[Involvement of Wnt signaling in hippocampal plasticity]

Wnt signaling is a signal transduction pathway involving peptides of Wnt family as key molecules. In this review, the data on the role of canonical and non-canonical Wnt pathway in hippocampal structural and synaptic plasticity have been analyzed. Wnt-mediated signal transduction is involved in normal functional plasticity, and the disturbances in Wnt-mediated mechanisms form a basis for the development of cerebral pathologies. A special attention is devoted to glycogen synthase kinase 3beta (GSK-3beta), one of most important from both plasticity and pathology perspectives component of the canonical Wnt pathway. The studies in this area, besides their fundamental significance, are important for translation to the medicine, and the key components of the Wnt pathway are potential targets for the developmentn of pathogenetical therapeutics for a number of socially significant cerebral pathologies.