Disorders Associated with Neurotransmitters

A chemical messenger that enhances, transmits, and balances signals from nerve cells to target neurons is known as a neurotransmitter. These target cells can be any organ, gland, or muscle. The concentration of these neurotransmitters can cause many diseases like Alzheimer’s disease and Schizophrenia. This article explains these diseases in detail. 

Neurotransmitters

It is assumed that the human body has approximately 86 billion neurons. In a process known as neurotransmission, billions of brain cells communicate by sending chemical messages across the synapse, a small gap between cells. These chemical messages are carried by neurotransmitters, which are distinct molecules.

Our central nervous system has several neurotransmitters, but they also have a few characteristics and are different. 

Neurotransmitters are endogenous, meaning they are generated within the neuron itself. Synaptic vesicles release neurochemicals. 

Synaptic vesicles release neurotransmitters into the synapse. Synaptic vesicles are clustered near the cell membrane when a cell is stimulated. 

Neurotransmitters can then be taken up by specific receptors on neighbouring cells, increasing or decreasing the message being allowed to pass along a particular circuit.

Types Of Neurotransmitters

Small-molecule transmitters and neuropeptides are the two types of neurotransmitters at the most basic level. Small-molecule transmitters, such as dopamine and glutamate, usually act on neighbouring cells. 

Insulin and Oxytocin, which are smaller in size, are efficient in modifying or adapting the way cells work at the synapse. 

Studies have discovered over 60 kinds of neurotransmitters in the human mind, and most analysts agree there is still more to be discovered. These potent neurochemicals are at the heart of neurotransmission and are crucial to human thought and behaviour.

Neurotransmitters are frequently discussed as if they only serve one purpose. GABA helps you learn things, while dopamine is a “pleasure chemical.”

• Dopamine

This neurotransmitter is released when mammals receive rewards for their behaviour which can be in the form of food or anything else. This neurotransmitter is also famous as a pleasure chemical. It is one of the most widely studied neurochemicals, owing to the wide range of roles in human behaviour and cognition.

Inspiration, judgement, emotion, reward processing, awareness, working memory, and having to learn are all affected by DA. It is, however, more than what it is perceived to be. According to new research, DA may also play a significant role in Parkinson’s disease, substance abuse, schizophrenia, and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

• Acetylcholine

The first neurotransmitter identified was acetylcholine (Ach). It is a small molecule with direct action that primarily works in muscles, assisting in translating our motives to move into current behaviour as signals are transmitted from neurons into muscle fibres. However, it also serves other functions in the brain, such as directing attention and facilitating neuroplasticity throughout the cortex.

• Glutamate

This neurotransmitter is present in abundant quantities in the cortex and is also known as a pleasure chemical. Excess glutamate causes excitability or neuronal death due to a stroke, brain trauma, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the crippling neurodegenerative disorder best known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. However, all is not lost. 

Long term potentiation (LTP) is the molecular process supposed to help form remembrances; it happens in glutamatergic neurons in the hippocampus and cortex, and this excitement is essential for learning and memory.

Diseases Associated With Neurotransmitters

Alzheimer’s disease

A loss in memory and learning is a characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease, and it is also a neurodegenerative disorder.  It is linked to a lack of acetylcholine in some brain areas. It is like dementia that alters memory, thinking, and behaviour. There is a constant alleviation in symptoms, and eventually, your daily activities are obstructed. 

Depression

This mental disorder is specifically an outcome of a lack of norepinephrine, serotonin, and dopamine levels in the central nervous system. As a result, pharmacologic diagnosis and medication aim to increase the levels in the central nervous system of these neurotransmitters.

Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia, a severe psychological disease, has been linked to an overabundance of dopamine in the frontal lobes, leading to psychotic episodes in these sick people. Dopamine-blocking medications are used to treat schizophrenia.

Parkinsonism

The substantia nigra is the only source of dopamine in the central nervous system, and its damage results in its collapse. In Parkinson’s disease patients, dopamine deficiency causes uncontrollable muscle tremors.

Epilepsy

Some epileptic disorders are attributed to a lack of inhibitory neurotransmitters, like GABA or a surge in excitatory neurotransmitters, such as glutamate. Regardless of the cause of the convulsions, the treatment aims to either boost GABA or reduce glutamate.

Huntington’s disease

Aside from epilepsy, a chronic decrease in GABA in the brain can lead to Huntington’s disease. Even though the disease is an outcome of the inherited genes, one of the consequences of such disordered DNA is a reduced capacity of neurons to absorb GABA. Although there is no treatment for Huntington’s disease, we can alleviate symptoms by doubling the levels of inhibitory neurotransmitters in the body.

Conclusion

Neurotransmitters carry chemical messages and are an essential part of our nervous system. The increase and decrease in the concentration of these neurotransmitters can cause diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, schizophrenia, and Huntington’s disease.