Neuroscience and Neurobiology Commons^™

Rnai Screen Indicates Widespread Biological Function For Human Natural Antisense Transcripts, Mohammad A. Faghihi, Jannet Kocerha, F. Modarresi, P. G. Engstrom, A. M. Chalk, S. P. Brothers, E. Koesema, G. St. Laurent, Claes Wahlestedt

Jannet Kocerha

Natural antisense transcripts represent a class of regulatory RNA molecules, which are characterized by their complementary sequence to another RNA transcript. Extensive sequencing efforts suggest that natural antisense transcripts are prevalent throughout the mammalian genome; however, their biological significance has not been well defined. We performed a loss-of-function RNA interference (RNAi) screen, which targeted 797 evolutionary conserved antisense transcripts, and found evidence for a regulatory role for a number of natural antisense transcripts. Specifically, we found that natural antisense transcripts for CCPG1 and RAPGEF3 may functionally disrupt signaling pathways and corresponding biological phenotypes, such as cell viability, either independently or …

Selected Hormonal And Neurotransmitter Mechanisms Regulating, James L. Sartin, Joseph A. Daniel, Brian K. Whitlock, Robyn R. Wilborn

Brian K Whitlock, PhD, DVM, DACT

Appetite control is a major issue in normal growth and in suboptimal growth performance settings. A number of hormones, in particular leptin, activate or inhibit orexigenic or anorexigenic neurotransmitters within the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus, where feed intake regulation is integrated. Examples of appetite regulatory neurotransmitters are the stimulatory neurotransmitters neuropeptide Y (NPY), agouti-related protein (AgRP), orexin and melanin-concentrating hormone and the inhibitory neurotransmitter, melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH). Examination of messenger RNA (using in situ hybridization and realtime PCR) and proteins (using immunohistochemistry) for these neurotransmitters in ruminants has indicated that physiological regulation occurs in response to fasting for several …

Alterations In Multiple Measures Of White Matter Integrity In Normal Women At High Risk For Alzheimer's Disease, Brian T. Gold, David K. Powell, Anders H. Andersen, Charles D. Smith

Neuroscience Faculty Publications

There is evidence that disruption of white matter (WM) microstructure is an early event in the course of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the neurobiological bases of WM microstructural declines in presymptomatic AD are unknown. In the present study we address this issue using a multimodal imaging approach to the study of presymptomatic AD. Participants were 37 high-risk (both family history of dementia and one or more APOE4 alleles) women and 20 low-risk (neither family history nor APOE4) women. Groups were matched for age, education, neuropsychological performance, and vascular factors that could affect white matter. Whole-brain analyses of diffusion tensor imaging …

Selected Hormonal And Neurotransmitter Mechanisms Regulating, James L. Sartin, Joseph A. Daniel, Brian K. Whitlock, Robyn R. Wilborn

Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Large Animal Clinical Sciences

Appetite control is a major issue in normal growth and in suboptimal growth performance settings. A number of hormones, in particular leptin, activate or inhibit orexigenic or anorexigenic neurotransmitters within the arcuate nucleus of the hypothalamus, where feed intake regulation is integrated. Examples of appetite regulatory neurotransmitters are the stimulatory neurotransmitters neuropeptide Y (NPY), agouti-related protein (AgRP), orexin and melanin-concentrating hormone and the inhibitory neurotransmitter, melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH). Examination of messenger RNA (using in situ hybridization and realtime PCR) and proteins (using immunohistochemistry) for these neurotransmitters in ruminants has indicated that physiological regulation occurs in response to fasting for several …

Effect Of Social Status On Behavioral And Neural Response To Stress, Daniel W. Curry, Kathleen E. Morrison, Matthew A. Cooper

Senior Thesis Projects, 2009

Individuals respond differently to traumatic stress. Social status, which plays a key role in how animals experience and interact with their social environment, may influence how individuals respond to stressors. In this study, we used a conditioned defeat model to investigate whether social status alters susceptibility to the behavioral and neural consequences of traumatic stress. Conditioned defeat is a model in Syrian hamsters in which an acute social defeat encounter results in a long term increase in submissive behavior and a loss of normal territorial aggression. To establish social status, we weight matched and paired Syrian hamsters in daily aggressive …

Fast, Flexible Function-On-Scalar Regression, With An Application To Brain Development, Philip T. Reiss, Lei Huang

Philip T. Reiss

No abstract provided.

