Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience Commons^™

Regulation Of The Amyloid Precursor Protein By Prostaglandin J2, A Mediator Of Inflammation: Relevance To Alzheimer’S Disease, Teneka L. Jean-Louis

All Graduate Works by Year: Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Inflammation plays a major role in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Investigating how specific mediators of inflammation contribute to neurodegeneration in AD is crucial. Our studies focused on cyclooxygenases, which are key enzymes in inflammation and highly relevant to AD. Cyclooxygenases (COX -1, constitutive; COX-2, inducible) have emerged as important determinants of AD pathogenesis and progression. COX-2 is highly induced in AD, correlating with AD severity, and COX-1 is also involved in AD. Cyclooxygenases are the rate-limiting enzymes that convert arachidonic acid into prostaglandins (PGs), the principal mediators of CNS neuroinflammation.

The overall GOAL of these studies was to address the ...

The Circadian Clock Gene Bmal1 Coordinates Intestinal Regeneration, Kyle Stokes, Abrial Cooke, Hanna Chang, David R. Weaver, David T. Breault, Phillip Karpowicz

Neurobiology Publications and Presentations

BACKGROUND and AIMS: The gastrointestinal syndrome is an illness of the intestine caused by high levels of radiation. It is characterized by extensive loss of epithelial tissue integrity, which initiates a regenerative response by intestinal stem and precursor cells. The intestine has 24-hour rhythms in many physiological functions that are believed to be outputs of the circadian clock: a molecular system that produces 24-hour rhythms in transcription/translation. Certain gastrointestinal illnesses are worsened when the circadian rhythms are disrupted, but the role of the circadian clock in gastrointestinal regeneration has not been studied.

METHODS: We tested the timing of regeneration ...

Neuroanatomical Tracing Of The Gut -- Brain Axis, Ricardo P. Torres, Elizabeth A. Davis, Coltan G. Parker, Megan J. Dailey

Phenotypic Plasticity Research Experience for Community College Students

This poster summarizes a variety of methods to further characterize the gut-brain axis by tracing motor and sensory nerves between the gut and brain and identifying cell bodies in the sensory ganglia. Determines the meth method to trace the sensory and motor nerves was through fluorescence and the best method to identify sensory neuron cell bodies was the Nissi stain.

A Mathematical Model For Selective Differentiation Of Neural Progenitor Cells On Micropatterned Polymer Substrates, Cory L. Howk, Howard A. Levine, Michael W. Smiley, Surya K. Mallapragada, Marit Nilsen-Hamilton, Jisun Oh, Donald S. Sakaguchi

Surya K Mallapragada

The biological hypothesis that the astrocyte-secreted cytokine, interleukin-6 (IL6), stimulates differentiation of adult rat hippocampal progenitor cells (AHPCs) is considered from a mathematical perspective. The proposed mathematical model includes two different mechanisms for stimulation and is based on mass–action kinetics. Both biological mechanisms involve sequential binding, with one pathway solely utilizing surface receptors while the other pathway also involves soluble receptors. Choosing biologically-reasonable values for parameters, simulations of the mathematical model show good agreement with experimental results. A global sensitivity analysis is also conducted to determine both the most influential and non-influential parameters on cellular differentiation, providing additional insights ...

A Mathematical Model For Selective Differentiation Of Neural Progenitor Cells On Micropatterned Polymer Substrates, Cory L. Howk, Howard A. Levine, Michael W. Smiley, Surya K. Mallapragada, Marit Nilsen-Hamilton, Jisun Oh, Donald S. Sakaguchi

Marit Nilsen-Hamilton

The biological hypothesis that the astrocyte-secreted cytokine, interleukin-6 (IL6), stimulates differentiation of adult rat hippocampal progenitor cells (AHPCs) is considered from a mathematical perspective. The proposed mathematical model includes two different mechanisms for stimulation and is based on mass–action kinetics. Both biological mechanisms involve sequential binding, with one pathway solely utilizing surface receptors while the other pathway also involves soluble receptors. Choosing biologically-reasonable values for parameters, simulations of the mathematical model show good agreement with experimental results. A global sensitivity analysis is also conducted to determine both the most influential and non-influential parameters on cellular differentiation, providing additional insights ...

