Search

Anxiety-related conditions are among the most difficult neuropsychiatrie diseases to treat pharmacologically, but respond to cognitive therapies. There has therefore been interest in identifying relevant top-down pathways from cognitive control regions in medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Identification of such pathways could contribute to our understanding of the cognitive regulation of affect, and provide pathways for intervention. Previous studies have suggested that dorsal and ventral mPFC subregions exert opposing effects on fear, as do subregions of other structures. However, precise causal targets for top-down connections among these diverse possibilities have not been established. Here we show that the basomedial amygdala (BMA) represents the major target of ventral mPFC in amygdala in mice. Moreover, BMA neurons differentiate safe and aversive environments, and BMA activation decreases fear-related freezing and high- anxiety states. Lastly, we show that the ventral mPFC-BMA projection implements top-down control of anxiety state and learned freezing, both at baseline and in stress-induced anxiety, defining a broadly relevant new top-down behavioural regulation pathway., Human (1,2) and animal (3,4) studies have implicated diverse cortical and subcortical regions in anxiety and fear regulation. Interestingly, altered structure (1) and activity correlations (2) between mPFC and amygdala [...]

Obtaining high-resolution information from a complex system, while maintaining the global perspective needed to understand system function, represents a key challenge in biology. Here we address this challenge with a method (termed CLARITY) for the transformation of intact tissue into a nanoporous hydrogel-hybridized form (crosslinked to a three-dimensional network of hydrophilic polymers) that is fully assembled but optically transparent and macromolecule-permeable. Using mouse brains, we show intact-tissue imaging of long-range projections, local circuit wiring, cellular relationships, subcellular structures, protein complexes, nucleic acids and neurotransmitters. CLARITY also enables intact-tissue in situ hybridization, immunohistochemistry with multiple rounds of staining and de-staining in non-sectioned tissue, and antibody labelling throughout the intact adult mouse brain. Finally, we show that CLARITY enables fine structural analysis of clinical samples, including non-sectioned human tissue from a neuropsychiatric-disease setting, establishing a path for the transmutation of human tissue into a stable, intact and accessible form suitable for probing structural and molecular underpinnings of physiological function and disease., The extraction of detailed structural and molecular information from intact biological systems has long been a fundamental challenge across fields of investigation, and has spurred considerable technological innovation (1,8). The [...]

Behavioural states in mammals, such as the anxious state, are characterized by several features that are coordinately regulated by diverse nervous system outputs, ranging from behavioural choice patterns to changes [...]

Major depression is characterized by diverse debilitating symptoms that include hopelessness and anhedonia (1). Dopamine neurons involved in reward and motivation (2-9) are among many neural populations that have been [...]

The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is thought to participate in high-level control of the generation of behaviours (including the decision to execute actions (1)); indeed, imaging and lesion studies in human beings have revealed that PFC dysfunction can lead to either impulsive states with increased tendency to initiate action (2), or to a motivational states characterized by symptoms such as reduced activity, hopelessness and depressed mood (3). Considering the opposite valence of these two phenotypes as well as the broad complexity of other tasks attributed to PFC, we sought to elucidate the PFC circuitry that favours effortful behavioural responses to challenging situations. Here we develop and use a quantitative method for the continuous assessment and control of active response to a behavioural challenge, synchronized with single-unit electrophysiology and optogenetics in freely moving rats. In recording from the medial PFC (mPFC), we observed that many neurons were not simply movement-related in their spike-firing patterns but instead were selectively modulated from moment to moment, according to the animal's decision to act in a challenging situation. Surprisingly, we next found that direct activation of principal neurons in the mPFC had no detectable causal effect on this behaviour. We tested whether this behaviour could be causally mediated by only a subclass of mPFC cells defined by specific downstream wiring. Indeed, by leveraging optogenetic projection-targeting to control cells with specific efferent wiring patterns, we found that selective activation of those mPFC cells projecting to the brainstem dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN), a serotonergic nucleus implicated in major depressive disorder (4), induced a profound, rapid and reversible effect on selection of the active behavioural state. These results may be of importance in understanding the neural circuitry underlying normal and pathological patterns of action selection and motivation in behaviour., To execute an action that expends energy and requires vigorous effort under challenging conditions represents a consequential decision for an organism, particularly as such an action may not always represent [...]

Anxiety--a sustained state of heightened apprehension in the absence of immediate threat--becomes severely debilitating in disease states (1). Anxiety disorders represent the most common of psychiatric diseases (28% lifetime prevalence) [...]

