axon

(noun)

A nerve fibre, which is a long slender projection of a nerve cell, and which conducts nerve impulses away from the body of the cell to a synapse.

Related Terms

  • neurotoxin
  • acetylcholine

Examples of axon in the following topics:

  • Paralysis-Causing Bacterial Neurotoxins

    • The heavy chain of the toxin is particularly important for targeting the toxin to specific types of axon terminals.
    • The toxin must get inside the axon terminals to cause paralysis.
    • Following the attachment of the toxin heavy chain to proteins on the surface of axon terminals, the toxin can be taken into neurons by endocytosis.
    • The SNAP-25 protein is required for vesicle fusion that releases neurotransmitters from the axon endings (in particular acetylcholine).
  • Amoebic Meningoencephalitis

    • After the organisms have multiplied and largely consumed the olfactory bulbs, the infection rapidly spreads through the mitral cell axons to the rest of the cerebrum, resulting in onset of frank encephalitic symptoms, including cephalgia (headache), nausea, and rigidity of the neck muscles, progressing to vomiting, delirium, seizures, and eventually irreversible coma.
  • Other Infectious Eye Diseases

    • Recurrent herpes of the eye in turn is caused by reactivation of the virus in a latently infected sensory ganglion, transport of the virus down the nerve axon to sensory nerve endings, and subsequent infection of ocular surface.
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