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A protein called AKT, is ubiquitous in brain tissue and instrumental in enabling the brain to adapt to new experiences and lay down new memories. AKT comes in three distinct varieties residing in different kinds of brain cells and affecting brain health in very distinct ways. It is a central protein that has been implicated in a bevy of neurological diseases.
Discovered in the 1970s and known best as an “oncogene” (one that, when mutated, can promote cancer), AKT has more recently been identified as a key player in promoting “synaptic plasticity,” the brain’s ability to strengthen cellular connections in response to experience. AKT is one of the first proteins to come up after observing scary objects, it is a central switch that turns on the memory factory.
For the study, Hoeffer’s team silenced the three different isoforms, or varieties, of AKT in mice and observed their brain activity. They made a number of key discoveries: AKT2 is found exclusively in astroglia, the supportive, star-shaped cells in the brain and spinal cord that are often impacted in brain cancer and brain injury.
AKT1 is ubiquitous in neurons and appears to be the most important form in promoting the strengthening of synapses in response to experience-memory formation. (This finding is in line with previous research showing that mutations in AKT1 boost risk of schizophrenia and other brain disorders associated with a flaw in the way a patient perceives or remembers experiences.)
AKT3 appears to play a key role in brain growth, with mice whose AKT3 gene is silenced showing smaller brain size.
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