{"id":25721,"date":"2025-07-29T10:26:57","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T14:26:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/?p=25721"},"modified":"2025-10-03T12:24:50","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T16:24:50","slug":"proteins-important-in-brain-communication-have-different-roles-than-previously-thought","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/proteins-important-in-brain-communication-have-different-roles-than-previously-thought\/","title":{"rendered":"Proteins Important in Brain Communication Have Different Roles Than Previously Thought"},"content":{"rendered":"

New research led by Dr. Samuel Young, Jr.<\/b> reveals that \u03b12\u03b4 proteins\u2014key players in brain communication\u2014have far more complex roles than previously believed. This discovery could reshape how we understand and treat conditions like chronic pain, epilepsy, autism, and migraines. <\/p>\n

\"Graphical<\/a>
Graphical abstract for triple knock out mice model developed by the Young lab that would allow for the spatial and temporal ablation of all three major types of \u03b12\u03b4 proteins: \u03b12\u03b41, \u03b12\u03b42, and \u03b12\u03b43 in the brain.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Samuel Young, Jr., PhD,<\/a><\/strong> professor and Roper Investigator in the departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology, and Director of the Center for Molecular Medicine, is senior author on the paper and William Milanick, PhD<\/strong>, postdoc in the Young lab, is first author on the paper published in Neuron: Volume 113,\u00a0Issue 12, P1886-1897.E9<\/i><\/a> on June 18, 2025 which describes their findings.<\/p>\n

Researchers created a triple knock out mouse line of all three major types of \u03b12\u03b4 proteins in the brain, \u03b12\u03b41, \u03b12\u03b42, and \u03b12\u03b43, that would let them to determine which synaptic functions would continue to occur or would not without each of the proteins.<\/p>\n

\"Samuel<\/a>
Samuel Young Jr., PhD, Professor and Roper Investigator in the departments of Pediatrics and Pharmacology, and Director of the Center for Molecular Medicine<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Young and his team first confirmed that the proteins play several key roles in ensuring that synaptic vesicles with contain neurotransmitters that transmit chemical signals between neurons are delivered at the right place and time to successfully transfer signals from one cell to another.<\/p>\n

“Their model was then used to test previous conclusions about the proteins\u2019 roles in creating synapses, synaptic development over time, and the proper organization of neurotransmitter-releasing channels. Researchers found that all of these functions were still being carried out in models that did not have these proteins.”<\/p>\n

Researchers also discovered a new role, which is that the loss of those proteins leads to reduced levels another protein, Munc13, mutations of which are related to dementia and AML, amyotrophic lateral schlerosis, a neurodegenerative disease causing muscle weakness and paralysis.<\/p>\n

“Young says more research is needed to explore the individual roles of \u03b12\u03b41, \u03b12\u03b42, and \u03b12\u03b43, their regulation of brain function as well as their implications in neurological disorders and the development of therapeutics.”<\/p>\n

~The above quotes are excerpts from the UNC Health Newsroom article of the same title published July 1, 2025 which highlights and describes more about the proteins, their research methodology and their findings.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New research led by Dr. Samuel Young, Jr. reveals that \u03b12\u03b4 proteins\u2014key players in brain communication\u2014have far more complex roles than previously believed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22429,"featured_media":25738,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"layout":"","cellInformation":"","apiCallInformation":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[18,17,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25721","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-faculty-news","category-journal","category-news","odd"],"acf":[],"featured_image":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/930\/2025\/07\/graphical-abstract-young-neuron-250.jpg","featured_image_medium":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/930\/2025\/07\/graphical-abstract-young-neuron-250.jpg","featured_image_medium_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/930\/2025\/07\/graphical-abstract-young-neuron-250.jpg","featured_image_large":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/930\/2025\/07\/graphical-abstract-young-neuron-250.jpg","featured_image_thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/930\/2025\/07\/graphical-abstract-young-neuron-250-150x150.jpg","featured_image_alt":"Graphical abstract for triple knock out mice model developed by the Young lab that would allow for the spatial and temporal ablation of all three major types of \u03b12\u03b4 proteins: \u03b12\u03b41, \u03b12\u03b42, and \u03b12\u03b43 in the brain.","category_details":[{"name":"Faculty News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/category\/news\/faculty-news\/"},{"name":"Journal","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/category\/journal\/"},{"name":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/category\/news\/"}],"tag_details":[],"_links_to":[],"_links_to_target":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22429"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25721"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25721\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26752,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25721\/revisions\/26752"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.med.unc.edu\/pharm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}