Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
Answers.com

Vesicular monoamine transporter

 
Wikipedia: Vesicular monoamine transporter

The vesicular monoamine transporter (aka VMAT) is a transport protein integrated into the membrane of intracellular vesicles of presynaptic neurons. It acts to transport monoamines into the synaptic vesicles.

Contents

Isoforms

The two isoforms are:

Substrates

Substrates for the transporter are mainly noradrenaline, adrenaline and isoprenaline. However, other substrates include dopamine, 5-HT, guanethidine and MPP+.[1]

Clinical significance

VMAT can be inhibited by reserpine and tetrabenazine.[1]

VMAT is the main target of methamphetamine. By acting as a competitive antagonist, methamphetamine blocks the presynaptic cell's ability to use VMAT to package the above mentioned neurotransmitters into vesicles. The result is increased neurotransimtter release that is not dependent on the phasic activity of the presynaptic cell.

References

  1. ^ a b Rang, H. P. (2003). Pharmacology. Edinburgh: Churchill Livingstone. ISBN 0-443-07145-4.  Page 167

Further reading

External links


Search unanswered questions...
Enter a question here...
Search: All sources Community Q&A Reference topics
 
 

 

Copyrights:

Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Vesicular monoamine transporter" Read more