Trends in neurosciences
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Trends in neurosciences · Mar 2014
ReviewGABAergic interneuron transplants to study development and treat disease.
Advances in stem cell technology have engendered keen interest in cell-based therapies for neurological disorders. Postnatal engraftments of most neuronal precursors result in little cellular migration, a crucial prerequisite for transplants to integrate within the host circuitry. ⋯ Accordingly, transplants of cortical interneuron precursors migrate extensively after engraftment into a variety of CNS tissues, where they can become synaptically connected with host circuitry. We review how this remarkable ability to integrate post-transplant is being applied to the development of cell-based therapies for a variety of CNS disorders.
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Trends in neurosciences · Mar 2014
ReviewOpening paths to novel analgesics: the role of potassium channels in chronic pain.
Chronic pain is associated with abnormal excitability of the somatosensory system and remains poorly treated in the clinic. Potassium (K⁺) channels are crucial determinants of neuronal activity throughout the nervous system. ⋯ We review salient findings from expression, pharmacological, and genetic studies that have untangled a hitherto undervalued contribution of K⁺ channels in maladaptive pain signaling. These emerging data provide a framework to explain enigmatic pain syndromes and to design novel pharmacological treatments for these debilitating states.
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Trends in neurosciences · Oct 2013
Historical ArticleThe Brain Prize 2013: the optogenetics revolution.
The 2013 Grete Lundbeck European Brain Research Prize was awarded to Ernst Bamberg, Edward Boyden, Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann, Gero Miesenböck, and Georg Nagel 'for their invention and refinement of optogenetics'. Why optogenetics? And why this sextet? To appreciate why, we turn first to some of the core questions of neuroscience and the technical difficulties that long obstructed their resolution.
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Trends in neurosciences · Jul 2013
ReviewEmerging role for astroglial networks in information processing: from synapse to behavior.
Astrocytes contribute to neurotransmission through a variety of mechanisms ranging from synapse isolation to active signaling. Astroglial involvement in neurophysiology has been mostly investigated at the single-cell level. ⋯ Recent findings have suggested that, despite their extensity, astroglial networks are also selective, preferential as well as plastic, and can regulate synapses, neuronal circuits, and behavior. The present review critically discusses the impact of astroglial networks on normal and pathological neuronal information processing as well as the underlying mechanisms.
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Trends in neurosciences · Jun 2013
ReviewWhere no synapses go: gatekeepers of circuit remodeling and synaptic strength.
Growth inhibitory molecules in the adult mammalian central nervous system (CNS) have been implicated in the blocking of axonal sprouting and regeneration following injury. Prominent CNS regeneration inhibitors include Nogo-A, oligodendrocyte myelin glycoprotein (OMgp), and chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs), and a key question concerns their physiological role in the naïve CNS. ⋯ This is accomplished in part by antagonizing plasticity-promoting signaling pathways activated by neurotrophic factors. Altered function of CNS regeneration inhibitors is associated with mental illness and loss of long-lasting memory, suggesting unexpected and novel physiological roles for these molecules in brain health.