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Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world. Strikingly, the molecular pathways engaged by its regular consumption remain unclear. We herein addressed the mechanisms associated with habitual (chronic) caffeine consumption in the mouse hippocampus using untargeted orthogonal omics techniques. Our results revealed that chronic caffeine exerts concerted pleiotropic effects in the hippocampus at the epigenomic, proteomic, and metabolomic levels. Caffeine lowered metabolism-related processes (e.g., at the level of metabolomics and gene expression) in bulk tissue, while it induced neuron-specific epigenetic changes at synaptic transmission/plasticity-related genes and increased experience-driven transcriptional activity. Altogether, these findings suggest that regular caffeine intake improves the signal-to-noise ratio during information encoding, in part through fine-tuning of metabolic genes, while boosting the salience of information processing during learning in neuronal circuits., Introduction Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive substance in the world (by about 80% of the population) via dietary intake from coffee, tea, and soda beverages. Its popularity derives [...]

Cortical spreading depression (CSD), a wave of depolarization followed by depression of cortical activity, is a pathophysiological process implicated in migraine with aura and various other brain pathologies, such as ischemic stroke and traumatic brain injury. To gain insight into the pathophysiology of CSD, we generated a mouse model for a severe monogenic subtype of migraine with aura, familial hemiplegic migraine type 3 (FHM3). FHM3 is caused by mutations in SCN1A, encoding the voltage-gated [Na.sup.+] channel [Na.sub.V]1.1 predominantly expressed in inhibitory interneurons. Homozygous [Scn1a.sup.L1649Q] knock-in mice died prematurely, whereas heterozygous mice had a normal lifespan. Heterozygous [Scn1a.sup.L1649Q] knock-in mice compared with WT mice displayed a significantly enhanced susceptibility to CSD. We found L1649Q to cause a gain-of-function effect with an impaired [Na.sup.+]*-channel inactivation and increased ramp [Na.sup.+] currents leading to hyperactivity of fast-spiking inhibitory interneurons. Brain slice recordings using [K.sup.+]-sensitive electrodes revealed an increase in extracellular [K.sup.+] in the early phase of CSD in heterozygous mice, likely representing the mechanistic link between interneuron hyperactivity and CSD initiation. The neuronal phenotype and premature death of homozygous [Scn1a.sup.L1649Q] knock-in mice was partially rescued by GS967, a blocker of persistent [Na.sup.+] currents. Collectively, our findings identify interneuron hyperactivity as a mechanism to trigger CSD., Introduction With a prevalence of 10% to 15% in the general population, migraine is one of the most common neurological diseases (1, 2) and is rated as one of the [...]