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Signal Transduction of Neurotrophin Receptors:
Basic Concepts and Available Pharmacological Tools
David Rasouly*, Philip Lazarovici
Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics,
School of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medicine,
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91120, Israel
Robert M. Stephens, David R. Kaplan
Eukaryotic Signal Transduction Section, ABL-Basic Research Program,
National Cancer Institute, Frederick Cancer Research and Development Center,
Frederick, MD 21702-1201 USA
* In memoriam: David Rasouly was tragically killed in an automobile accident
since submission of this article. David was 23 years old and was working on an M.D./Ph.D.
degree. He was an enthusiastic researcher and had a deep scientific curiosity. His death
is a great loss for his friends, colleagues and the larger scientific community.
The neurotrophins, including nerve growth factor (NGF), brain-derived neurotrophic
factor (BDNF), neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) and neurotrophin-4/5 (NT-4/5), are a family of
related polypeptides which regulate the survival and differentiation of discrete, and
sometimes overlapping, neuronal populations (1-4). High affinity receptors expressed on
the surface of responsive neurons mediate the biological activity to these factors (5).
The past five years have seen major progress in unraveling the identities of the
neurotrophin receptors and their mechanisms of signal transduction.
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