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REVIEW article
Front. Neurosci.
Sec. Neurodegeneration
Volume 19 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fnins.2025.1534061
This article is part of the Research TopicProgress in Neuroacanthocytosis Syndromes and Related Diseases Including other Bulk Lipid Transfer DisordersView all 10 articles
VPS13 and bridge-like lipid transporters, mechanisms and mysteries.
Provisionally accepted- Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, Connecticut, United Kingdom
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Bridge-like lipid transporters (BLTPs) have recently been revealed as key regulators of intraorganellar lipid traffic, whose loss is associated with defective synaptic signalling and congenital neurological disease. This group is formed by five protein subfamilies (BLTP1-3, Autophagy-related 2 (ATG2) and vacuolar protein sorting 13 (VPS13)), which mediate minimally selective lipid transfer between cellular membranes. Deceptively simple both in structure and presumed function, this review addresses open questions as to how bridge-like transporters work, the functional consequences of bulk lipid transfer on cellular signalling and summarises some recent studies that have shed light on the surprising level of regulation and specificity found in this family of transporters.
Keywords: BLTP, VPS13, ATG2, Scramblase activity, Lipid transfer activity
Received: 25 Nov 2024; Accepted: 14 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Swan. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Laura Elizabeth Swan, Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems Biology, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, 06510, Connecticut, United Kingdom
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