Topic: hippocampal plasticity

Acute stress exposures are the building blocks of chronic stress. Unravelling the mechanisms underpinning the whole-body response to acute stress is critical to understand this neglected aspect of health and disease. A single acute stress exposure rapidly modulates gut-brain axis signalling including intestinal permeability and hippocampal plasticity. The gut microbiota is increasingly recognized as an important modulator of mood and cognition, and microbially-produced metabolites such as butyrate can be a key regulator of brain and gut function via the gut-brain axis. The aim of this work is

Depression affects 20% of the general population and is a leading cause of disability worldwide, with one third of patients presenting treatment-resistant depression (TRD). Subanesthetic ketamine is a promising rapid-acting TRD pharmacotherapy, but optimal treatment frequency remains unclear. The present study aims to better understand the effects of an acute (single dose) and chronic (one week daily) 10mg/kg ketamine treatment on hippocampal plasticity, a key mechanism impaired in depression, in a putative TRD model: the Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat exposed to chronic mild stress (CMS). Rats were e

The full-length amyloid precursor protein (APP), a key player in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), is ubiquitously expressed in a large majority of neurons, including GABAergic interneurons (INTs). Recent studies showed evidence of disrupted hippocampal plasticity in conditional APP KO of GABAergic forebrain neurons (Mehr et al, 2020). However, the physiological functions of APP at inhibitory synapses remain to be defined. We to study the role of APP at inhibitory synapses onto CA3 pyramidal cells (PCs) as well as on the overall inhibitory balance within the CA3 network. We combine slice electrophysio