Arryn Blaine

Current Research Interests:

Arrestins are a family of proteins that play an important role in G-protein coupled receptor signaling. They act as signal transduction regulators by binding to phosphorylated receptors and uncoupling the receptor from the corresponding G protein, terminating GPCR signaling. Within the arrestin family, the β - arrestins, known as β - arrestin 1 and β - arrestin 2, bind to a wide variety of GPCRs and are largely expressed in the central nervous system. Recently, β - arrestin 1 has been implicated to be involved in opioid induced seizures. Prescription opioid drugs largely contribute to drug overdose related deaths in the United States, creating a definite need to understand the downstream biological effects of these drugs. We would like to investigate β - arrestin 1's role in opioid induced seizures by determining the neuropathology of this phenomenon and analyzing the potential neuroprotective effects of the protein.