Targeting mGluR-LTD to Treat Fragile X Syndrome
Kimberly Huber, PhD
Principal Investigator
Jennifer Ronesi, PhD
FRAXA Postdoctoral Fellow (2007)
Elena Nosyreva, PhD
FRAXA Postdoctoral Fellow (2006)
University of Texas at Southwestern
Dallas, TX
2005-2008 Grant Funding: $152,000
2000-2003 Grant Funding: $126,000
Summary
With funding from FRAXA Research Foundation from 2000-2010, Dr. Kimberly Huber and her team at the University of Texas conducted several studies on the relationship between mGluR5 and Fragile X syndrome. Dr. Huber made the original discovery of the mGluR Theory of Fragile X when she was a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Dr. Mark Bear at Brown University, with her first FRAXA grant in 2000.
The Results
Metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR)-dependent long-term depression (LTD), a type of synaptic plasticity, is characterized by a reduction in the synaptic response, mainly at the excitatory synapses of neurons. Excessive mGluR-LTD has been linked to Alzheimer disease and Fragile X syndrome.
Dr. Huber's early studies were essential to discovering excessive mGluR-LTD in Fragile X syndrome.
Dr. Huber has been awarded additional Fragile X research grants from FRAXA.
