title: Spermidine boosts autophagy to protect from synapse aging.
abstract: All animals form memories to adapt their behavior in a context-dependent manner. With increasing age, however, forming new memories becomes less efficient. While synaptic plasticity promotes memory formation, the etiology of age-induced memory formation remained enigmatic. Previous work showed that simple feeding of polyamine spermidine protects from age-induced memory impairment in Drosophila. Most recent work now shows that spermidine operates directly at synapses, allowing for an autophagy-dependent homeostatic regulation of presynaptic specializations. How exactly autophagic regulations intersect with synaptic plasticity should be an interesting subject for future research.
authors.affiliation: a Institute for Biology, Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Anuradha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bhukel
authors.affiliation: b Karl-Franzens Universität Graz , Graz , Austria.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Madeo
authors.affiliation: a Institute for Biology, Freie Universität Berlin , Berlin , Germany.
authors.forename: Stephan J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Sigrist
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001343:Autophagy / Q000187:drug effects*; D004331:Drosophila melanogaster / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D008568:Memory / Q000187:drug effects; D008954:Models, Biological; D009474:Neurons / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D013095:Spermidine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013569:Synapses / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*; D013572:Synaptic Vesicles / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology
chemical_list: D013095:Spermidine
keywords: Drosophila melanogaster; aging; autophagy; memory impairment; synapse