Manipulation of Lipid Rafts in Neuronal Cells

摘要

Lipid rafts are specialized plasma membrane micro-domains highly enriched in cholesterol, sphingolipids andglycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI) anchored proteins. Lipid rafts are thought to be located in the exofacial leaflet ofplasma membranes. Functionally, lipid rafts are involved in intracellular trafficking of proteins and lipids, secretory andendocytotic pathways, signal transduction, inflammation and in cell-surface proteolysis. There has been substantialinterest in lipid rafts in brain, both with respect to normal functioning and with certain neurodegenerative diseases. Basedon the impact of lipid rafts on multitude biochemical pathways, modulation of lipid rafts is used to study related diseasepathways and probably offers a target for pharmacological intervention. Lipid rafts can be targeted by modulation of itsmain components, namely cholesterol and sphingolipids. Other approaches include the modulation of membranedynamics and it has been reported that protein-lipid interactions can vary the occurrence and composition of thesemembrane micro-domains. The present review summarizes the possibilities to modulate lipid rafts with focus on neuronalcells.