Current Insights into Fatty Acid Transport in the Brain
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Current Insights into Fatty Acid Transport in the Brain Maria S. Ioannou1,2,3,4 Received: 10 July 2020 / Accepted: 7 September 2020 / Published online: 24 September 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Graphic Abstract
NEURON
ASTROCYTE
Lipid Droplet Lipid
Introduction by Lisa Munter, Section Head Editor
* Maria S. Ioannou [email protected] 1
Department of Physiology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
2
Department of Cell Biology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
3
Neuroscience and Mental Health Institute, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
4
Group On the Molecular and Cell Biology of Lipids, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
In this edition of JMBI, we highlight the New Investigator Dr. Maria Ioannou who started her lab at the University of Alberta, Canada, in May of 2019. Dr. Ioannou’s research interests focus around the brain’s health. Her scientific career began in the laboratory of Dr. Margaret Fahnestock at McMaster University, Canada, working on the biological activity of a precursor form of nerve growth factor, proNGF. She completed her PhD with Dr. Peter McPherson at McGill University, Canada, studying the regulation of endosomal trafficking by Rab GTPases. She then moved to the US for her postdoctoral training with Drs. Zhe Liu and Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Research Campus, where her work uncovered an exciting new mechanism for protecting neurons from lipidassociated toxicity during oxidative stress, which was published in the journal Cell. In this essay, Dr. Ioannou will outline her past and future work studying new mechanisms of lipid transport in the brain.
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Fatty Acid Transport in the Brain There is a long and rich history of studying lipid transport in the brain. This has largely been focused on lipoprotein particles. Due to the blood–brain barrier, lipoprotein particles synthesized in the periphery cannot enter the central nervous system (CNS). Instead, CNS lipoprotein particles are produced locally by astrocytes and mediate delivery of cholesterol and phospholipids to other cell types in the brain (Pfrieger and Ungerer 2011). Astrocyte-derived lipoprotein particles are essential for supplying lipids to neurons for axonal growth and regeneration (Vance et al. 2000; De Chaves et al. 1997). The flow of lipids, namely fatty acids, in the reverse direction, from neurons to astrocytes, has only recently been discovered. Transport of fatty acids from neurons to glia occurs in response to reactive oxygen species (ROS). In adult Drosophila and mice, oxidative stress in neurons triggered by mitochondrial defects causes lipid droplet accumulation in surrounding glial cells (Liu et al. 2015). Similarly, in the developing Drosophila brain, glia with lipid droplets are found in the hypoxic stem cell niche, where ROS levels are high (Bailey et al. 2015). It is thought that glial lipid droplets help limit ROS allowi
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