Nervous System Commons^™

Investigating The Effects Of Excitotoxic Stimuli On The Suprachiasmatic Nucleus, Rachel A. Brandes

Chancellor’s Honors Program Projects

No abstract provided.

Non-Equilibrium Critical Dynamics Of Bursts In Theta And Delta Rhythms As Fundamental Characteristic Of Sleep And Wake Micro-Architecture, Jilin W. J. L. Wang, Fabrizio Lombardi, Xiyun Zhang, Christelle Anaclet, Plamen Ch. Ivanov

Open Access Articles

Origin and functions of intermittent transitions among sleep stages, including short awakenings and arousals, constitute a challenge to the current homeostatic framework for sleep regulation, focusing on factors modulating sleep over large time scales. Here we propose that the complex micro-architecture characterizing the sleep-wake cycle results from an underlying non-equilibrium critical dynamics, bridging collective behaviors across spatio-temporal scales. We investigate theta and delta wave dynamics in control rats and in rats with lesions of sleep-promoting neurons in the parafacial zone. We demonstrate that intermittent bursts in theta and delta rhythms exhibit a complex temporal organization, with long-range power-law correlations and ...

Severe Bradycardia During A Spinal Cord Stimulator Procedure, Marc Blanchard Md, Ettore Crimi Md, Stephen Pyles Md

Anesthesiology

We report a case of severe bradycardia during spinal cord implantation. A 43 year old female with a history of chronic refractory lumbar back pain presented for revision of spinal cord stimulator. Preoperative assessment was positive only for bilateral lower extremity radiculopathy. During the procedure, surgeon’s attempt to advance the lead through scar tissue elicited severe bradycardia (HR 28) resolved with glycopyrrolate. Compression of spinal cord secondary to difficult lead placement could be the cause of this cardiovascular event. Anesthesiologists need to be aware that severe bradycardia can occur during spinal cord implantation.

Chromatin Profiling Of Cortical Neurons Identifies Individual Epigenetic Signatures In Schizophrenia, Fedor E. Gusev, Denis A. Reshetov, Amanda C. Mitchell, Tatiana V. Andreeva, Aslihan Dincer, Anastasia P. Grigorenko, Gennady Fedonin, Tobias Halene, Maria Aliseychik, Elena Filippova, Zhiping Weng, Schahram Akbarian, Evgeny I. Rogaev

Open Access Articles

Both heritability and environment contribute to risk for schizophrenia. However, the molecular mechanisms of interactions between genetic and non-genetic factors remain unclear. Epigenetic regulation of neuronal genome may be a presumable mechanism in pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Here, we performed analysis of open chromatin landscape of gene promoters in prefrontal cortical (PFC) neurons from schizophrenic patients. We cataloged cell-type-based epigenetic signals of transcriptional start sites (TSS) marked by histone H3-K4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) across the genome in PFC from multiple schizophrenia subjects and age-matched control individuals. One of the top-ranked chromatin alterations was found in the major histocompatibility (MHC) locus on chromosome ...

Reduced Brain Activity In The Right Putamen As An Early Predictor For Treatment Response In Drug-Naive, First-Episode Schizophrenia, Renrong Wu, Yangpan Ou, Feng Liu, Jindong Chen, Huabing Li, Jingping Zhao, Wenbin Guo, Xiaoduo Fan

Open Access Articles

Antipsychotic medications can have a significant effect on brain function after only several days of treatment. It is unclear whether such an acute effect can serve as an early predictor for treatment response in schizophrenia. Thirty-two patients with drug-naive, first-episode schizophrenia and 32 healthy controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging. Patients were treated with olanzapine and were scanned at baseline and 1 week of treatment. Healthy controls were scanned once at baseline. Symptom severity was assessed within the patient group using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) at three time points (baseline, 1 week of treatment, and 8 ...

A Small Peptide Antagonist Of The Fas Receptor Inhibits Neuroinflammation And Prevents Axon Degeneration And Retinal Ganglion Cell Death In An Inducible Mouse Model Of Glaucoma, Anitha Krishnan, Andrew J. Kocab, David N. Zacks, Ann Marshak-Rothstein, Meredith Gregory-Ksander

Open Access Articles

BACKGROUND: Glaucoma is a complex, multifactorial disease where apoptosis, microglia activation, and inflammation have been linked to the death of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) and axon degeneration. We demonstrated previously that FasL-Fas signaling was required for axon degeneration and death of RGCs in chronic and inducible mouse models of glaucoma and that Fas activation triggered RGC apoptosis, glial activation, and inflammation. Here, we investigated whether targeting the Fas receptor with a small peptide antagonist, ONL1204, has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects in a microbead-induced mouse model of glaucoma.

