Zinc, Hedgehog Signaling, Shank2/3, NMDA/AMPA Inactivation and Autism
I am gradually tying up the loose ends in this blog. Today several issues are dealt with that are all connected by zinc. Some are extremely complicated and I will skip over the details. Not that kind of hedgehog 1. In those rather complicated graphics in the literature that explain signaling pathways, you may have noticed something called hedgehog signaling. This is a basic pathway present in all bilaterians - creatures with a head and tail/feet and a left and right. So flies, yes; but jelly fish, no. In autism there is excessive hedgehog signaling. Zinc deficiency is linked to activation of the hedgehog signaling pathway 2. One of the commonly used models of autism is called Shank3; there is another one called Shank2. Shank proteins are scaffold proteins that connect neurotransmitter receptors and ion channels to the actin cytoskeleton and G-protein-coupled signaling pathways. Mutations in these genes are ass...