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Caragea VM, Méndez-Couz M, Manahan-Vaughan D. Dopamine receptors of the rodent fastigial nucleus support skilled reaching for goal-directed action. Brain Struct Funct 2024; 229:609-637. [PMID: 37615757 PMCID: PMC10978667 DOI: 10.1007/s00429-023-02685-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/20/2023] [Accepted: 07/07/2023] [Indexed: 08/25/2023]
Abstract
The dopaminergic (DA) system regulates both motor function, and learning and memory. The cerebellum supports motor control and the acquisition of procedural memories, including goal-directed behavior, and is subjected to DA control. Its fastigial nucleus (FN) controls and interprets body motion through space. The expression of dopamine receptors has been reported in the deep cerebellar nuclei of mice. However, the presence of dopamine D1-like (D1R) and D2-like (D2R) receptors in the rat FN has not yet been verified. In this study, we first confirmed that DA receptors are expressed in the FN of adult rats and then targeted these receptors to explore to what extent the FN modulates goal-directed behavior. Immunohistochemical assessment revealed expression of both D1R and D2R receptors in the FN, whereby the medial lateral FN exhibited higher receptor expression compared to the other FN subfields. Bilateral treatment of the FN with a D1R antagonist, prior to a goal-directed pellet-reaching task, significantly impaired task acquisition and decreased task engagement. D2R antagonism only reduced late performance post-acquisition. Once task acquisition had occurred, D1R antagonism had no effect on successful reaching, although it significantly decreased reaching speed, task engagement, and promoted errors. Motor coordination and ambulation were, however, unaffected as neither D1R nor D2R antagonism altered rotarod latencies or distance and velocity in an open field. Taken together, these results not only reveal a novel role for the FN in goal-directed skilled reaching, but also show that D1R expressed in FN regulate this process by modulating motivation for action.
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Affiliation(s)
- Violeta-Maria Caragea
- Department of Neurophysiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, MA 4/150, 44780, Bochum, Germany
| | - Marta Méndez-Couz
- Department of Neurophysiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, MA 4/150, 44780, Bochum, Germany
| | - Denise Manahan-Vaughan
- Department of Neurophysiology, Faculty of Medicine, Ruhr-University Bochum, Universitätsstr. 150, MA 4/150, 44780, Bochum, Germany.
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Socha J, Grochecki P, Smaga I, Jastrzębska J, Wronikowska-Denysiuk O, Marszalek-Grabska M, Slowik T, Kotlinski R, Filip M, Lubec G, Kotlinska JH. Social Interaction in Adolescent Rats with Neonatal Ethanol Exposure: Impact of Sex and CE-123, a Selective Dopamine Reuptake Inhibitor. Int J Mol Sci 2024; 25:1041. [PMID: 38256113 PMCID: PMC10816180 DOI: 10.3390/ijms25021041] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/20/2023] [Revised: 01/08/2024] [Accepted: 01/10/2024] [Indexed: 01/24/2024] Open
Abstract
Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASDs) demonstrate deficits in social functioning that contribute to early withdrawal from school and delinquency, as well as the development of anxiety and depression. Dopamine is involved in reward, motivation, and social behavior. Thus, we evaluated whether neonatal ethanol exposure (in an animal model of FASDs) has an impact on social recognition memory using the three-chamber social novelty discrimination test during early and middle adolescence in male and female rats, and whether the modafinil analog, the novel atypical dopamine reuptake inhibitor CE-123, can modify this effect. Our study shows that male and female rats neonatally exposed to ethanol exhibited sex- and age-dependent deficits in social novelty discrimination in early (male) and middle (female) adolescence. These deficits were specific to the social domain and not simply due to more general deficits in learning and memory because these animals did not exhibit changes in short-term recognition memory in the novel object recognition task. Furthermore, early-adolescent male rats that were neonatally exposed to ethanol did not show changes in the anxiety index but demonstrated an increase in locomotor activity. Chronic treatment with CE-123, however, prevented the appearance of these social deficits. In the hippocampus of adolescent rats, CE-123 increased BDNF and decreased its signal transduction TrkB receptor expression level in ethanol-exposed animals during development, suggesting an increase in neuroplasticity. Thus, selective dopamine reuptake inhibitors, such as CE-123, represent interesting drug candidates for the treatment of deficits in social behavior in adolescent individuals with FASDs.