A C9orf72 Bac Mouse Model Recapitulates Key Epigenetic Perturbations Of Als/Ftd, Rustam Esanov, Gabriela Toro Cabrera, Nadja S. Andrade, Tania F. Gendron, Robert H. Brown Jr., Michael Benatar, Claes Wahlestedt, Christian Mueller, Zane Zeier

Pediatric Publications and Presentations

BACKGROUND: Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal and progressive neurodegenerative disorder with identified genetic causes representing a significant minority of all cases. A GGGGCC hexanucleotide repeat expansion (HRE) mutation within the C9ORF72 gene has recently been identified as the most frequent known cause of ALS. The expansion leads to partial heterochromatinization of the locus, yet mutant RNAs and dipeptide repeat proteins (DPRs) are still produced in sufficient quantities to confer neurotoxicity. The levels of these toxic HRE products positively correlate with cellular toxicity and phenotypic severity across multiple disease models. Moreover, the degree of epigenetic repression inversely correlates with ...

Nonlinear Dynamics Of Pulsing Oscillators, Christopher B. Fritz

Student Honors Theses By Year

Many oscillatory systems of great interest exhibit pulsing behavior. The analysis of such oscillators has historically utilized a constant-phase model such as the Kuramoto equation to describe their dynamics. These models accurately describe the behavior of pulsing oscillators on larger timescales, but to not explicitly capture the pulsing nature of the system being analyzed. Indeed, the Kuramoto model and its derivatives abstract the pulsing dynamics and instead use a constantly advancing phase, thereby blurring the specific dynamics in order to fit to an analytically tractable framework. In this thesis, a novel modification is presented by introducing a phase-dependence to the ...

Anti-Inflammatory Effect Of Secoisolariciresinol Diglucoside (Sdg) In Microglia, Kevin B. Seto, Kelly L. Jordan-Sciutto, Beth A. Winkelstein, Bekir Karabucak, Eric J. Granquist

Dental Theses

Secoisolariciresinol diglucoside (SDG) is the main plant lignan in flaxseed and has been thoroughly researched in the past decades due to its unique health properties. SDG has been shown to have therapeutic benefits for an array of diseases including breast and prostate cancer, hyperlipidemia, atherosclerosis, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and radiation pneumonopathy. With a number of studies recognizing the various health benefits of SDG, few have focused on its potential anti-inflammatory effect and, specifically, its interaction with the nuclear factor kappa-light-chain-enhancer of activated B cells (NF-κB) pathway. Thus, the aim of this study is to elucidate the interaction between SDG and ...

An Analysis Of Neurogenesis In A Mouse Model Of Chemotherapy Related Cognitive Impairment, Maxwell A. Hennings

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cancer patients treated with adjuvant chemotherapy often experience cognitive decline following treatment. This phenomenon, often dubbed “chemo brain” or “chemo fog” is usually temporary, but for a subset of survivors, these cognitive impairments can be long-lasting (>10 years) and negatively affect patients’ quality of life, career performance, and social fulfillment. While it is unclear what neurobiological mechanisms underlie chemotherapy related cognitive impairment, the majority of the animal literature has focused on adult neurogenesis. One process important for neurogenesis is the proliferation of new neurons within the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. It is evident that many chemotherapy agents can negatively ...

Synaptic Plasticity During Learning, Dustin J. Horn

Honors Theses AY 16/17

Memories are formed and stored inside of neural circuits. Synaptic plasticity is the sum of chemical changes occurring within neurons that affect their ability to communicate with one another. This process includes short term potentiation, early long term potentiation, and late long term potentiation. Dendritic plasticity is governed by actin polymerization and the MAPK pathway. Dendritic spines change their shape, volume, and number within seconds. Activation of NMDA receptors by AMPA receptors causes early long term potentiation in the cell and can change the synaptic strength within circuits. Astrocytes communicate with neurons and play an important role in the development ...

Major Neurotransmitters In The Brain, Amy S. Yu '17

Independent Study

Arguably the most important and powerful organ in the human body, the brain controls virtually everything one does. From chewing gum to running a marathon, the brain dictates one’s physical responses and actions, while also mediating learning, memory, and emotions. These functions are all regulated by neurotransmitter activity in the brain. While the brain works in complex ways, recent discoveries about neurotransmitters allow us to better understand the underlying mechanisms of brain operation. Each neurotransmitter fulfills a distinct role, but they rely on one another to perform certain activities in the brain as well. The purpose of this review ...

The Effect Of Ethanol Consumption And Stress On Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor And Tropomyosin Receptor Kinase B Expression., Katie Marie Masters

University of Tennessee Honors Thesis Projects

No abstract provided.

A Behavioral Prerequisite For The Genetic Analysis Of Auditory Feature Detection Mechanisms In Female Crickets, Rebecca L. Blisko

Senior Honors Projects

Sexual dimorphism is exhibited across all cricket species and is a central aspect of the mating processes of these insects. Only male crickets possess wing structures and pattern generators in the central nervous system that allow them to produce a mating call that is unique to their species in order to attract conspecific females. Conspecific females possess an auditory feature detection circuit in the central nervous system that is capable of detecting the species-specific frequency and temporal pattern of sound pulses within a male call. In order for dimorphic differences in mating behavior to result in successful continuation of a ...

