Protein partners of rapsyn that regulate acetylcholine receptor clustering

Funded Activity Summary

Spinal nerves control our limb muscles by releasing chemical signals directly onto the surface of muscle fibres that they contact. These chemical signalling contacts are called synapses. They are like the synapses between nerve cells in our brains but easier to study, meaning that we can make more rapid progress in understanding how synapses work. The sensor receptors for chemical signals at the nerve-to-muscle synapse are held in place on the muscle fibre surface by a protein called rapsyn. In turn, rapsyn must be organized by other chemical signals from the nerve, but we don't know exactly how this happens. When the receptors become disorganized at the synapse, in diseases such as Myasthenia Gravis, we lose control of our muscles. This project will employ newly developing techniques of proteomics and genomics to identify new proteins that bind to rapsyn and to test how they work to organize receptors at the synapse. By identifying the proteins that control rapsyn we may be able to develop new treatments for Myasthenia Gravis that restore the function of the synapse with less side effects than current therapies.

Funded Activity Details

Start Date: 01-01-2003

End Date: 01-01-2005

Funding Scheme: NHMRC Project Grants

Funding Amount: $411,000.00

Funder: National Health and Medical Research Council

Research Topics

ANZSRC Field of Research (FoR)

Medical parasitology

ANZSRC Socio-Economic Objective (SEO)

There are no SEO codes available for this funding activity

Other Keywords

Myasthenia Gravis | learning | memory | neuromuscular diseases | neuromuscular junction | nicotinic acetylcholine receptor | receptor aggregation | synapse formation | transfection

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