Abstract

The discovery of the first neurotransmitter — acetylcholine — was soon followed by the discovery of its hydrolysing enzyme, acetylcholinesterase. The role of acetylcholinesterase in terminating acetylcholine-mediated neurotransmission made it the focus of intense research for much of the past century. But the complexity of acetylcholinesterase gene regulation and recent evidence for some of the long-suspected 'non-classical' actions of this enzyme have more recently driven a profound revolution in acetylcholinesterase research. Although our understanding of the additional roles of acetylcholinesterase is incomplete, the time is ripe to summarize the evidence on a remarkable diversity of acetylcholinesterase functions.

Author affiliations

1. Hermona Soreq and Shlomo Seidman are at the Department of Biological Chemistry, Institute of Life Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel 91904. Email: soreq@cc.huji.ac.il