Mitochondrial bioenergetics and neurodegeneration: a paso doble

摘要

Mitochondriaand neuronalactivity:The brain is one ofthe highestenergy demanding organs,consuming ~20%ofthetotalATP produced by thewhole body. Importantly, neurons mainly rely onATP synthesized bymitochondrial bioenergeticsand neuronalactivity is strictly dependent onspecific mitochondriallocalization atsynapses, sitesconsuming a high amount ofenergy requested for both pre- and post-synaptic processes.Here, mitochondria produce ATP and buffer Ca2+ rises, two essential processes for neurotransmission and generation ofmembrane potentialalong theaxon (Magistrettiand Allaman, 2015).