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Affiliation(s)
- Justyna Socha
- Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics, Medical University of Lublin, Chodzki 4a, 20-093 Lublin, Poland; (J.S.); (P.G.)
| | - Pawel Grochecki
- Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics, Medical University of Lublin, Chodzki 4a, 20-093 Lublin, Poland; (J.S.); (P.G.)
| | - Irena Smaga
- Department of Drug Addiction Pharmacology, Maj Institute of Pharmacology Polish Academy of Sciences, Smetna 12, 31-343 Krakow, Poland; (I.S.); (J.J.); (M.F.)
| | - Joanna Jastrzębska
- Department of Drug Addiction Pharmacology, Maj Institute of Pharmacology Polish Academy of Sciences, Smetna 12, 31-343 Krakow, Poland; (I.S.); (J.J.); (M.F.)
| | - Olga Wronikowska-Denysiuk
- Independent Laboratory of Behavioral Studies, Chair of Biomedical Sciences, Medical University of Lublin, Chodzki 4a, 20-093 Lublin, Poland;
| | - Marta Marszalek-Grabska
- Department of Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University, Jaczewskiego 8b, 20-090 Lublin, Poland;
| | - Tymoteusz Slowik
- Experimental Medicine Center, Medical University, Jaczewskiego 8, 20-090 Lublin, Poland;
| | - Robert Kotlinski
- Clinical Department of Cardiac Surgery, University of Rzeszow, 35-601 Rzeszow, Poland;
| | - Małgorzata Filip
- Department of Drug Addiction Pharmacology, Maj Institute of Pharmacology Polish Academy of Sciences, Smetna 12, 31-343 Krakow, Poland; (I.S.); (J.J.); (M.F.)
| | - Gert Lubec
- Department of Neuroproteomics, Paracelsus Medical University, 5020 Salzburg, Austria;
| | - Jolanta H. Kotlinska
- Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacodynamics, Medical University of Lublin, Chodzki 4a, 20-093 Lublin, Poland; (J.S.); (P.G.)
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Iannucci J, O’Neill K, Wang X, Mukherjee S, Wang J, Shapiro LA. Sex-Specific and Traumatic Brain Injury Effects on Dopamine Receptor Expression in the Hippocampus. Int J Mol Sci 2023; 24:16084. [PMID: 38003274 PMCID: PMC10671736 DOI: 10.3390/ijms242216084] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/11/2023] [Revised: 10/26/2023] [Accepted: 11/07/2023] [Indexed: 11/26/2023] Open
Abstract
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a major health concern. Each year, over 50 million individuals worldwide suffer from TBI, and this leads to a number of acute and chronic health issues. These include affective and cognitive impairment, as well as an increased risk of alcohol and drug use. The dopaminergic system, a key component of reward circuitry, has been linked to alcohol and other substance use disorders, and previous research indicates that TBI can induce plasticity within this system. Understanding how TBI modifies the dopaminergic system may offer insights into the heightened substance use and reward-seeking behavior following TBI. The hippocampus, a critical component of the reward circuit, is responsible for encoding and integrating the spatial and salient aspects of rewarding stimuli. This study explored TBI-related changes in neuronal D2 receptor expression within the hippocampus, examining the hypothesis that sex differences exist in both baseline hippocampal D2 receptor expression and its response to TBI. Utilizing D2-expressing tdTomato transgenic male and female mice, we implemented either a sham injury or the lateral fluid percussion injury (FPI) model of TBI and subsequently performed a region-specific quantification of D2 expression in the hippocampus. The results show that male mice exhibit higher baseline hippocampal D2 expression compared to female mice. Additionally, there was a significant interaction effect between sex and injury on the expression of D2 in the hippocampus, particularly in regions of the dentate gyrus. Furthermore, TBI led to significant reductions in hippocampal D2 expression in male mice, while female mice remained mostly unaffected. These results suggest that hippocampal D2 expression varies between male and female mice, with the female dopaminergic system demonstrating less susceptibility to TBI-induced plasticity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaclyn Iannucci
- Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Texas A&M University School of Medicine, Bryan, TX 77807, USA; (J.I.)
