Nature neuroscience
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Nature neuroscience · Apr 2006
Negative functional MRI response correlates with decreases in neuronal activity in monkey visual area V1.
Most functional brain imaging studies use task-induced hemodynamic responses to infer underlying changes in neuronal activity. In addition to increases in cerebral blood flow and blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) signals, sustained negative responses are pervasive in functional imaging. The origin of negative responses and their relationship to neural activity remain poorly understood. ⋯ Trial-by-trial amplitude fluctuations revealed tight coupling between the NBR and neuronal activity decreases. The NBR was associated with comparable decreases in local field potentials and multiunit activity. Our findings indicate that a significant component of the NBR originates in neuronal activity decreases.
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Nature neuroscience · Oct 2005
Comparative StudyTargeting BACE1 with siRNAs ameliorates Alzheimer disease neuropathology in a transgenic model.
In Alzheimer disease, increased beta-secretase (BACE1) activity has been associated with neurodegeneration and accumulation of amyloid precursor protein (APP) products. Thus, inactivation of BACE1 could be important in the treatment of Alzheimer disease. In this study, we found that lowering BACE1 levels using lentiviral vectors expressing siRNAs targeting BACE1 reduced amyloid production and the neurodegenerative and behavioral deficits in APP transgenic mice, a model of Alzheimer disease. Our results suggest that lentiviral vector delivery of BACE1 siRNA can specifically reduce the cleavage of APP and neurodegeneration in vivo and indicate that this approach could have potential therapeutic value for treatment of Alzheimer disease.