Capturing intracellular Ca2+ dynamics in computational models of neurodegenerative diseases

Publication date: Available online 18 March 2017 Source:Drug Discovery Today: Disease Models Author(s): Haroon Anwar Many signaling pathways crucial for homeostatic regulation, synaptic plasticity, apoptosis and immune response depend on Ca2+. Ca2+ dysregulation disrupts normal function of neurons and neuronal networks. This causes severe motor and cognitive disabilities. Understanding how Ca2+ dysregulation triggers disease onset and progression, and affects downstream processes, can help identify targets for treatments. Because of intermingling of molecular pathways, dissecting the role of individual mechanisms and establishing causality is very challenging. Computational models provide a way to decipher these processes. I review some computational models with Ca2+ dynamics to illustrate their predictive power, and note where extending those models to capture multiscale interaction of Ca2+ dependent molecular pathways can be useful for therapeutic and drug discovery purposes.

Source: Drug Discovery Today: Disease Models - May 18, 2017 Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research