Connexins and Pannexins: Important Players in Neurodevelopment, Neurological Diseases, and Potential Therapeutics.

ABSTRACT: Cell-to-cell communication is essential for proper embryonic development and its dysfunction may lead to disease. Recent research has drawn attention to a new group of molecules called connexins (Cxs) and pannexins (Panxs). Cxs have been described for more than forty years as pivotal regulators of embryogenesis; however, the exact mechanism by which they provide this regulation has not been clearly elucidated. Consequently, Cxs and Panxs have been linked to congenital neurodegenerative diseases such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease and, more recently, chronic hemichannel opening has been associated with adult neurodegenerative diseases (e.g., Alzheimer's disease). Cell-to-cell communication via gap junctions formed by hexameric assemblies of Cxs, known as connexons, is believed to be a cruci

SUBMITTER: Baracaldo-Santamaria D 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9496069 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature