Topic: vesicular GABA transporter

The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) is known for its pivotal role in contextual fear conditioning, receiving inputs from both corticocortical and subcortical pathways, including the nucleus incertus in the pontine tegmentum. This region contains a GABAergic projection rich in relaxin-3 (RLN3), which acts via its Gi/o-protein-coupled receptor, RXFP3. To investigate the involvement of this peptidergic system in contextual fear conditioning, we bilaterally injected adult rat RSC with an adeno-associated virus (AAV) expressing the chimeric RXFP3 agonist R3/I5 or a control AAV and subjected them to cont

The ventral hippocampus (vHPC) is a brain locus centrally involved in the control of stress and anxiety, with dysfunction of its interneuron network strongly implicated in clinical anxiety-related disorders. The vHPC is heavily innervated by neurons in the pontine tegmental, nucleus incertus (NI) – the primary source of the neuropeptide, relaxin-3 (RLN3), in the rat brain. Intriguingly, sustained activation of the RLN3 receptor, RXFP3, in the vHPC of rats increased anxiety and social avoidance [1], yet the precise underlying neuronal mechanisms remain unknown. Therefore, this study investigate

The basolateral amygdala (BLA) regulates emotional behavior and reactions and its hyperexcitability is closely related to anxiety and fear. Given that selective degeneration of local GABAergic interneurons could lead to increased anxiety-like behavior, our aim was to test the efficacy of commercially available saporin-anti-vesicular GABA transporter conjugates (SAVA) and their ability to alter the parameters of anxiety-like behavior. For this purpose, adult male Wistar rats were divided into three experimental groups treated with different SAVA doses (20, 40 and 80 ng per injection site, 6 ani