Cocaine- and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART): A multifaceted neuropeptide

Abstract

Over the last 35 years, the continuous discovery of novel neuropeptides has been the key to the better understanding of how the central nervous system has integrated with neuronal signals and behavioral responses. Cocaine and amphetamine-regulated transcript (CART) was discovered in 1995 in the rat striatum but later was found to be highly expressed in the hypothalamus. The widespread distribution of CART peptide in the brain complicated the understanding of the role played by this neurotransmitter. The main objective of the current compact review is to piece together the fragments of available information about origin, expression, distribution, projection, and function of CART peptides. Accumulative evidence suggests CART as a neurotransmitter and neuroprotective agent that is mainly involved in regulation of feeding, addiction, stress, anxiety, innate fear, neurological disease, neuropathic pain, depression, osteoporosis, insulin secretion, learning, memory, reproduction, vision, sleep, thirst and body temperature. In spite of the vast number of studies about the CART, the overall pictures about the CART functions are sketchy. First, there is a lack of information about cloned receptor, specific agonist and antagonist. Second, CART peptides are detected in discrete sets of neurons that can modulate countless activities and third; CART peptides exist in several fragments due to post-translational processing. For these reasons the overall picture about the CART peptides are sketchy and confounding.

Keywords: Addiction; Anxiety; CART; Food intake; Gene; Learning; Memory; Receptor; Regulation; Stress; Vision.