#Facultyseminar: Brain Logistics: Endocytosis and intracellular trafficking to safeguard synaptic function

Endocytosis is essential for several critical cellular processes, such as nutrient uptake, plasma membrane remodeling, cell adhesion, intracellular signaling or neurotransmission. Neuron-specific roles of endocytosis have been extensively studied as neurotransmission crucially relies on efficient endocytosis for sustaining efficient communication between neurons by retrieving synaptic vesicle proteins after the secretion of neurotransmitters. Thus, defects in the endocytosis-dependent reformation of synaptic vesicles has dramatic consequences such as epilepsy and premature death.
However, compared to neurons much less is known about the roles of endocytosis in glia cells. Astrocytes are the most numerous cells in the mammalian central nervous system where they fulfill numerous crucial functions for proper brain functioning ranging from neurotransmitter uptake, supply of nutrients, control of osmolarity and pH to modulation of excitability during synaptic transmission by the release of neuroactive substances (e.g. glutamate, ATP, D-serine). Thus, it is very well acknowledged that astrocyte impairment contributes to neuronal dysfunction in many neurological disorders like Alzheimer´s and Parkinson´s diseases among others. However, despite the wealth of information about the membrane proteins involved in astrocytic functions (e.g. neurotransmitter transporters), the relationship between these processes and endocytic pathways in glial cells under normal and pathological conditions remains unclear.
We will discuss about the crucial role of endocytic adaptors as regulators of synaptic vesicle composition and function and how their malfunction might contribute to seizures in epilepsy syndromes, how glial-specific regulation of endocytosis controls neuronal function and survival highlighting non-cell autonomous mechanisms of neurodegeneration.

Hosted by Raul Estevez Povedano – Physiology and pathology of the functional relationship between glia and neurons group