In January 2019, Professor Feng Han's team published an article entitled Endothelium-Derived Semaphorin 3G Regulates Hippocampal Synaptic Structure and Plasticity via Neuropilin-2/PlexinA4.
Vascular dementia (VD), which is often found in the late stage of the disease, is the most serious vascular cognitive impairment. Its pathogenesis is unclear, and there is a lack of effective treatment drugs in clinic. At the first time, SMA3G, a protein secreted by cerebrovascular endothelial cells, can activate intracellular Rac1-GTPase activity by acting on neuroropilin-2/PlexinA4 receptors in hippocampal pyramidal neurons, which can increase the synaptic density and enhance synaptic transmission function of neurons. This study further suggests that there are important regulators of vascular origin in the central nervous system of the brain, which can directly regulate synaptic plasticity of neurons and hippocampus-dependent learning and memory abilities. It provides a new mechanism for the neurovascular communication. This finding plays an important role in the analyzing the rules and molecular mechanisms of cross-cellular communication and mutual regulation between neural networks and vascular networks in pathophysiological processes. And it may be very important to the discovery of new potential drug targets for Sema3G/Neuropilin-2/PlexinA4.
The research was supported by key projects of the National Natural Fund Commission and key projects of the National Key Research and Development Program.
