Additional questions arise from the observation that some 7TMRs affect one another’s endocytic regulation in trans, either by direct physical interaction or through alternative mechanisms such as depletion of the local pool of functional arrestin. We are only at the beginning of investigating the functional consequences of such trans-regulatory effects in vivo. Whereas mechanistic studies of 7TMR biology generally investigate

the effects of activating a single 7TMR or receptor class in isolation, it is increasingly recognized that CNS neurons typically coexpress multiple distinct click here types of neuromodulatory 7TMR ( Bartfai et al., 2012). Thus, trans-regulatory effects on 7TMR trafficking might be a widespread but previously overlooked phenomenon in vivo, with potentially major implications both to physiology and for understanding drug effects on neuromodulation. It is clear that endocytic membrane trafficking of endogenous neuromodulatory 7TMRs occurs after exogenous administration of agonist Veliparib drugs and in some pathological states, but it remains largely unresolved whether endocytic trafficking

of 7TMRs also represents a significant regulatory process under conditions of normal physiological activation by endogenous neuromodulators. Future investigation of this question could provide important insight to the pathological basis of neuropsychiatric disease and guide the search for improved therapeutics to manage complex disorders, such as mood and anxiety syndromes, in which disturbed neuromodulatory tone is a prominent feature. The authors thank

members of their laboratories and numerous other colleagues for valuable contributions, suggestions, and critical discussion. Work in the authors’ laboratories is supported by the National Institutes of Health. “
“Dopamine (DA) is a catecholamine (CA) that was initially identified as the metabolic precursor of the neurotransmitter norepinephrine (NE). Pioneering studies by Arvid Carlsson Electron transport chain in the late 1950s first lent support to the idea that DA does not merely serve as an intermediate for NE biosynthesis, but rather functions as a transmitter in the mammalian CNS in its own right (Carlsson et al., 1957, 1958; Carlsson, 1959). Since that time, neuroscientists have sought to elucidate the influence that DA exerts on behavior and neural circuits and to uncover the underlying cellular and molecular underpinnings of such effects. Interest in the actions of this molecule is further stimulated by the recognition of its involvement in several neurological and psychiatric disorders, including Parkinson’s disease (PD), addiction, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive disorder, and Tourette’s syndrome.