Search results for "RC3"
showing 10 items of 896 documents
Overview of General and Discriminating Markers of Differential Microglia Phenotypes.
2020
Inflammatory processes and microglia activation accompany most of the pathophysiological diseases in the central nervous system. It is proven that glial pathology precedes and even drives the development of multiple neurodegenerative conditions. A growing number of studies point out the importance of microglia in brain development as well as in physiological functioning. These resident brain immune cells are divergent from the peripherally infiltrated macrophages, but their precise in situ discrimination is surprisingly difficult. Microglial heterogeneity in the brain is especially visible in their morphology and cell density in particular brain structures but also in the expression of cell…
Targeting Voltage-Dependent Calcium Channels with Pregabalin Exerts a Direct Neuroprotective Effect in an Animal Model of Multiple Sclerosis
2018
Background/aims Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a prototypical autoimmune central nervous system (CNS) disease. Particularly progressive forms of MS (PMS) show significant neuroaxonal damage as consequence of demyelination and neuronal hyperexcitation. Immuno-modulatory treatment strategies are beneficial in relapsing MS (RMS), but mostly fail in PMS. Pregabalin (Lyrica®) is prescribed to MS patients to treat neuropathic pain. Mechanistically, it targets voltage-dependent Ca2+ channels and reduces harmful neuronal hyperexcitation in mouse epilepsy models. Studies suggest that GABA analogues like pregabalin exert neuroprotective effects in animal models of ischemia and trauma. Methods We tested t…
Brain Distribution and Modulation of Neuronal Excitability by Indicaxanthin From Opuntia Ficus Indica Administered at Nutritionally-Relevant Amounts
2018
Several studies have recently investigated the role of nutraceuticals in complex pathophysiological processes such as oxidative damages, inflammatory conditions and excitotoxicity. In this regard, the effects of nutraceuticals on basic functions of neuronal cells, such as excitability, are still poorly investigated. For this reason, the possible modulation of neuronal excitability by phytochemicals (PhC) could represent an interesting field of research given that excitotoxicity phenomena are involved in neurodegenerative alterations leading, for example, to Alzheimer's disease. The present study was focused on indicaxanthin from Opuntia ficus indica, a bioactive betalain pigment, with a pro…
The Role of Iron in Friedreich's Ataxia: Insights From Studies in Human Tissues and Cellular and Animal Models.
2019
Friedreich’s ataxia (FRDA) is a rare early-onset degenerative disease that affects both the central and peripheral nervous systems, and other extraneural tissues, mainly the heart and endocrine pancreas. This disorder progresses as a mixed sensory and cerebellar ataxia, primarily disturbing the proprioceptive pathways in the spinal cord, peripheral nerves and nuclei of the cerebellum. FRDA is an inherited disease with an autosomal recessive pattern caused by an insufficient amount of the nuclear-encoded mitochondrial protein frataxin, which is an essential and highly evolutionary conserved protein whose deficit results in iron metabolism dysregulation and mitochondrial dysfunction. The firs…
26th Annual Computational Neuroscience Meeting (CNS*2017): Part 2
2017
International audience; No abstract available
The Importance of Cerebellar Connectivity on Simulated Brain Dynamics
2020
The brain shows a complex multiscale organization that prevents a direct understanding of how structure, function and dynamics are correlated. To date, advances in neural modeling offer a unique opportunity for simulating global brain dynamics by embedding empirical data on different scales in a mathematical framework. The Virtual Brain (TVB) is an advanced data-driven model allowing to simulate brain dynamics starting from individual subjects' structural and functional connectivity obtained, for example, from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The use of TVB has been limited so far to cerebral connectivity but here, for the first time, we have introduced cerebellar nodes and interconnecting…
Local field potential activity dynamics in response to deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus in Parkinson's disease
2020
Abstract Local field potentials (LFPs) may afford insight into the mechanisms of action of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and potential feedback signals for adaptive DBS. In Parkinson's disease (PD) DBS of the subthalamic nucleus (STN) suppresses spontaneous activity in the beta band and drives evoked resonant neural activity (ERNA). Here, we investigate how STN LFP activities change over time following the onset and offset of DBS. To this end we recorded LFPs from the STN in 14 PD patients during long (mean: 181.2 s) and short (14.2 s) blocks of continuous stimulation at 130 Hz. LFP activities were evaluated in the temporal and spectral domains. During long stimulation blocks, the frequency …
Environmental Tobacco Smoke During the Early Postnatal Period of Mice Interferes With Brain 18 F-FDG Uptake From Infancy to Early Adulthood – A Longi…
2020
Exposure to environmental tobacco smoke (ETS) is associated with high morbidity and mortality, mainly in childhood. Our aim was to evaluate the effects of postnatal ETS exposure in the brain 2-deoxy-2-[18F]-fluoro-D-glucose (18F-FDG) uptake of mice by positron emission tomography (PET) neuroimaging in a longitudinal study. C57BL/6J mice were exposed to ETS that was generated from 3R4F cigarettes from postnatal day 3 (P3) to P14. PET analyses were performed in male and female mice during infancy (P15), adolescence (P35), and adulthood (P65). We observed that ETS exposure decreased 18F-FDG uptake in the whole brain, both left and right hemispheres, and frontal cortex in both male and female i…
Mystic Acetaldehyde: The Never-Ending Story on Alcoholism
2017
After decades of uncertainties and drawbacks, the study on the role and significance of acetaldehyde in the effects of ethanol seemed to have found its main paths. Accordingly, the effects of acetaldehyde, after its systemic or central administration and as obtained following ethanol metabolism, looked as they were extensively characterized. However, almost 5 years after this research appeared at its highest momentum, the investigations on this topic have been revitalized on at least three main directions: (1) the role and the behavioral significance of acetaldehyde in different phases of ethanol self-administration and in voluntary ethanol consumption; (2) the distinction, in the central e…
The Drosophila Larval Locomotor Circuit Provides a Model to Understand Neural Circuit Development and Function
2021
It is difficult to answer important questions in neuroscience, such as: “how do neural circuits generate behaviour?,” because research is limited by the complexity and inaccessibility of the mammalian nervous system. Invertebrate model organisms offer simpler networks that are easier to manipulate. As a result, much of what we know about the development of neural circuits is derived from work in crustaceans, nematode worms and arguably most of all, the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster. This review aims to demonstrate the utility of the Drosophila larval locomotor network as a model circuit, to those who do not usually use the fly in their work. This utility is explored first by discussion…