Dopamine Transporter Networks
Doctor Randy Blakely discusses the potential role of the dopamine transporter (DAT) as one element of a complex protein network in ADHD and bipolar disorder.
Imagine you have a dopamine transporter that has to be turned on and off at different times, due to changes in dopamine signaling. Sometimes there’s a lot of dopamine there and you need to take it away; sometimes there’s not very much dopamine there, and you really should reduce your dopamine transporter activity, or you might even get into an area where you don’t have sufficient dopamine. So, the neuron has to figure all of that out; it has to regulate its dopamine transporters tightly. That’s a normal homeostatic mechanism, and it has pushes and pulls on it; there are proteins that we know enhance the amount of dopamine transporter that are produced and are delivered to the synapse, and then there are proteins that take it away. One can speculate at this point that there might be changes in the networks of proteins that control the dopamine transporter that are now out of balance and deliver it inappropriately, leading to, sometimes excess dopamine and sometimes insufficient dopamine. Time will tell if that is a reasonable hypothesis. We’re now on the trail of other dopamine transporter gene variants in bipolar disorder directly; we’ve made a serious attempt to go directly into this disorder now, and see if we can, in fact, find such changes, but that’s the model that we’re working with.
dopamine, transporter, gene, dat, dat1, variants, dopamine, proteins, adhd, bipolar, hypothesis, randy, blakely
- ID: 2397
- Source: DNALC.G2C
- Download: MPEG 4 Video Theora Video
Related Content
2396. Dopamine Transporters - ADHD, Bipolar, and Schizophrenia
Doctor Randy Blakely discusses the association between the dopamine transporter and ADHD, and discusses a possible relationship with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.
1483. DAT1 Gene
The dopamine transporter gene (DAT1/SLC6A3) is a membrane-spanning protein that mediates the reuptake of dopamine from the synapse. It has been associated with bipolar disorder and ADHD.
2393. Treating ADHD with Amphetamine
Doctor Randy Blakely describes an intriguing hypothesis for why amphetamine may be effective in treating some individuals with ADHD.
2395. A Common Mechanism for Treating ADHD
Doctor Randy Blakely interprets the high success rate in treating ADHD with drugs as evidence of a common mechanism underlying the disorder that these drugs are attacking
2274. Biogenic Amine Transporters
Professor Randy Blakely explains that biogenic amines include transmitters like serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Transporters assist these amines at synapses.
2389. Biogenic Amine Transporters
Doctor Randy Blakely introduces biogenic amines transporters, which remove biogenic amines such as serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine from extracellular space, keeping the path clear for the next pulse of neurotransmitter.
2224. ADHD
An overview of ADHD-related content on Genes to Cognition Online.
2399. New Perspectives on Neurotransmitter Malfunction
Doctor Randy Blakely speculates that the traditional view that drugs though to increase serotonin and dopamine levels in the brain may work by preventing a backward-running state.
2233. Attention
An overview of attention-related content on Genes to Cognition Online.
2223. Bipolar disorder
An overview of bipolar disorder-related content on Genes to Cognition Online.