Focusing On Optic Tectum Circuitry Through The Lens Of Genetics, Linda M. Nevin, Estuardo Robles, Herwig Baier, Ethan K. Scott

Neuroscience: Faculty Publications

The visual pathway is tasked with processing incoming signals from the retina and converting this information into adaptive behavior. Recent studies of the larval zebrafish tectum have begun to clarify how the 'micro-circuitry' of this highly organized midbrain structure filters visual input, which arrives in the superficial layers and directs motor output through efferent projections from its deep layers. The new emphasis has been on the specific function of neuronal cell types, which can now be reproducibly labeled, imaged and manipulated using genetic and optical techniques. Here, we discuss recent advances and emerging experimental approaches for studying tectal circuits as …

Alternation Rate In Perceptual Bistability Is Maximal At And Symmetric Around Equi-Dominance, Rubén Moreno-Bote, Asya Shpiro, John Rinzel, Nava Rubin

Publications and Research

When an ambiguous stimulus is viewed for a prolonged time, perception alternates between the different possible interpretations of the stimulus. The alternations seem haphazard, but closer inspection of their dynamics reveals systematic properties in many bistable phenomena. Parametric manipulations result in gradual changes in the fraction of time a given interpretation dominates perception, often over the entire possible range of zero to one. The mean dominance durations of the competing interpretations can also vary over wide ranges (from less than a second to dozens of seconds or more), but finding systematic relations in how they vary has proven difficult. Following …

Supersizing The Mind: Embodiment, Action And Cognitive Extension, Mirko Farina

Mirko Farina

No abstract provided.

Fibrinolytic Proteins And Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor Modulation Of Suprachiasmatic Nucleus Circadian Clock, Xiang Mou

Doctoral Dissertations

Mammalian circadian rhythms are controlled by a clock located in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN). The mechanisms through which light phase-shifts the SCN circadian clock are similar to those underlying memory formation and long-term potentiation (LTP). Several secreted proteins, including tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA), plasminogen, and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), have been implicated in this process. These same proteins are important for photic phase-shifts of the SCN circadian clock. Early night glutamate application to SCN containing brain slices resets the circadian clock. Our experiments find that the endogenous tPA inhibitor, plasminogen activator inhibitor 1(PAI-1), blocked these shifts in slices from wildtype …

Genetic Analysis Of The Function Of The Drosophila Doublesex-Related Factor Dmrt93b, Diana O'Day

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

DMRT (Doublesex and Mab-3 related transcription factor) proteins generally associated with sexual differentiation in many organisms share a common DNA binding domain and are often expressed in reproductive tissues. Aside from doublesex, which is a central factor in the regulation of sex determination, Drosophila possesses three different dmrt genes that are of unknown function. Because the association with sexual differentiation and reproduction is not universal and some DMRT proteins have been found to play other developmental roles we chose to further characterize one of these Drosophila genes. We carried out genetic analysis of dmrt93B, which was previously found to be …

Direct Inputs To Off Α And G9 Ganglion Cells From Aii Amacrine Cells In Rabbit Retina, Wei-Li Liu

Dissertations & Theses (Open Access)

In the mammalian retina, AII amacrine cells are essential in the rod pathway for dark-adapted vision. But they also have a “day job”, to provide inhibitory inputs to certain OFF ganglion cells in photopic conditions. This is known as crossover inhibition. Physiological evidence from several different labs implies that AII amacrine cells provide direct input to certain OFF ganglion cells. However, previous EM analysis of the rabbit retina suggests that the dominant output of the AII amacrine cell in sublamina a goes to OFF cone bipolar cells (Strettoi et al., 1992).

Two OFF ganglion cell types in the rabbit retina, …

Neuropsychological And Emotion Processing Abnormalities In Bipolar Disorder I And Ii, Carol Randall

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Bipolar disorder illness is marked by emotional lability and mood disturbance, as well as various neuropsychological deficits, and the neuroanatomical correlates of many of these deficits are beginning to be identified. Numerous studies have implicated specific cortical and sub-cortical abnormalities in areas associated with executive function, memory, motor function, and the processing of emotion. Although a large body of research has been devoted to the investigation of cognitive and emotion-processing deficits in bipolar disorder, relatively few studies have been devoted to the investigation of how these deficits differ among bipolar disorder subtypes. This is surprising in light of known symptomatological …

Presenilin Is Necessary For The Function Of Cbp In The Adult Drosophila Cns, Randy S. Boyles

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Dominant mutations in Presenilin (Psn) have been correlated with the formation of Aß- containing plaques in patients with inherited forms of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, a clear mechanism directly linking amyloid plaques to the pathology of familial or sporadic forms of AD has remained elusive. Thus, recent discoveries of several new substrates for Psn protease activity have sparked alternative hypotheses to explain the preclinical symptoms of AD. CBP (CREB-binding protein) is a haplo- insufficient transcriptional co-activator with histone acetyltransferase (HAT) activity that has been proposed to be a downstream target for Psn signaling. Individuals with reduced CBP levels have cognitive …

