ReviewTrends in endocrinology and metabolism: TEM2015
Lost in translocation: the functions of the 18-kD translocator protein.
Review in Trends in endocrinology and metabolism: TEM, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 38 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
38 citing papers in PubMed, 68 citations in OpenAlex.
- TSPO contributes to neuropathology and cognitive deficits in Alzheimer's disease.Journal of neuroinflammation · 2025Article
- Thirty years of StAR gazing. Expanding the universe of the steroidogenic acute regulatory protein.The Journal of endocrinology · 2025Review
- GRT-X Stimulates Dorsal Root Ganglia Axonal Growth in Culture via TSPO and Kv7.2/3 Potassium Channel Activation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024Article
- The Comprehensive Steroidome in Complete TSPO/PBR Knockout Mice under Basal Conditions.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Article
- Long-term diazepam treatment enhances microglial spine engulfment and impairs cognitive performance via the mitochondrial 18 kDa translocator protein (TSPO).Nature neuroscience · 2022Article
- Can (immune and other) gene expression help us to treat depression?Brain, behavior, & immunity - health · 2021Article
- Parametric Mapping for TSPO PET Imaging with Spectral Analysis Impulsive Response Function.Molecular imaging and biology · 2021Article
- The translocator protein (TSPO) is prodromal to mitophagy loss in neurotoxicity.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Article
- Gene expression studies in Depression development and treatment: an overview of the underlying molecular mechanisms and biological processes to identify biomarkers.Translational psychiatry · 2021Review
- Neuronal activity increases translocator protein (TSPO) levels.Molecular psychiatry · 2021Article
- Membrane-embedded TSPO: an NMR view.European biophysics journal : EBJ · 2021Article
- A Novel Interaction of Translocator Protein 18 kDa (TSPO) with NADPH Oxidase in Microglia.Molecular neurobiology · 2020Article
- Translocator protein 18 kDa: a potential therapeutic biomarker for post traumatic stress disorder.Metabolic brain disease · 2020Review
- Concentration, distribution, and influence of aging on the 18 kDa translocator protein in human brain: Implications for brain imaging studies.Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2020Article
- Translocator Protein 18 kDa (TSPO) Deficiency Inhibits Microglial Activation and Impairs Mitochondrial Function.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2020Article
- TSPO in diverse CNS pathologies and psychiatric disease: A critical review and a way forward.Pharmacology & therapeutics · 2019Review
- Cellular Sources and Regional Variations in the Expression of the Neuroinflammatory Marker Translocator Protein (TSPO) in the Normal Brain.International journal of molecular sciences · 2018Article
- Current knowledge on the acute regulation of steroidogenesis.Biology of reproduction · 2018Review
- Translocator protein (TSPO) and stress cascades in mouse models of psychosis with inflammatory disturbances.Schizophrenia research · 2018Article
- Challenges and approaches to understand cholesterol-binding impact on membrane protein function: an NMR view.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2018Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Research spanning nearly four decades has assigned to the translocator protein (18 kDa) (TSPO) a critical role, among others, in the mitochondrial import of cholesterol, the subsequent steps of (neuro)steroid production, and systemic endocrine regulation, with implications for the pathophysiology of immune, inflammatory, neurodegenerative, and psychiatric as well as neoplastic diseases. Recent knockout studies in mice unexpectedly report normal or latent phenotypes, raising doubts about the protein's role in steroidogenesis and other previously postulated functions and challenging the validity of earlier data on the selectivity of TSPO-binding drugs. Here we provide a synthesis of the current debate from a structural and molecular biology perspective, discuss the limits of inference in loss-of-function (gene knockout) studies, and suggest new functions of TSPO.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.