Topic: neuronal activation

Dry eye disease (DED) affects 30% of the adult population worldwide and causes corneal pain which remains a therapeutic challenge. Our study aimed to identify the first brain connectome associated with corneal pain by mapping c-Fos positive cells (an indirect marker of neuronal activation) in the whole mouse brain.Adult male C57BL/6 mice received unilateral topical instillation of 0.2% benzalkonium chloride twice/day for 7 days (DED model, n=5) and were compared to naive animals (n=5). Spontaneous ocular pain (eye closure ratio) and corneal mechanical sensitivity (von Frey test) were monitored

Dopaminergic neurons (DNs) from the Ventral Tegmental Area (VTA) are associated with addiction and are the first neurons to respond to a single dose of cocaine, leading to long-term potentiation. Gene expression and synaptic activity are reported to recover within the first 24 hours post cocaine exposure, but a memory of the first insult is thought to prevail, as a second exposure leads to more expansive activation. To gain mechanistic insights into the chromatin structure alterations seen by 24h and understand the cascade of events that disturbs networks of regulatory sequences and genes, we

Recent evidence suggests that epigenetic mechanisms may contribute to memory deficits in aging. Specifically, in the hippocampus, the repressive epigenetic mark H3K9me3 (tri-methylated lysine 9 on histone H3) has been implicated in the silencing of genes essential for memory. Yet, the impact of the age-related increased H3K9me3 levels on neuronal function remains unclear. We hypothesized that H3K9me3 accumulation renders neurons refractory to stimulation. To assess the influence of H3K9me3 on neuronal activation, we reduced H3K9me3 levels by silencing the major methyltransferase responsible to

Insulin plays a central role in glycaemic control, extending its regulatory influence beyond peripheral organs to the brain. Elevated circulating insulin levels, indicative of insulin resistance, are a hallmark of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Traditionally, the brain was thought to be insensitive to insulin, but our findings show that non-neuronal cells, specifically astrocytes located at the interface of neurons and blood vessels, sense and respond to insulin, thereby influencing systemic glucose control. Intrigued by these discoveries and recognising the potential of targeting these cells to

Different neurological diseases are characterized by an imbalance between excitatory and inhibitory synapses, including epilepsy or autism spectrum disorders (ASD). One of many genes linked to these conditions is the scaffold protein neurobeachin (NBEA), which has been previously described as essential for receptor targeting to the plasma membrane. While its role at excitatory synapses has been studied extensively, NBEA function at inhibitory synapses is still barely understood. Here we report that NBEA is recruited to the GABAergic synapses in an activity-dependent manner and interacts with t

Animals possess the ability to infer knowledge from experience of others, the social transmission of food preference (STFP) in rodents being a prevalent laboratory model of such memory. The neurobiological mechanisms underlying SFTP, as well as the relationship between individual and social memory acquired in the same animal, remain poorly understood. The goal of the present study was to investigate these questions at the cellular level. For this purpose, we used the STFP paradigm in mice, training them to form both short-term and long-term food preference memory. Using c-Fos immunohistochemic