title: Phosphodiesterase 4D: an enzyme to remember.
abstract: Cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) is one of the second messengers critically involved in the molecular mechanisms underlying memory formation. In the CNS, the availability of cAMP is tightly controlled by phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4), a family of enzymes that degrades the cyclic nucleotide to inactive AMP. Among the different PDE4 isoforms, in the last few years PDE4D has been hogging the limelight due to accumulating evidence for its crucial role in cognitive processes, which makes this enzyme a promising target for therapeutic interventions in a variety of pathological conditions characterized by memory impairment, such as Alzheimer's disease. In this article, we review the role of the cAMP signal transduction pathway in memory formation with a particular focus on the recent progress in PDE4D research.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Medicine, Section of General Pathology, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ricciarelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Section of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Center of Excellence for Biomedical Research, University of Genoa, Genoa, Italy.
authors.forename: Ernesto
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Fedele
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000242:Cyclic AMP / Q000378:metabolism*; D054703:Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterases, Type 4 / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008568:Memory / Q000502:physiology*; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D000242:Cyclic AMP; D054703:Cyclic Nucleotide Phosphodiesterases, Type 4