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Updated: Jun 5, 2026

A Plate-Based Assay for the Measurement of Endogenous Monoamine Release in Acute Brain Slices
Published on: August 11, 2021
Monoamine transporters: vulnerable and vital doorkeepers
Zhicheng Lin1, Juan J Canales, Thröstur Björgvinsson
1Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School and Division of Alcohol and Drug Abuse, McLean Hospital, Belmont, Massachusetts, USA.
Abstract:
Transporters of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine have been empirically used as medication targets for several mental illnesses in the last decades. These protein-targeted medications are effective only for subpopulations of patients with transporter-related brain disorders. Since the cDNA clonings in early 1990s, molecular studies of these transporters have revealed a wealth of information about the transporters' structure-activity relationship (SAR), neuropharmacology, cell biology, biochemistry, pharmacogenetics, and the diseases related to the human genes encoding these transporters among related regulators. Such new information creates a unique opportunity to develop transporter-specific medications based on SAR, mRNA, DNA, and perhaps transporter trafficking regulation for a number of highly relevant diseases including substance abuse, depression, schizophrenia, and Parkinson's disease.
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