Synaptic maturation and tagging between early and late long-term potentiation-induced synapses

越来越多的证据表明，神经蛋白酶在认知功能中起着关键作用。在这些蛋白酶中，neuropsin，一种激肽释放酶基因相关（KLK）内切蛋白酶，似乎具有重要的可塑性功能，主要在海马Schaffer侧支通路中进行了分析。具有酶活性的neuropsin是建立长时程增强（LTP）早期所必需的。早期和持续性LTP突触之间的关联可能与哺乳动物的工作记忆相关，从而与学习和记忆的整合相关（石川等人）。我们挑战并成功地获得了蛋白酶neuropsin的特异性底物，并发现neuregulin-1是neuropsin最合适的天然底物（Tamura等人）。新的神经收缩素-神经调节素信号通路可能在哺乳动物的认知过程中具有重要意义。

Accumulating evidence has suggested pivotal roles for neural proteases in cognitive functions. Among such proteases, neuropsin, a kallikrein gene-related(KLK) endoprotease, appears to have a significant plasticity function that has been analyzed primarily in the hippocampal Schaffer-collateral pathway. Enzymatically active neuropsin is necessary to establish the early phase of long-term potentiation(LTP). Associations between early and persistent-LTP synapses may be related to mammalian working memory and consequently integration in learning and memory(Ishikawa et al). We challenged and succeeded to obtaining specific substrate for protease neuropsin and found that neuregulin-1 is the most suitable native substrate for neuropsin(Tamura et al). Novel signaling pathway of neuropsin-neuregulin might be a significant in mammalian cognition.