Neural receptors

The vasculature is a key component of adult brain neural stem cell (NSC) niches. In the adult mammalian hippocampus, NSCs reside in close contact with a dense capillary network. How this niche is maintained is unclear. We recently found that adult hippocampal NSCs express VEGF, a soluble factor with chemoattractive properties for vascular endothelia. Here, we show that global and NSC-specific VEGF loss led to dissociation of NSCs and their intermediate progenitor daughter cells from local vasculature. Surprisingly, though, we found no changes in local vascular density...

Introduction Sensory nerve endings transmit mechanical stimuli into afferent neural signals and form the basis of proprioception, giving rise to the self-perception of dynamic stability of joints. We aimed to analyze the three-dimensional structure of periarticular corpuscular sensory nerve endings in a carpal ligament to enhance our understanding of their microstructure. Methods Two dorsal parts of the scapholunate ligament were excised from two human cadaveric wrist specimens. Consecutive cryosections were stained with immunofluorescence markers protein S100B, neurotrophin receptor p75 (p75), protein gene product 9...

Neurodevelopment, a complex and highly regulated process, plays a foundational role in shaping the structure and function of the nervous system. The transient receptor potential melastatin 7 (TRPM7), a divalent cation channel with an α-kinase domain, mediates a wide range of cellular functions, including proliferation, migration, cell adhesion, and survival, all of which are essential processes in neurodevelopment. The global knockout of either TRPM7 or TRPM7-kinase is embryonically lethal, highlighting the crucial role of TRPM7 in development in vivo...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Clinical heterogeneity of patients with Parkinson disease (PD) is well recognized. PD with REM sleep behavior disorder (RBD) is a more malignant phenotype with faster motor progression and higher nonmotor symptom burden. However, the neural mechanisms underlying this clinical divergence concerning imbalances in neurotransmitter systems remain elusive. METHODS: Combining magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy and [11 C]ABP688 PET on a PET/MR hybrid system, we simultaneously investigated two different mechanisms of glutamate signaling in patients with PD...

Diagnosing and treating chronic orofacial pain is challenging due to its complex structure and limited understanding of its causes and mechanisms. In this study, we used RNA sequencing to identify differentially expressed genes (DEGs) in the rostral ventral medulla (RVM) and thalamus of rats with persistent orofacial pain, aiming to explore its development. DEGs were functionally analyzed using gene ontology (GO) and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis. Results showed a significant association between immune response and pain in this model...

Psychedelics, recognized for their impact on perception, are resurging as promising treatments with rapid onset for mood and substance use disorders. Despite increasing evidence from clinical trials, questions persist about the cellular and molecular mechanisms and their precise correlation with treatment outcomes. Murine neurons and immortalized non-neural cell lines harboring overexpressed constructs have shed light on neuroplastic changes mediated by the serotonin 2A receptor (5-HT2AR) as the primary mechanism...

During the development of neural circuits, axons are guided by a variety of molecular cues to navigate through the brain and establish precise connections with correct partners at the right time and place. Many axon guidance cues have been identified and they play pleiotropic roles in not only axon guidance but also axon fasciculation, axon pruning, and synaptogenesis as well as cell migration, angiogenesis, and bone formation. In search of receptors for Sema3E in axon guidance, we unexpectedly found that Plexin B3 is highly expressed in retinal ganglion cells of zebrafish embryos when retinal axons are crossing the midline to form the chiasm...

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AIMS: Leptin irresponsiveness, which is often associated with obesity, can have significant impacts on the hypothalamic proteome of individuals, including those who are lean. While mounting evidence on leptin irresponsiveness has focused on obese individuals, understanding the early molecular and proteomic changes associated with deficient hypothalamic leptin signaling in lean individuals is essential for early intervention and prevention of metabolic disorders. Leptin receptor antagonists block the binding of leptin to its receptors, potentially reducing its effects and used in cases where excessive leptin activity might be harmful...

Ammonia-N, as the most toxic nitrogenous waste, has high toxicity to marine animals. However, the interplay between ammonia-induced neuroendocrine toxicity and intestinal immune homeostasis has been largely overlooked. Here, a significant concordance of metabolome and transcriptome-based "cholinergic synapse" supports that plasma metabolites acetylcholine (ACh) plays an important role during NH4 Cl exposure. After blocking the ACh signal transduction, the release of dopamine (DA) and 5-hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) in the cerebral ganglia increased, while the release of NPF in the thoracic ganglia and NE in the abdominal ganglia, and crustacean hyperglycemic hormone (CHH) and neuropeptide F (NPF) in the eyestalk decreased, finally the intestinal immunity was enhanced...

