Molecular Interrogation of Dopaminergic System Responsiveness: From Neurons to Receptors

Dear Colleagues,

The history of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylethylamine, or dopamine, research started 110 years ago with its synthesis by chemists George Barger and Arthur James Ewins at the Wellcome labs in London, England. For a long time, dopamine was not considered physiologically important until the discovery of its naturally occuring metabolic precursor, levodopa (L-DOPA), and DOPA decarboxylase, the enzyme that converts levodopa into dopamine. Nonetheless, dopamine was still believed to be only an essential precursor in the biosynthesis of the star neurotransmitters, noradrenaline and adrenaline. Dopamine was maintained in this role of “best supporting actor” for noradrenaline and adrenaline up until ground-breaking work done notably by Oleh Hornykiewicz, Arvid Carlsson and Paul Greengard labs, from the 1950s to the end of 1970s, granted true neurotransmitter status to dopamine with a patent of nobility. In this day and age, dopamine is fully recognized as one of the most important brain neurotransmitters, which modulates a wide array of central and peripheral physiological actions. These actions converge onto neural substrates implicated in motor activity, learning, memory, mood, reward, and nociception. Two major subgroups of cell-surface transmembrane G protein-coupled receptors known as D1-class (D1 and D5) and D2-class (D2, D3, and D4) subtypes coordinate the pre- and postsynaptic actions of dopamine. Most importantly, an imbalance in dopamine activity is associated with the phenotypic expression of several neurological and psychiatric disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, and drug addiction. While over the last 25 years, studies have begun to uncover the underlying structural and molecular underpinnings that regulate dopamine neurons and its receptors, more work is needed to fully appreciate the mechanistic rules governing dopamine activity at the neuronal and receptor levels.

In this Special Issue entitled “Molecular Interrogation of Dopaminergic System Responsiveness: From Neurons to Receptors”, we welcome the submission of original research using state-of-the-art techniques as well as review articles on the topic of molecular regulation of dopamine activity mediated through either neurons or various dopaminergic receptor subtypes. It is hoped that this Special Issue will inspire new ideas and approaches for the design of novel therapeutics to treat conditions with compromised dopaminergic neurotransmission.

Dr. Mario Tiberi
Guest Editor

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• dopamine
• G protein-coupled receptors
• phosphorylation
• desensitization
• endocytosis and sorting
• dimerization
• biased signaling
• neuronal activity
• tyrosine hydroxylase
• proteomics
• transcriptomics
• neurogenesis
• axonal regulation
• dendritic activity
• pre-clinical dopamine-based disease models