Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Nov 22;108(47):18872-4.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.1116714108. Epub 2011 Nov 21.

Paul Greengard: Signals underlying moods, addictions, and brain disorders

Sandeep Ravindran

Paul Greengard: Signals underlying moods, addictions, and brain disorders

Sandeep Ravindran. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Dopamine release and binding to receptor. Dopamine is released by a neuron into the junction between two nerve cells called the synapse. There, it can bind to dopamine receptors on neighboring neurons, and the receptors activate the second messenger and downstream signaling pathways.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Dopamine receptor availability in the brain. Brain images show a decrease in the available dopamine receptors in the brain of a person addicted to cocaine compared with a nondrug user. A similar decrease is seen with many other addictive substances, including alcohol and heroin. The lower level of receptors is thought to occur because of their repeated overstimulation, and it can lead to a reduced activation of natural reward pathways that contributes to the tendency to abuse these addictive substances. Adapted from Volkow et al. (9).
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Dopamine signals through a cAMP second messenger. After dopamine binds to its receptor, the receptor then triggers the activation of an adenylate cyclase enzyme, which produces cAMP ATP. cAMP acts as a second messenger that transmits a signal from the receptor to other proteins within the cell by binding to them and altering their activity. After dopamine increases the level of cAMP in nerve cells, the cAMP activates a kinase that adds phosphate groups to other proteins in the cell in a process known as phosphorylation. Phosphorylation of these other proteins triggers downstream signaling pathways.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Kebabian JW, Petzold GL, Greengard P. Dopamine-sensitive adenylate cyclase in caudate nucleus of rat brain, and its similarity to the “dopamine receptor.”. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1972;69:2145–2149. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Carlsson A, Lindqvist M, Magnusson T. 3,4-Dihydroxyphenylalanine and 5-hydroxytryptophan as reserpine antagonists. Nature. 1957;180:1200. - PubMed
    1. Carlsson A, Lindqvist M, Magnusson T, Waldeck B. On the presence of 3-hydroxytyramine in brain. Science. 1958;127:471. - PubMed
    1. Hornykiewicz O. A brief history of levodopa. J Neurol. 2010;257(Suppl 2):S249–S252. - PubMed
    1. Snyder SH. What dopamine does in the brain. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2011;108:18869–18871. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1114346108. - DOI - PMC - PubMed

Publication types

MeSH terms

Substances