Cerebral Lactate Metabolism And Memory: Implications For Alzheimer's Disease, Richard Andrew Harris

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by amyloid plaques that are comprised of aggregated amyloid-beta peptides. These toxic proteins promote mitochondrial dysfunction and neuronal cell death. A shift in metabolism away from oxidative phosphorylation and toward aerobic glycolysis, with the concomitant production of lactate, affords neurons a survival advantage against amyloid-beta toxicity. Recent evidence now suggests that aerobic glycolysis in the brain plays a critical role in supporting synaptic plasticity, learning, and memory. However, the role of aerobic glycolysis and lactate metabolism in AD-mediated cognitive decline is unknown. My objective was to test the hypotheses that aerobic ...

Effects Of Dietary Emulsifiers On Vasopressin And Oxytocin In Mice, Krishna Mehta

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Effects Of Systemic Administration Of 8-Oh-Dpat On Agonistic Social Behaviors In Male Syrian Hamsters, Corey Andrews

Georgia State Undergraduate Research Conference

No abstract provided.

Oxidation Of Substituted Catechols At The Air-Water Interface: Production Of Carboxylic Acids, Quinones, And Polyphenols, Elizabeth A. Pillar, Marcelo I. Guzman

Chemistry Faculty Publications

Anthropogenic activities contribute benzene, toluene, and anisole to the environment, which in the atmosphere are converted into the respective phenols, cresols, and methoxyphenols by fast gas-phase reaction with hydroxyl radicals (HO(•)). Further processing of the latter species by HO(•) decreases their vapor pressure as a second hydroxyl group is incorporated to accelerate their oxidative aging at interfaces and in aqueous particles. This work shows how catechol, pyrogallol, 3-methylcatechol, 4-methylcatechol, and 3-methoxycatechol (all proxies for oxygenated aromatics derived from benzene, toluene, and anisole) react at the air-water interface with increasing O3(g) during τc ≈ 1 μs contact time and contrasts their ...

Use Of Porous Elastomer Foams To Support Long Term Three Dimensional Neuronal Cultures, Richard M. Cukelj, Elda Hegmann, Ernest Freeman, Jennifer Mcdonough, Robert Clements

Undergraduate Research Symposium

In order to effectively study the interactions that occur between neurons found in the brain, spatially and after an extended period of time, it is necessary to have reliable, repeatable studies. This is difficult to accomplish through conventional two-dimensional cell culture techniques, but three dimensional (3D) elastomer foams satisfy these criteria. Here we present a platform to study complex neuronal networks for extended periods in vitro. Elastomer foams were constructed with pore sizes ranging from 150μm to 400μm with 40μm secondary pores which allowed human neuroblastoma cells (SH-SY5Y) to adhere and interact with the foam and be sustained for long ...

The Dreadds Technique Utilized To Control The Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis Of Rodents, Hannah Kennedy, Matthew Russ, Brett Lowden

Undergraduate Research Symposium

Stress has been shown to induce adverse effects such as depression, heart disease, and hypertension (Roman et al., 2016, Aschbacher et al., 2016, Ojike et al., 2016). Following a stressful event there is an increase in circulating glucocorticoids, primarily cortisol in humans and corticosterone (CORT) in rodents. CORT is primarily controlled via the PVN, the major regulating structure in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis, Ferguson et al., 2009). Normally, stressful stimuli causes activation of the PVN, triggering the release of CRH from the hypothalamus, subsequently causing the release of ACTH from the anterior pituitary gland, resulting in the production of ...

P32. Altered Sensory Processing In Response To Novel Dreadd-Induced Inactivation Of Gaba In Pedunculopontine Tegmental Nucleus, Niveen Fulcher

Western Research Forum

Niveen Fulcher¹, Cleusa De Oliveira², & Susanne Schmid^1,2

¹Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry, University of Western Ontario

²Anatomy and Cell Biology, University of Western Ontario

Altered sensory processing in response to novel DREADD-induced inactivation of GABA in pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus

Background: Sensory processing deficits are associated with certain psychiatric illnesses, such as schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Sensory filtering and sensorimotor gating are evolutionarily conserved preattentive responses that filter and block redundant sensory stimuli that would otherwise overwhelm our brains. To date, underlying mechanisms of these deficits are undefined. Prepulse inhibition (PPI) of the ...