Using constellation pharmacology to define comprehensively a somatosensory neuronal subclass.

ABSTRACT: Change is intrinsic to nervous systems; change is required for learning and conditioning and occurs with disease progression, normal development, and aging. To better understand mammalian nervous systems and effectively treat nervous-system disorders, it is essential to track changes in relevant individual neurons. A critical challenge is to identify and characterize the specific cell types involved and the molecular-level changes that occur in each. Using an experimental strategy called constellation pharmacology, we demonstrate that we can define a specific somatosensory neuronal subclass, cold thermosensors, across different species and track changes in these neurons as a function of development. Cold thermosensors are uniformly responsive to menthol and innocuous cool temperature (17 °

SUBMITTER: Teichert RW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3926031 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature