Neuroscience

Successful reproduction in female mammals is precisely timed and must be able to withstand the metabolic demand of pregnancy and lactation.

Touch and mechanical pain represent distinct, but interactive, modalities of mechanosensation. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying these mechanotransduction processes remain incompletely understood. Here, we show that deletion of the mechanically activated and rapidly adapting Piezo2 channel in a portion of the low-threshold mechanoreceptors and a majority of the IB4-positive nociceptors impairs touch but sensitizes mechanical pain in mice.

Abstract

Sensory axons degenerate following separation from their cell body, but partial injury to peripheral nerves may leave the integrity of damaged axons preserved. We show that an endogenous ligand for the natural killer (NK) cell receptor NKG2D, Retinoic Acid Early 1 (RAE1), is re-expressed in adult dorsal root ganglion neurons following peripheral nerve injury, triggering selective degeneration of injured axons.

Whether post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression controls differentiation of stem cells

The anterior lateral bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (alBST) expresses receptors for glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP1R) and receives input from caudal brainstem GLP1 neurons.

Ketamine has emerged as a widespread treatment for a variety of psychiatric disorders when used at sub-anesthetic doses, but the neural mechanisms underlying its acute action remain unclear.

Converging evidence suggests that deficits in somatostatin (SST)-expressing neuron signaling contributes to major depressive disorder.

Oligodendrocyte (OL) pathology is increasingly implicated in neurodegenerative diseases as OLs both myelinate and provide metabolic support to axons. In multiple sclerosis (MS), demyelination in the central nervous system (CNS) thus leads to neurodegeneration, but the severity of MS between patients is very variable. Disability does not correlate well with the extent of demyelination1, suggesting that other factors contribute to this variability. One such factor may be OL heterogeneity.

The development of neural circuits relies on axon projections establishing diverse, yet well-defined, connections between areas of the nervous system. Each projection is formed by growth cones-subcellular specializations at the tips of growing axons, encompassing sets of molecules that control projection-specific growth, guidance, and target selection1.