On April 1st, Nature Neuroscience published online a report from ION entitled “TRPC channels promote cerebellar granule neuron survival”. This work was done by graduate students Yi-chang Jia and Jian Zhou, under the supervisoin of Dr. Yi-zheng Wang.

Channels formed by the TRP family of proteins serve a variety of physiological functions. Here we report that two members of the TRPC subfamily, TRPC3 and 6, protect cerebellar granule neurons (CGNs) against serum deprivation-induced cell death in cultures and promoted CGN survival in the rat brain. In CGN cultures, blocking TRPC channels or down-regulating TRPC3 or 6 suppress BDNF-mediated protection, BDNF-triggered intracellular Ca2+ elevation and BDNF-induced CREB activation. By contrast, over-expressing TRPC3 or 6 increases CREB-dependent reporter-gene transcription and prevents apoptosis in neurons deprived of serum, a protection blocked by expression of the dominant negative form of CREB. Furthermore, down-regulating TRPC3 or 6 induces CGN apoptosis in neonatal rat cerebellum, an effect rescued by over-expressing either TRPC3 or 6. Thus, our findings provide in vitro and in vivo evidence for a critical role of TRPC channels in promoting neuronal survival.