About
The major interest in my lab is to study the regulation of synaptic connections during development, maturity and aging. One major approach is to use state-of-the-art imaging methods to study the dynamics of synaptic proteins at single synapses in living animals. We are using a variety of fluorescent proteins (YFP,GFP) transgenic and synaptic proteins deficient mice to study the regulation of synaptic dynamics at simple and accessible synapse like the neuromuscular junction. In addition to new optical imaging tools, we are using innovative molecular techniques to eventually better understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying synaptic plasticity at single synapses in normal and pathological situations.
Dr. Akaaboune received his DEA and Ph.D. from the University of Pierre and Marie Curie (Paris 6) in Paris, France. He was postdoctoral fellow in Lichtman's laboratory at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri.
Research Interests: Synaptic development and synaptic plasticity, postsynaptic proteins dynamics, and neuromuscular diseases.
He has been awarded the highly prestigious Human Frontier Science Program Postdoctoral Fellowship, and he was a finalist in the 1999 James L. O'Leary Prize Competition in Neuroscience. He was also an NIH and French Medical Research Fellow.
Publications
Martinez-Pena y Valenzuela I, Chen PJ, Barden J, Kosloski O, and Akaaboune M. Distinct roles of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex: α-dystrobrevin and α-syntrophin in the maintenance of the postsynaptic apparatus of the neuromuscular synapse. Human Molecular Genetics, 2022 Feb 14:ddac041. doi: 10.1093/hmg/ddac041.
Martinez-Pena Y Valenzuela I, Akaaboune M. The metabolic stability of the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor at the neuromuscular junction. Cells. 2021 Feb 9;10(2):358.
Chen PJ, Zelada D, Belhasan DC, Akaaboune M. Phosphorylation of α-dystrobrevin is essential for αkap accumulation and acetylcholine receptor stability. The Journal of Biological Chemistry. 2020 Jul 31;295(31):10677-10688.
Martinez-Pena Y Valenzuela I, Akaaboune M. The disassembly of the neuromuscular synapse in high-fat diet-induced obese male mice. Molecular Metabolism. 2020 Jun;36:100979.
Belhasan DC, Akaaboune M. The role of the dystrophin glycoprotein complex on the neuromuscular system. Neurosci Lett. 2020 Mar 23;722:134833.
Aittaleb M, Martinez-Pena Y Valenzuela I, Akaaboune M. Spatial distribution and molecular dynamics of dystrophin glycoprotein components at the neuromuscular junction in vivo. J Cell Sci. 2017 May 15;130(10):1752-1759.
Zygmunt DA, Singhal N, Kim ML, Cramer ML, Crowe KE, Xu R, Jia Y, Adair J, Martinez-Pena Y Valenzuela I, Akaaboune M, White P, Janssen PM, Martin PT. Deletion of Pofut1 in Mouse Skeletal Myofibers Induces Muscle Aging-Related Phenotypes in cis and in trans. Mol Cell Biol. 2017 May 2;37(10):e00426-16.
Chen PJ, Martinez-Pena Y Valenzuela I, Aittaleb M, Akaaboune M. AChRs Are Essential for the Targeting of Rapsyn to the Postsynaptic Membrane of NMJs in Living Mice. The Journal of Neuroscience. 2016 May 25;36(21):5680-5.
Isabel Martinez-Pena y Valenzuela, Mohamed Aittaleb, Po-Ju Chen, and Mohammed Akaaboune. The knockdown of akap alters the postsynaptic apparatus of neuromuscular junctions in living mice. The Journal of Neuroscience. 2015
Nadine Hardel#, Mohammed Akaaboune#, Isabel Martinez-Pena y Valenzuela, Sarah Wakefield, Raphael Thurnheer, and Hans Rudolf Brenneror. Neuregulin/ErbB stabilizes the postsynaptic apparatus of the neuromuscular junction. (2011). The Journal of Cell Biology. 2011 Dec 26;195(7):1171-84. Epub 2011 Dec 19. (# Mohammed Akaaboune is a Co-first and corresponding author).
Isabel Martinez-Pena y Valenzuela, Chakib Mouslim and Mohammed Akaaboune. Calcium/Calmodulin Kinase II-dependent AChR Cycling at the Mammalian Neuromuscular Junction in Vivo. (2010). The Journal of Neuroscience. 30: 12455-12465
Emile G. Bruneau, Daniel S. Brenner, John Y. Kuwada and Akaaboune M. Acetylcholine receptors are required for the insertion and maintenance of post-synaptic scaffolding proteins. (2008). Current Biology 2008. Jan 22;18(2):109-15. PDF
Bruneau E, Sutter D, Hume RI, and Mohammed Akaaboune. Identification of Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptor Recycling and its Role in Maintaining Receptor Density at the Neuromuscular Junction in vivo. (2005). The Journal of Neuroscience. 25:9949-59. PDF
Akaaboune M, Grady RM, Turney S, Sanes JR, and Lichtman JW. Neurotransmitter Receptor Dynamics Studied in vivo by Reversible Photo-Unbinding of Fluorescent Ligands. (2002). Neuron. 34: 865-876. PubMed
Akaaboune M., Culican S.M., Turney S.G., Lichtman J.W. Rapid and reversible effects of activity on acetylcholine receptor density at the neuromuscular junction in vivo. (1999). Science (Research Article). 28: 503-7. PubMed
