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Published on: May 18, 2020
A solvable model for the diffusion and reaction of neurotransmitters in a synaptic junction
Jorge L Barreda1, Huan-Xiang Zhou
1Department of Physics and Institute of Molecular Biophysics, Tallahassee, Florida 32306, USA. hzhou4@fsu.edu.
Background:
The diffusion and reaction of the transmitter acetylcholine in neuromuscular junctions and the diffusion and binding of Ca2+ in the dyadic clefts of ventricular myocytes have been extensively modeled by Monte Carlo simulations and by finite-difference and finite-element solutions. However, an analytical solution that can serve as a benchmark for testing these numerical methods has been lacking.
Result:
Here we present an analytical solution to a model for the diffusion and reaction of acetylcholine in a neuromuscular junction and for the diffusion and binding of Ca2+ in a dyadic cleft. Our model is similar to those previously solved numerically and our results are also qualitatively similar.
Conclusion:
The analytical solution provides a unique benchmark for testing numerical methods and potentially provides a new avenue for modeling biochemical transport.
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