| | - Katherine O’Neill
- Department of Biological Science, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA
| | - Xuehua Wang
- Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Texas A&M University School of Medicine, Bryan, TX 77807, USA; (J.I.)
| | - Sanjib Mukherjee
- Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Texas A&M University School of Medicine, Bryan, TX 77807, USA; (J.I.)
| | - Jun Wang
- Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Texas A&M University School of Medicine, Bryan, TX 77807, USA; (J.I.)
| | - Lee A. Shapiro
- Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics, Texas A&M University School of Medicine, Bryan, TX 77807, USA; (J.I.)
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Huston JP, Chao OY. Probing the nature of episodic memory in rodents. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2023; 144:104930. [PMID: 36544301 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104930] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/04/2022] [Revised: 10/21/2022] [Accepted: 10/24/2022] [Indexed: 12/15/2022]
Abstract
Episodic memory (EM) specifies the experience of retrieving information of an event at the place and time of occurrence. Whether non-human animals are capable of EM remains debated, whereas evidence suggests that they have a memory system akin to EM. We here trace the development of various behavioral paradigms designed to study EM in non-human animals, in particular the rat. We provide an in-depth description of the available behavioral tests which combine three spontaneous object exploration paradigms, namely novel object preference (for measuring memory for "what"), novel location preference (for measuring memory for "where") and temporal order memory (memory for "when"), into a single trial to gauge a memory akin to EM. Most important, we describe a variation of such a test in which each memory component interacts with the others, demonstrating an integration of diverse mnemonic information. We discuss why a behavioral model of EM must be able to assess the ability to integrate "what", "where" and "when" information into a single experience. We attempt an interpretation of the various tests and review the studies that have applied them in areas such as pharmacology, neuroanatomy, circuit analysis, and sleep. Finally, we anticipate future directions in the search for neural mechanisms of EM in the rat and outline model experiments and methodologies in this pursuit.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph P Huston
- Center for Behavioral Neuroscience, Institute of Experimental Psychology, University of Düsseldorf, 40225 Düsseldorf, Germany.
| | - Owen Y Chao
- Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth, MN 55812, USA
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Singh SP, William M, Malavia M, Chu XP. Behavior of KCNQ Channels in Neural Plasticity and Motor Disorders. MEMBRANES 2022; 12:membranes12050499. [PMID: 35629827 PMCID: PMC9143857 DOI: 10.3390/membranes12050499] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2022] [Revised: 04/26/2022] [Accepted: 05/03/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
The broad distribution of voltage-gated potassium channels (VGKCs) in the human body makes them a critical component for the study of physiological and pathological function. Within the KCNQ family of VGKCs, these aqueous conduits serve an array of critical roles in homeostasis, especially in neural tissue. Moreover, the greater emphasis on genomic identification in the past century has led to a growth in literature on the role of the ion channels in pathological disease as well. Despite this, there is a need to consolidate the updated findings regarding both the pharmacotherapeutic and pathological roles of KCNQ channels, especially regarding neural plasticity and motor disorders which have the largest body of literature on this channel. Specifically, KCNQ channels serve a remarkable role in modulating the synaptic efficiency required to create appropriate plasticity in the brain. This role can serve as a foundation for clinical approaches to chronic pain. Additionally, KCNQ channels in motor disorders have been utilized as a direction for contemporary pharmacotherapeutic developments due to the muscarinic properties of this channel. The aim of this study is to provide a contemporary review of the behavior of these channels in neural plasticity and motor disorders. Upon review, the behavior of these channels is largely dependent on the physiological role that KCNQ modulatory factors (i.e., pharmacotherapeutic options) serve in pathological diseases.
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