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Vesicular Monoamine Transporters

VMAT (Vesicular Monoamine Transporters) transport biogenic amines such as dopamine into vesicles within monoamine-containing neurons. This activity aids neurotransmission and helps maintain cytoplasmic neurotransmitter concentrations.

Products
Background
Literature (2)
Gene Data

Vesicular Monoamine Transporter Inhibitors
Cat. No. Product Name / Activity
2742 Reserpine
Inhibitor of vesicular monoamine transport
2175 Tetrabenazine
Potent inhibitor of vesicular monoamine transport

Other
Cat. No. Product Name / Activity
5200 FFN 102 mesylate
Selective fluorescent substrate of VMAT2 and DAT
5911 FFN 200 dihydrochloride
Selective fluorescent VMAT2 substrate
5043 FFN 206 dihydrochloride
Fluorescent VMAT2 substrate
6717 FFN 270
Fluorescent substrate for NET and VMAT2

Related Targets

VMATs (Vesicular Monoamine Transporters) transport biogenic amines such as dopamine into vesicles within monoamine-containing neurons. Vesicular transporters are responsible for filling synaptic vesicles with neurotransmitter, thus contributing to the recycling of neurotransmitter and ensuring neurotransmission throughout the CNS.

There are four known vesicular transporters:

  • VMAT1 and VMAT2 (vesicular monoamine transporters), which transport biogenic amines
  • VAChT (vesicular acetylcholine transporter)
  • VGAT (vesicular GABA and glycine transporter)
  • VGLUT 1, VGLUT2 and VGLUT3 (vesicular glutamate transporters)

VMAT exists as two isoforms - VMAT1 and VMAT2 - which are distributed between different cell types. VMAT1 is generally expressed in neuroendocrine cells while VMAT2 is usually active in serotonergic, dopaminergic, histaminergic and adrenergic neurons. The function of VMAT is not only important for the maintenance of neurotransmission, but also serves a protective purpose: keeping the cytoplasmic concentrations of neurotransmitters low in order to avoid oxidative deamination and toxicity. VMAT2 has been shown to sequester MPP+, the toxic metabolite of MPTP, in synaptic vesicles. VMAT2 is also the only transporter that moves cytoplasmic dopamine into vesicles and this makes it an attractive therapeutic target for both Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease.

External sources of pharmacological information for Vesicular Monoamine Transporters :

    Literature for Vesicular Monoamine Transporters

    Tocris offers the following scientific literature for Vesicular Monoamine Transporters to showcase our products. We invite you to request* your copy today!

    *Please note that Tocris will only send literature to established scientific business / institute addresses.

    Dopamine Receptors Scientific Review

    Dopamine Receptors Scientific Review

    Written by Phillip Strange and revised by Kim Neve in 2013, this review summarizes the history of the dopamine receptors and provides an overview of individual receptor subtype properties, their distribution and identifies ligands which act at each receptor subtype. Compounds available from Tocris are listed.

    Parkinson's Disease Poster

    Parkinson's Disease Poster

    Parkinson's disease (PD) causes chronic disability and is the second most common neurodegenerative condition. This poster outlines the neurobiology of the disease, as well as highlighting current therapeutic treatments for symptomatic PD, and emerging therapeutic strategies to delay PD onset and progression.

    Vesicular Monoamine Transporter Gene Data

    Gene Species Gene Symbol Gene Accession No. Protein Accession No.
    SLC18A1
    (VMAT1)     		Human SLC18A1 NM_001135691 P54219
    Mouse Slc18a1 NM_153054 Q8R090
    Rat Slc18a1 NM_013152 Q01818
    SLC18A2
    (VMAT2)     		Human SLC18A2 NM_003054 Q05940
    Mouse Slc18a2 NM_172523 Q8BRU6
    Rat Slc18a2 NM_013031 Q01827