Topic: neurodevelopmental disease

N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor (NMDAR) is a glutamate-gated ion channel permeable to calcium that plays critical roles in synaptic transmission, synaptogenesis, and plasticity. Recent sequencing data in neurological and psychiatric patients reveal numerous variants in genes encoding NMDAR subunits. In our study, we have created and evaluated a transgenic mouse line carrying a frameshift variant (Grin2b L825FfsX4) resulting in the deletion of about half of the GluN2B subunit. Our methods included patch-clamp recordings from hippocampal neurons in both wild-type (Grin2bWT/WT) and transgenic (Grin

Schizophrenia has been long thought to be a mainly neurodevelopmental disease, but current research increasingly highlights the involvement of autoimmunological and inflammatory processes. Recently, the gut-brain axis has become the focus of research as various components of this axis appear to be altered in psychiatric illnesses including schizophrenia. Schizophrenic patients not only show reduced diversity in their microbiome compared to healthy controls, but also several parameters of elevated peripheral and central inflammation. The Poly I:C mouse model is based on epidemiological findings

IgG autoantibodies against the GluN1 (NR1) subunit of NMDA receptors underlie the most common form of autoimmune encephalitis, but they are also found in asymptomatic individuals with a reported seroprevalence of up to 1%. Maternal NR1 autoantibodies may actively cross the placenta during pregnancy, reaching the developing brain through the immature blood-brain barrier. However, to what extent prenatal exposure to NR1 autoantibodies influences neuronal circuit maturation remains elusive. We address this question in hippocampal area CA1 using a murine passive-transfer model, in which human mono