Amino Acid Transporters Proteins Involved in the Glutamate-Glutamine Cycle and Their Alterations in Murine Models of Alzheimer’s Disease

The brain’s ability to integrate external stimuli and generate responses is highly complex. While these mechanisms are not completely understood, current evidence suggests that alterations in cellular metabolism and microenvironment are involved in some dysfunctions as complex as Alzheimer’s disease. This pathology courses with defects in the establishment of chemical synapses, which is dependent on the production and supply of neurotransmitters like glutamate and its recycling through the glutamate-glutamine cycle. Alterations in the expression and function of the amino acid transporters proteins involved in this cycle have recently been reported in different stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Most of these data come from patients in advanced stages of the disease or post-mortem, due to the ethical and technical limitations of human studies. Therefore, genetically modified mouse models have been an excellent tool to analyze metabolic and even behavioral parameters that are very similar to those that develop in Alzheimer’s disease, even at presymptomatic stages. Hence, this paper analyzes the role of glutamate metabolism and its intercellular trafficking in excitatory synapses from different approaches using transgenic mouse models; such an analysis will contribute to our present understanding of AD.