Credit: Benjamin Weekley, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
A collaborative effort between Mount Sinai and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center has shed valuable light on how monoamine neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, and now histamine help regulate brain physiology and behavior through chemical bonding of these monoamines to histone proteins, the core DNA-packaging proteins of our cells.
By uncovering how these histone modifications influence the brain, the team has identified a novel mechanism for controlling circadian gene expression and behavioral rhythms. The team’s findings, published in Nature, on Wednesday, January 8, could eventually guide the development of targeted therapies for conditions involving circadian rhythm disruptions, such as insomnia, depression, bipolar disorder, and neurodegenerative disease.