The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
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The coupling of the spinal postsynaptic density-95 (PSD-95) with the glutamatergic N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor NR2B subunit and the subsequent NR2B phosphorylation contribute to pain-related plasticity. Increasing evidence reveals that kalirin, a Rho-guanine nucleotide exchange factor, modulates PSD-95-NR2B-dependent neuroplasticity. Our laboratory recently demonstrated that serum-inducible and glucocorticoid-inducible kinase 1 (SGK1) participates in inflammation-associated pain hypersensitivity by modulating spinal glutamatergic neurotransmission. ⋯ Small-interfering RNA (siRNA) that targeted spinal kalirin mRNA expression (10 μg, 10 μl; i.t.) reduced SNL-induced allodynia, kalirin and pNR2B expression, as well as kalirin-PSD-95 and PSD-95-pNR2B coupling and costaining without affecting SGK1 phosphorylation. Daily administration of GSK-650394 (an SGK1 antagonist; 100 nm, 10 μl, i.t.) not only exhibited effects similar to the kalirin mRNA-targeting siRNA but also attenuated pSGK1-kalirin costaining and SGK1-kalirin coupling. We suggest that nerve injury could induce spinal SGK1 phosphorylation that subsequently interacts with and upregulates kalirin to participate in neuropathic pain development via PSD-95-NR2B coupling-dependent NR2B phosphorylation.
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The orofacial region is a major focus of chronic neuropathic pain conditions characterized by primary hyperalgesia at the site of injury and secondary hyperalgesia outside the injured zone. We have used a rat model of injury to the maxillary branch (V2) of the trigeminal nerve to produce constant and long-lasting primary hyperalgesia in the V2 territory and secondary hyperalgesia in territories innervated by the mandibular branch (V3). Our findings indicate that the induction of primary and secondary hyperalgesia depended on peripheral input from the injured nerve. ⋯ Electrophysiological studies further indicate that after nerve injury spontaneous responses and enhanced poststimulus discharges in Vc nociresponsive neurons were time-dependent on descending 5-HT drive and peripheral input. The induction phase of secondary hyperalgesia involved central sensitization mechanisms in Vc neurons that were dependent on peripheral input, whereas the maintenance phase of secondary hyperalgesia involved central sensitization in Vc neurons conducted by a delayed descending 5-HT drive and a persistence of peripheral inputs. Our results are the first to show that the maintenance of secondary hyperalgesia and underlying central sensitization associated with persistent pain depend on a transition to supraspinal mechanisms involving the serotonin system in rostral ventromedial medulla-dorsal horn circuits.
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Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a neurodegenerative disease with hallmark deficits in social and emotional function. Heterozygous loss-of-function mutations in GRN, the progranulin gene, are a common genetic cause of the disorder, but the mechanisms by which progranulin haploinsufficiency causes neuronal dysfunction in FTD are unclear. Homozygous progranulin knock-out (Grn(-/-)) mice have been studied as a model of this disorder and show behavioral deficits and a neuroinflammatory phenotype with robust microglial activation. ⋯ However, unlike Grn(-/-) mice, behavioral deficits in Grn(+/-) mice occurred in the absence of gliosis or increased expression of tumor necrosis factor-α. Instead, we found neuronal abnormalities in the amygdala, an area of selective vulnerability in FTD, in Grn(+/-) mice. Our findings indicate that FTD-related deficits resulting from progranulin haploinsufficiency can develop in the absence of detectable gliosis and neuroinflammation, thereby dissociating microglial activation from functional deficits and suggesting an important effect of progranulin deficiency on neurons.
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Neural plasticity following brain injury illustrates the potential for regeneration in the central nervous system. Lesioning of the perforant path, which innervates the outer two-thirds of the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus, was one of the first models to demonstrate structural plasticity of mature granule cells (Parnavelas et al., 1974; Caceres and Steward, 1983; Diekmann et al., 1996). The dentate gyrus also harbors a continuously proliferating population of neuronal precursors that can integrate into functional circuits and show enhanced short-term plasticity (Schmidt-Hieber et al., 2004; Abrous et al., 2005). ⋯ Newborn neurons, but not mature granule cells, had a higher density of dendritic spines in the inner molecular layer postlesion accompanied by an increase in miniature EPSC amplitudes and rise times. Our results indicate that injury causes an increase in newborn neurons and lamina-specific synaptic reorganization indicative of enhanced plasticity. The presence of de novo dendritic spines in the denervated zone suggests that the postlesion environment provides the necessary signals for spine formation.
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Increasing neuroimaging evidence suggests an association between impulsive decision-making behavior and task-related brain activity. However, the relationship between impulsivity in decision-making and resting-state brain activity remains unknown. To address this issue, we used functional MRI to record brain activity from human adults during a resting state and during a delay discounting task (DDT) that requires choosing between an immediate smaller reward and a larger delayed reward. ⋯ Moreover, we found that the resting-state functional connectivity of the brain regions in these networks was significantly correlated with participants' discounting rate, a behavioral index of impulsivity during the DDT. In experiment II, we tested an independent group of subjects and demonstrated that this resting-state functional connectivity was able to predict individuals' discounting rates. Together, these findings suggest that resting-state functional organization of the human brain may be a biomarker of impulsivity and can predict economic decision-making behavior.