title: Potential of caveolae in the therapy of cardiovascular and neurological diseases.
abstract: Caveolae are membrane micro-domains enriched in cholesterol, sphingolipids and caveolins, which are transmembrane proteins with a hairpin-like structure. Caveolae participate in receptor-mediated trafficking of cell surface receptors and receptor-mediated signaling. Furthermore, caveolae participate in clathrin-independent endocytosis of membrane receptors. On the one hand, caveolins are involved in vascular and cardiac dysfunction. Also, neurological abnormalities in caveolin-1 knockout mice and a link between caveolin-1 gene haplotypes and neurodegenerative diseases have been reported. The aim of this article is to present the rationale for considering caveolae as potential targets in cardiovascular and neurological diseases.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Gemma
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Navarro
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Dasiel O
authors.initials: DO
authors.lastname: Borroto-Escuela
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, Karolinska Institutet Stockholm, Sweden.
authors.forename: Kjell
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Fuxe
authors.affiliation: Departament de Bioquímica i Biologia Molecular, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Franco
keywords: GPCR; Parkinson's disease; arrhythmia; dementia; gene therapy; ischemia reperfusion; neurodegeneration; stem cell