METHODS: Intracameral injection of microbeads was used to elevate intraocular pressure (IOP) in ...

Mutations In The Sptlc1 Gene Are A Cause Of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis That May Be Amenable To Serine Supplementation, Janel O. Johnson, Ruth Chia, Robert H. Brown Jr., John E. Landers

University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications

SPTLC1 encodes a critical subunit of serine palmitoyltransferase, the enzyme catalyzing the first and rate-limiting step in de novo sphingolipid biosynthesis, and mutations in this gene are known to cause hereditary sensory autonomic neuropathy, type 1A. Using exome sequencing, we identified a de novo variant in SPTLC1 resulting in a p.Ala20Ser amino acid change in an individual diagnosed with juvenile-onset amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and confirmed its pathogenicity by showing elevated plasma levels of neurotoxic deoxymethyl-sphinganine. A second case of juvenile-onset ALS arising again from a p.Ala20Ser mutation was later identified, confirming the association of SPTLC1 with this ...

Neural Jnk3 Regulates Blood Flow Recovery After Hindlimb Ischemia In Mice Via An Egr1/Creb1 Axis, Shashi Kant, Siobhan M. Craige, Kai Chen, Michaella M. Reif, Heather Learnard, Mark Kelly, Amada D. Caliz, Khanh-Van T. Tran, Kasmir Ramo, Owen M. Peters, Marc R. Freeman, Roger J. Davis, John F. Keaney Jr.

University of Massachusetts Medical School Faculty Publications

Diseases related to impaired blood flow such as peripheral artery disease (PAD) impact nearly 10 million people in the United States alone, yet patients with clinical manifestations of PAD (e.g., claudication and limb ischemia) have limited treatment options. In ischemic tissues, stress kinases such as c-Jun N-terminal kinases (JNKs), are activated. Here, we show that inhibition of the JNK3 (Mapk10) in the neural compartment strikingly potentiates blood flow recovery from mouse hindlimb ischemia. JNK3 deficiency leads to upregulation of growth factors such as Vegfa, Pdgfb, Pgf, Hbegf and Tgfb3 in ischemic muscle by activation of the transcription factors Egr1 ...

Systemic Inflammation Impairs Microglial Abeta Clearance Through Nlrp3 Inflammasome, Dario Tejera, Dilek Mercan, Juan M. Sanchez-Caro, Mor Hanan, David Greenberg, Hermona Soreq, Eicke Latz, Douglas T. Golenbock, Michael T. Heneka

Open Access Articles

Alzheimer's disease is the most prevalent type of dementia and is caused by the deposition of extracellular amyloid-beta and abnormal tau phosphorylation. Neuroinflammation has emerged as an additional pathological component. Microglia, representing the brain's major innate immune cells, play an important role during Alzheimer's. Once activated, microglia show changes in their morphology, characterized by a retraction of cell processes. Systemic inflammation is known to increase the risk for cognitive decline in human neurogenerative diseases including Alzheimer's. Here, we assess for the first time microglial changes upon a peripheral immune challenge in the context of aging and ...

Distributions Of Hypothalamic Neuron Populations Co-Expressing Tyrosine Hydroxylase And The Vesicular Gaba Transporter In The Mouse., Kenichiro Negishi, Mikayla A. Payant, Kayla S. Schumacker, Gabor Wittman, Rebecca M. Butler, Ronald M. Lechan, Harry W. M. Steinbusch M, Arshad M. Khan, Melissa J. Chee

Arshad M. Khan, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.