As the principal means of acquiring nutrients, feeding behavior is indispensable to the survival and well-being of animals. In response to energy or nutrient deficits, animals seek and consume food to maintain energy homeostasis. On the other hand, even when animals are calorically replete, non-homeostatic factors, such as the sight, smell, and taste of palatable food, or environmental cues that predict food, can stimulate feeding behavior. These homeostatic and non-homeostatic factors have traditionally been investigated separately, but a growing body of literature highlights that these factors work synergistically to promote feeding behavior. Furthermore, recent breakthroughs in cell type-specific and circuit-specific labeling, recording, and manipulation techniques have markedly accelerated the discovery of well-defined neural populations underlying homeostatic and non-homeostatic appetite control, as well as overlapping circuits that contribute to both types of appetite. This review aims to provide an update on our understanding of the neural circuit mechanisms for promoting homeostatic and non-homeostatic appetites, focusing on the function of recently identified, genetically defined cell types., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Mechanosensory feedback from the digestive tract to the brain is critical for limiting excessive food and water intake, but the underlying gut-brain communication pathways and mechanisms remain poorly understood 1-12 . Here we show that, in mice, neurons in the parabrachial nucleus that express the prodynorphin gene (hereafter, PB Pdyn neurons) monitor the intake of both fluids and solids, using mechanosensory signals that arise from the upper digestive tract. Most individual PB Pdyn neurons are activated by ingestion as well as the stimulation of the mouth and stomach, which indicates the representation of integrated sensory signals across distinct parts of the digestive tract. PB Pdyn neurons are anatomically connected to the digestive periphery via cranial and spinal pathways; we show that, among these pathways, the vagus nerve conveys stomach-distension signals to PB Pdyn neurons. Upon receipt of these signals, these neurons produce aversive and sustained appetite-suppressing signals, which discourages the initiation of feeding and drinking (fully recapitulating the symptoms of gastric distension) in part via signalling to the paraventricular hypothalamus. By contrast, inhibiting the same population of PB Pdyn neurons induces overconsumption only if a drive for ingestion exists, which confirms that these neurons mediate negative feedback signalling. Our findings reveal a neural mechanism that underlies the mechanosensory monitoring of ingestion and negative feedback control of intake behaviours upon distension of the digestive tract.

Schwann cells (SCs) constitute a crucial element of the peripheral nervous system, by structurally supporting the formation of myelin and conveying vital trophic factors to the nervous system. However, the functions of SCs in developmental and regenerative stages remain unclear. Here, we investigated how optogenetic stimulation (OS) of SCs regulates their development. In SC monoculture, OS substantially enhanced SC proliferation and the number of BrdU + -S100ß + -SCs over time. In addition, OS also markedly promoted the expression of both Krox20 and myelin basic protein (MBP) in SC culture medium containing dBcAMP/NRG1, which induced differentiation. We found that the effects of OS are dependent on the intracellular Ca 2+ level. OS induces elevated intracellular Ca 2+ levels through the T-type voltage-gated calcium channel (VGCC) and mobilization of Ca 2+ from both inositol 1,4,5-trisphosphate (IP 3 )-sensitive stores and caffeine/ryanodine-sensitive stores. Furthermore, we confirmed that OS significantly increased expression levels of both Krox20 and MBP in SC-motor neuron (MN) coculture, which was notably prevented by pharmacological intervention with Ca 2+ . Taken together, our results demonstrate that OS of SCs increases the intracellular Ca 2+ level and can regulate proliferation, differentiation, and myelination, suggesting that OS of SCs may offer a new approach to the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders.

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are important regulatory RNAs that control gene expression in various biological processes. Therefore, control over the disease-related miRNA expression is important both for basic research and for a new class of therapeutic modality to treat serious diseases such as cancer. Here, we present a high-throughput screening strategy to identify small molecules that modulate miRNA expression in living cells. The screen enables simultaneous monitoring of the phenotypic cellular changes associated with the miRNA expression by measuring quantitative fluorescent signals corresponding to target miRNA level in living cells based on a novel biosensor composed of peptide nucleic acid and nano-sized graphene oxide. In this study, the biosensor based cellular screening of 967 compounds (including FDA-approved drugs, enzyme inhibitors, agonists, and antagonists) in cells identified four different classes of small molecules consisting of (i) 70 compounds that suppress both miRNA-21 (miR-21) expression and cell proliferation, (ii) 65 compounds that enhance miR-21 expression and reduce cell proliferation, (iii) 2 compounds that suppress miR-21 expression and increase cell proliferation, and (iv) 21 compounds that enhance both miR-21 expression and cell proliferation. We further investigated the hit compounds to correlate cell morphology changes and cell migration ability with decreased expression of miR-21.