Biological psychiatry
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Biological psychiatry · Feb 2014
Activation of the maternal immune system during pregnancy alters behavioral development of rhesus monkey offspring.
Maternal infection during pregnancy is associated with an increased risk of schizophrenia and autism in the offspring. Supporting this correlation, experimentally activating the maternal immune system during pregnancy in rodents produces offspring with abnormal brain and behavioral development. We have developed a nonhuman primate model to bridge the gap between clinical populations and rodent models of maternal immune activation (MIA). ⋯ In this rhesus monkey model, MIA yields offspring with abnormal repetitive behaviors, communication, and social interactions. These results extended the findings in rodent MIA models to more human-like behaviors resembling those in both autism and schizophrenia.
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Biological psychiatry · Feb 2014
Chronic metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 inhibition corrects local alterations of brain activity and improves cognitive performance in fragile X mice.
Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the most common genetic cause for intellectual disability. Fmr1 knockout (KO) mice are an established model of FXS. Chronic pharmacological inhibition of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGlu5) in these mice corrects multiple molecular, physiological, and behavioral phenotypes related to patients' symptoms. To better understand the pathophysiology of FXS and the effect of treatment, brain activity was analyzed using functional magnetic resonance imaging in relation to learning and memory performance. ⋯ Chronic mGlu5 inhibition corrected the learning deficits and partially normalized the altered brain activity pattern in Fmr1 KO mice.