Overexpression Of Amyloid Precursor Protein Induces Mitochondrial Oxidative Stress And Activates The Intrinsic Apoptosis Pathway, Matthew G. Bartley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Down syndrome (DS) is the most common genetic form of cognitive disability and is caused by trisomy of chromosome 21. Within chromosome 21 is the gene, amyloid precursor protein (APP). Proteolysis of APP into toxic and aggregate-prone, beta-amyloid fragments underlies the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Individuals with DS develop the neuropathology that can be diagnosed as AD; however, the role of APP overexpression in this comorbidity is presently unclear. Here, we elucidated the mechanism of cell death induced by overexpression of wild type APP. Chinese hamster ovary cells transfected with a DsRed-APP fusion construct displayed caspase-3 activation and nuclear …

Neuroprotective Effects Of Anthocyanins On Neuronal Death Induced By Inhibition Of Bcl-2 And Oxidative Stress, Natalie A. Kelsey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis have devastating consequences to the afflicted patients. A major cellular pathophysiology underlying these diseases is mitochondrial oxidative stress (MOS) leading to neuronal death. Here, we investigated the neuroprotective effects of a novel class of nutraceuticals, anthocyanins, against MOS-induced death in primary cultures of rat cerebellar granule neurons (CGNs). Anthocyanins are natural antioxidants whose neuroprotective potential has yet to be examined in detail. Kuromanin and callistephin are anthocyanins derived from black rice and strawberries, respectively. Glutathione (GSH)-sensitive MOS and intrinsic apoptosis were induced in CGNs by the Bcl-2 inhibitor, HA14-1. Callistephin and …

Pharmacological And Genetic Reversal Of Age-Dependent Cognitive Deficits Attributable To Decreased Presenilin Function, S. M.J. Mcbride, C. H. Choi, B. P. Schoenfeld, A. J. Bell, D. A. Liebelt, D. Ferreiro, R. J. Choi, P. Hinchey, M. Kollaros, A. M. Terlizzi, N. J. Ferrick, E. Koenigsberg, R. L. Rudominer, A. Sumida, S. Chiorean, Kathleen King Siwicki, H. T. Nguyen, M. E. Fortini, T. V. Mcdonald, T. A. Jongens

Biology Faculty Works

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the leading cause of cognitive loss and neurodegeneration in the developed world. Although its genetic and environmental causes are not generally known, familial forms of the disease (FAD) are attributable to mutations in a single copy of the Presenilin (PS) and amyloid precursor protein genes. The dominant inheritance pattern of FAD indicates that it may be attributable to gain or change of function mutations. Studies of FAD-linked forms of presenilin (psn) in model organisms, however, indicate that they are loss of function, leading to the possibility that a reduction in PS activity might contribute to FAD …

Acute Responses To Estradiol Replacement In The Olfactory System Of Apoe-Deficient And Wild-Type Mice, Britto P. Nathan, Michael Tonsor, Robert G. Struble

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Epidemiological studies suggest that estrogen therapy protects against clinical expression of chronic neurological diseases. These beneficial effects of estrogen therapy are highly modified by apolipoprotein E (apoE) through an unknown mechanism. We examined the short-term effects of estradiol replacement in ovariectomized mice on apoE expression and markers for cell proliferation, reactive gliosis, neuronal maturation, and synaptogenesis in the primary olfactory pathway of wild-type (WT) and apoE knockout (KO) mice. Three days of estradiol replacement increased apoE expression in the olfactory nerve and in the glomerular layer. Estradiol treatment also increased cell proliferation, total cell numbers, number of mature neurons in …

Acute Responses To Estradiol Replacement In The Olfactory System Of Apoe-Deficient And Wild-Type Mice, Britto Nathan, Michael Tonsor, Robert Struble

Faculty Research & Creative Activity

Epidemiological studies suggest that estrogen therapy protects against clinical expression of chronic neurological diseases. These beneficial effects of estrogen therapy are highly modified by apolipoprotein E (apoE) through an unknown mechanism. We examined the short-term effects of estradiol replacement in ovariectomized mice on apoE expression and markers for cell proliferation, reactive gliosis, neuronal maturation, and synaptogenesis in the primary olfactory pathway of wild-type (WT) and apoE knockout (KO) mice. Three days of estradiol replacement increased apoE expression in the olfactory nerve and in the glomerular layer. Estradiol treatment also increased cell proliferation, total cell numbers, number of mature neurons in …

Acute Responses To Estradiol Replacement In The Olfactory System Of Apoe-Deficient And Wild-Type Mice, Britto P. Nathan, Michael Tonsor, Robert G. Struble

Britto P. Nathan

Epidemiological studies suggest that estrogen therapy protects against clinical expression of chronic neurological diseases. These beneficial effects of estrogen therapy are highly modified by apolipoprotein E (apoE) through an unknown mechanism. We examined the short-term effects of estradiol replacement in ovariectomized mice on apoE expression and markers for cell proliferation, reactive gliosis, neuronal maturation, and synaptogenesis in the primary olfactory pathway of wild-type (WT) and apoE knockout (KO) mice. Three days of estradiol replacement increased apoE expression in the olfactory nerve and in the glomerular layer. Estradiol treatment also increased cell proliferation, total cell numbers, number of mature neurons in …