Volume 36, Issue 11, 2020

  [Cover]

Purinergic signaling is recognized as a promising field in neuroscience. When the purinergic signal ATP is released from neurons, astrocytes, microglia, and oligodendrocytes, it immediately binds to its receptor or degenerates into the other purinergic signals ADP, AMP, and ADO to activate their receptors to act in a variety of physiological or pathological conditions in the central nervous system. The cover image illustrates that purinergic signaling is like an important star in the vast, borderless sky which represents profound neuroscience. ATP release is something like a meteor falling. When it falls at the first beacon tower in the Great Wall, ATP initiates the function of his place via binding to its receptor or breaks down very quickly to arrive at the second (ADP), third (AMP), and fourth (ADO) beacon towers to bind their own receptors and begin to work in the sulci and gyri along a meandering path. (Cover image provided by Yong Tang et al.)