Role Of A 19s Proteasome Subunit- Psmd10(Gankyrin) In Neurogenesis Of Human Neuronal Progenitor Cells, Indrajit Sahu, Padma P. Nanaware, Minal Mane, Saim Wasi Mulla, Soumen Roy, Prasanna Venkatraman

Open Access Articles

PSMD10(Gankyrin), a proteasome assembly chaperone, is a widely known oncoprotein which aspects many hall mark properties of cancer. However, except proteasome assembly chaperon function its role in normal cell function remains unknown. To address this issue, we induced PSMD10(Gankyrin) overexpression in HEK293 cells and the resultant large-scale changes in gene expression profile were analyzed. We constituted networks from microarray data of these differentially expressed genes and carried out extensive topological analyses. The overrecurring yet consistent theme that appeared throughout analysis using varied network metrics is that all genes and interactions identified as important would be involved in neurogenesis ...

Integrins Have Cell-Type-Specific Roles In The Development Of Motor Neuron Connectivity, Devyn Oliver, Emily Norman, Heather Bates, Rachel Avard, Monika Rettler, Claire Y. Benard, Michael M. Francis, Michele L. Lemons

Open Access Articles

Formation of the nervous system requires a complex series of events including proper extension and guidance of neuronal axons and dendrites. Here we investigate the requirement for integrins, a class of transmembrane cell adhesion receptors, in regulating these processes across classes of C. elegans motor neurons. We show alpha integrin/ina-1 is expressed by both GABAergic and cholinergic motor neurons. Despite this, our analysis of hypomorphic ina-1(gm144) mutants indicates preferential involvement of alpha integrin/ina-1 in GABAergic commissural development, without obvious involvement in cholinergic commissural development. The defects in GABAergic commissures of ina-1(gm144) mutants included both premature termination ...

Recent Trends, Current Research In Cyberpsychology: A Literature Review, Amarjit Kumar Singh, Pawan Kumar Singh

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Cyberpsychology refers to the study of the mind and behavior in the context of interactions with technology. It is an emerging branch, which has focused on the psychological aspects connected to the increasing presence and usages of technology in modern lives. This paper traces recent advancement and trends of Cyberpsychology is an emerging domain of knowledge and goes on the give a literature review of the same. An analysis of the recent research and literature covering 300 most relevant research papers from the period of 2012 to 15, August 2019 was conducted to determine and shape the research pattern based ...

Whole Blood Microrna Expression Associated With Stroke: Results From The Framingham Heart Study, Joel Salinas, Honghuang Lin, Hugo J. Aparico, Tianxiao Huan, Chunyu Liu, Jian Rong, Alexa Beiser, Jayandra J. Himali, Jane E. Freedman, Martin G. Larson, Jonathan Rosand, Hermona Soreq, Daniel Levy, Sudha Seshadri

Open Access Articles

Emerging evidence suggests microRNAs (miRNAs) may play an important role in explaining variation in stroke risk and recovery in humans, yet there are still few longitudinal studies examining the association between whole blood miRNAs and stroke. Accounting for multiple testing and adjusting for potentially confounding technical and clinical variables, here we show that whole blood miR-574-3p expression was significantly lower in participants with chronic stroke compared to non-cases. To explore the functional relevance of our findings, we analyzed miRNA-mRNA whole blood co-expression, pathway enrichment, and brain tissue gene expression. Results suggest miR-574-3p is involved in neurometabolic and chronic neuronal injury ...

Gain-Of-Function Mutations In The Unc-2/Cav2alpha Channel Lead To Excitation-Dominant Synaptic Transmission In C. Elegans, Yung-Chi Huang, Jennifer K. Pirri, Diego Rayes, Shangbang Gao, Ben Mulcahy, Jeff Grant, Yasunori Saheki, Michael M. Francis, Mei Zhen, Mark J. Alkema

Neurobiology Publications and Presentations

Mutations in pre-synaptic voltage gated calcium channels can lead to familial hemiplegic migraine type 1 (FHM1). While mammalian studies indicate that the migraine brain is hyperexcitable due to enhanced excitation or reduced inhibition, the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying this excitatory/inhibitory (E/I) imbalance are poorly understood. We identified a gain-of-function (gf) mutation in the Caenorhabditis elegans CaV2 channel alpha1 subunit, UNC-2, which leads to increased calcium currents. unc-2(zf35gf) mutants exhibit hyperactivity and seizure-like motor behaviors. Expression of the unc-2 gene with FHM1 substitutions R192Q and S218L leads to hyperactivity similar to that of unc-2(zf35gf) mutants. unc-2 ...

