Learned phenotypes emerge during social stress modifying hippocampal orexin receptor gene expression.

Psychological distress, including anxiety or mood disorders, emanates from the onset of chronic/unpredictable stressful events. Symptoms in the form of maladaptive behaviors are learned and difficult to treat. While the origin of stress-induced disorders seems to be where learning and stress intersect, this relationship and molecular pathways involved remain largely unresolved.

Modelling SARS-CoV-2 infection in a human alveolus microphysiological system.

The coronavirus 2019 pandemic has highlighted the importance of physiologically relevant models to assist preclinical research. Here, we describe the adaptation of a human alveolus microphysiological system (MPS) model consisting of primary human alveolar epithelial and lung microvascular endothelial cells to study infection with SARS-CoV-2 at Biosafety Level 3 facility. This infection model recapitulates breathing-like stretch and culture of epithelial cells at the air-liquid interface and resulted in clinically relevant cytopathic effects including cell rounding of alveolar type 2 cells and disruption of the tight junction protein occludin.