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Comment
. 2013 May 28:2:e00895.
doi: 10.7554/eLife.00895.

Less translational control, more memory

Graham D Pavitt  1
Affiliations
Comment

Less translational control, more memory

Graham D Pavitt. Elife. .

Abstract

A small molecule can enhance the memories of rats and mice by blocking the integrated stress response in these animals.

Keywords: ATF4; Human; Mouse; Rat; eIF2; eIF2B; integrated stress response; memory consolidation; unfolded protein response.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests:The author declares that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Cells respond to stress through the unfolded protein response (UPR; right)—which is caused by high levels of unfolded or misfolded proteins—and the integrated stress response (ISR; left)—which has multiple activators. ISRIB is a small molecule that acts at the intersection of these two responses. UPR stress sensors (blue ovals) localized at the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and ISR kinases (purple text) receive stress signals (not shown) and relay these (blue arrows) to the cytoplasm and nucleus to reduce the expression of genes. The PERK pathway is involved in both responses; the signal from IRE1 is relayed via a protein called XBP1. ISRIB acts downstream of the phosphorylation of eIF2 (eIF2(αP)) and upstream of the activation of ATF4 (green arrow) and the repression of bulk protein synthesis (red down arrow). Sidrauski et al. show that ISRIB also enhances memory in rats and mice.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment on

  • Pharmacological brake-release of mRNA translation enhances cognitive memory.
    Sidrauski C, Acosta-Alvear D, Khoutorsky A, Vedantham P, Hearn BR, Li H, Gamache K, Gallagher CM, Ang KK, Wilson C, Okreglak V, Ashkenazi A, Hann B, Nader K, Arkin MR, Renslo AR, Sonenberg N, Walter P. Sidrauski C, et al. Elife. 2013 May 28;2:e00498. doi: 10.7554/eLife.00498. Elife. 2013. PMID: 23741617 Free PMC article.

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