Investigating Potential Biomarkers In Autism Spectrum Disorder, Carolyn Bridgemohan, David E. Cochran, Andrew W. Zimmerman, Roula N. Choueiri, Jean A. Frazier

Open Access Articles

Background: Early identification and treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) improves outcomes, but specific evidence needed to individualize treatment recommendations is lacking. Biomarkers that could be routinely measured within the clinical setting could potentially transform clinical care for patients with ASD. This demonstration project employed collection of biomarker data during regular autism specialty clinical visits and explored the relationship of biomarkers with clinical ASD symptoms.

Methods: Eighty-three children with ASD, aged 5-10 years, completed a multi-site feasibility study integrating the collection of biochemical (blood serotonin, urine melatonin sulfate excretion) and clinical (head circumference, dysmorphology exam, digit ratio, cognitive ...

Enhanced Baseline Activity In The Left Ventromedial Putamen Predicts Individual Treatment Response In Drug-Naive, First-Episode Schizophrenia: Results From Two Independent Study Samples, Huabing Li, Wenbin Guo, Feng Liu, Jindong Chen, Qinji Su, Zhikun Zhang, Xiaoduo Fan, Jingping Zhao

Psychiatry Publications and Presentations

BACKGROUND: Antipsychotic medications are the common treatment for schizophrenia. However, reliable biomarkers that can predict individual treatment response are still lacking. The present study aimed to examine whether baseline putamen activity can predict individual treatment response in schizophrenia.

METHODS: Two independent samples of patients with drug-naive, first-episode schizophrenia (32 patients in sample 1 and 44 in sample 2) and matched healthy controls underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) at baseline. Patients were treated with olanzapine for 8 weeks; symptom severity was assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) at baseline and week 8. Fractional amplitude of low ...

Virtual Dissection Of White Matter Tracts In A Human Brain Using Applied Game Design And Virtual Reality Imaging, Basil Lim, Anurag Nasa, Nicola Carswell, Elena Roman, Malia Kissner, Darren W. Roddy, Veronika O'Keane, James D. Carswell

Other

Visualisation of neural tracts in the human brain has previously been accomplished using two dimensional (2D) representational formats. In most cases, pre-operative visualisation is through the medium of 2D MRI image slices, representing coordinates in the brain through a combination of axial, sagittal, and coronal orthographic viewpoints. Software such as ExploreDTI can visualise off-axis viewpoints, however this method is limited to 2.5D image representations. The use of such 2D representations can require significant training in order to contextualise real-world 3D positions and accurately locate and identify neural tract pathways in the brain. Utilising anonymised tract data and advanced neuroimaging ...

Differential Role Of Pontomedullary Glutamatergic Neuronal Populations In Sleep-Wake Control, Evelyn T. M. Erickson, Loris L. Ferrari, Heinrich S. Gompf, Christelle Anaclet

Neurobiology Publications and Presentations

Parafacial zone (PZ) GABAergic neurons play a major role in slow-wave-sleep (SWS), also called non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep. The PZ also contains glutamatergic neurons expressing the vesicular transporter for glutamate, isoform 2 (Vglut2). We hypothesized that PZ Vglut2-expressing (PZ(Vglut2)) neurons are also involved in sleep control, playing a synergistic role with PZ GABAergic neurons. To test this hypothesis, we specifically activated PZ(Vglut2) neurons using the excitatory chemogenetic receptor hM3Dq. Anatomical inspection of the injection sites revealed hM3Dq transfection in PZ, parabrachial nucleus (PB), sublaterodorsal nucleus (SLD) or various combinations of these three brain areas. Consistent with the ...

Sex Differences In Cognitive Flexibility And Resting Brain Networks In Middle-Aged Marmosets, M. Laclair, M. Febo, Ben Nephew, N. J. Gervais, G. Poirier, K. Workman, Serhiy Chumachenko, L. Payne, Constance M. Moore, Jean A. King, A. Lacreuse

Open Access Articles

Sex differences in human cognitive performance are well characterized. However, the neural correlates of these differences remain elusive. This issue may be clarified using nonhuman primates, for which sociocultural influences are minimized. We used the marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) to investigate sex differences in two aspects of executive function: reversal learning and intradimensional/extradimensional (ID/ED) set shifting. Stress reactivity and motor function were also assessed. In agreement with human literature, females needed more trials than males to acquire the reversals. No sex differences in ED set shifting or motivational measures were observed. The findings suggest enhanced habit formation in females ...