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Updated: Jan 19, 2026

Control of Eating Behavior Using a Novel Feedback System
Published on: May 8, 2018
Neurons eat glutamate to stay alive
Sarah-Maria Fendt1,2, Patrik Verstreken3,4
1VIB Center for Cancer Biology, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
Abstract:
Neurons are thought to primarily rely on glucose to fuel mitochondrial metabolism. In this issue, Divakaruni et al. (2017. J. Cell Biol. https://doi.org/10.1083/jcb.201612067) show that neurons are also happy to use glutamate. When neurons use this neurotransmitter, its concentration drops, thus protecting against glutamate-induced excitotoxic stress.
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