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Experts discover a new neurotransmitter with potential applications in the treatment of neurological diseases

By 5 de May de 2011November 18th, 2020No Comments
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 05.05.2011

Experts discover a new neurotransmitter with potential applications in the treatment of neurological diseases

A team of scientists has discovered that D-aspartic acid (D-Asp) is a novel neurotransmitter that could potentially be used in the fight against neurological diseases such as Parkinson's and schizophrenia. The research paper, published in the Journal of Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (The FASEB Journal), is signed by the experts Jordi García-Fernàndez, Salvatore D'Aniello and Ildiko Somorjai, from the UB's Department of Genetics and the Institute of Biomedicine (IBUB) –located at the barcelona Scientific Park– and by Enza Topo and Antimo D'Aniello, from the Department of Neurobiology of the Anton Dohrn Zoological Research Station in Naples.


-Asp is an amino acid that was discovered in 1977 in the brains of squid and octopus by a research group coordinated by Antimo D’Aniello (Zoological Research Station, Naples). Since its discovery, this molecule has been the subject of several studies carried out in Italy and around the world. The article published in the FASEB Journal provides the first description of the activity of D-aspartic acid as a neurotransmitter in two evolutionary distinct animal species: the brown rat (Rattus norvergicus) and the European squid (Loligo vulgaris). Although no further study of D-Asp in humans is planned in the short term, the UB team is working towards a new, related challenge: to isolate the specific receptor for D-Asp, an achievement that would represent a huge step forward in the development of possible therapeutic applications.