The conventional microelectrodes for recording neuronal activities do not have innate selectivity to cell type, which is one of the critical limitations for the detailed analysis of neuronal circuits. In this study, we engineered a downsized variant of the artificial synapse organizer based on neurexin1β and a peptide-tag, fabricated gold microelectrodes functionalized with the receptor for the organizer, and performed validation experiments in primary cultured neurons. Successful inductions of synapse-like junctions were detected at the sites of contact between neurons expressing the engineered synapse organizer and functionalized microelectrodes, but not in the negative control experiment in which the electrode functionalization was omitted...

INTRODUCTION: The neural underpinnings underlying individual differences in nicotine-enhanced reward sensitivity and smoking progression are poorly understood. Thus, we investigated whether brain resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) during smoking abstinence predicts nicotine-enhanced reward sensitivity and smoking progression in young light smokers. We hypothesized that high rsFC between brain areas with high densities of nicotinic receptors (insula, anterior cingulate cortex [ACC], hippocampus, thalamus) and areas involved in reward-seeking (nucleus accumbens [NAcc], prefrontal cortex [PFC]) would predict nicotine-enhanced reward sensitivity and smoking progression...

In vertebrates, retinal neural circuitry for visual perception is organized in specific layers. The outer plexiform layer is the first synaptic region in the visual pathway, where photoreceptor synaptic terminals connect with bipolar and horizontal cell processes. However, molecular mechanisms underlying cone synapse formation to mediate OFF pathways remain unknown. This study reveals that Necl-1/CADM3 is localized at S- and S/M-opsin-containing cones and dendrites of type 4 OFF cone bipolar cells (CBCs). In Necl-1 -/- mouse retina, synapses between cones and type 4 OFF CBCs were dislocated, horizontal cell distribution became abnormal, and α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptors were dislocated...

Metamorphosis is a transition from growth to reproduction, through which an animal adopts adult behavior and metabolism. Yet the neural mechanisms underlying the switch is unclear. Here we report that neuronal E93, a transcription factor essential for metamorphosis, regulates the adult metabolism, physiology, and behavior in Drosophila melanogaster. Identified from a screen designed to find new neuronal regulators of metabolism, E93 is required to control appetite, metabolism, exercise endurance, and circadian rhythms...

How timely identification and determination of pathogen species in pathogen-contaminated foods are responsible for rapid and accurate treatments for food safety accidents. Herein, we synthesize four aggregation-induced emissive nanosilicons with different surface potentials and hydrophobicities by encapsulating four tetraphenylethylene derivatives differing in functional groups. The prepared nanosilicons are utilized as receptors to develop a nanosensor array according to their distinctive interactions with pathogens for the rapid and simultaneous discrimination of pathogens...

Neuromorphic computing is a new field of information technology, which is inspired by the biomimetic properties of the memristor as an electronic synapse and neuron. If there are electronic receptors that can transmit exterior impulses to the internal nervous system, then the use of memristors can be expanded to artificial nerves. In this study, a layer type memristor is used to build an artificial nociceptor in a very feasible and straightforward manner. An artificial nociceptor is demonstrated here through the fabrication and characterization of a cobalt-doped zinc oxide (CZO)/Au based memristor...

Signaling through the platelet-derived growth factor receptor alpha (PDGFRα) plays a critical role in craniofacial development, as mutations in PDGFRA are associated with cleft lip/palate in humans and Pdgfra mutant mouse models display varying degrees of facial clefting. Phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt is the primary effector of PDGFRα signaling during skeletal development in the mouse. We previously demonstrated that Akt phosphorylates the RNA-binding protein serine/arginine-rich splicing factor 3 (Srsf3) downstream of PI3K-mediated PDGFRα signaling in mouse embryonic palatal mesenchyme (MEPM) cells, leading to its nuclear translocation...

UNLABELLED: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is an established risk factor for developing neurodegenerative disease. However, how TBI leads from acute injury to chronic neurodegeneration is limited to post-mortem models. There is a lack of connections between in vitro and in vivo TBI models that can relate injury forces to both macroscale tissue damage and brain function at the cellular level. Needle-induced cavitation (NIC) is a technique that can produce small cavitation bubbles in soft tissues, which allows us to relate small strains and strain rates in living tissue to ensuing acute and chronic cell death, tissue damage, and tissue remodeling...

The endogenous opioid system regulates pain through local release of neuropeptides and modulation of their action on opioid receptors. However, the effect of opioid peptides, the enkephalins, is short-lived due to their rapid hydrolysis by enkephalin-degrading enzymes. In turn, an innovative approach to the management of pain would be to increase the local concentration and prolong the stability of enkephalins by preventing their inactivation by neural enkephalinases such as puromycin sensitive aminopeptidase (PSA)...

After decades of being overlooked, a recent wave of studies have explored the roles of microglia in brain health and disease. Microglia perform important physiological functions to set up and maintain proper neural network functions, as well as orchestrate responses to toxic stimuli to limit harm. Many microglial transcriptional programs, extracellular sensing molecules, and functional outputs are seen throughout life. A stark example is the similarity of microglial responses to stressors during neurodevelopment and neurodegeneration...