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Tomas H枚kfelt, PhD

Department of Neuroscience Karolinska Institutet Stockholm, Sweden

鈥淔谤辞尘 catecholamines to neuropeptides聽鈥� a 60-year odyssey鈥�

Abstract

In this talk, honouring the memory of the Theodore L. Sourkes, I will draw upon my lifelong research experience to describe the evolution of some fundamental aspects of neurotransmission. My work began with the localization of monoamines like noradrenaline by electron microscopy, and later, with the application of the Falck- Hillarp technique, which provided new insights into catecholamines as significant neurotransmitters in the central nervous system. These advances also permitted to unravel the role of catecholamines in neuroendocrine models and to study the effects of drugs on catecholamine turnover. Additionally, these developments led to the application of immunohistochemistry to studies on the monoamine systems, a methodology that signified an important inroad to our discoveries of neuropeptides as neuromodulators or neurotransmitters in the nervous system鈥� an aspect that will be the central focus of this presentation. As such, we were able to unravel the role of a neuropeptide such as galanin in pain and depressive-like behavior. Furthermore, our studies revealed alterations in transcript levels, methylation patterns, and peptide content in specific regions of human postmortem brains from patients who had committed suicide. After many years of uncertainty, it is now clear that neuropeptides play essential roles in the nervous system, with several FDA approved drugs targeting neuropeptide signaling currently in therapeutic use.