Drugs of abuse, such as cocaine, produce aberrant changes in synaptic transmission and plasticity that emerge throughout withdrawal. One region of the brain that displays a high degree of synaptic plasticity, as well as connectivity with mesolimbic structures such as the nucleus accumbens, is the ventral hippocampus (vH). Here, we investigated the effects of an escalating cocaine dosing schedule on vH CA1 excitatory transmission by measuring place preference and recording excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) at three different withdrawal time points: withdrawal day (WD) 2, 9 or 28.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAims: The present study investigated if treatment with the immunotherapeutic, lacto-N-fucopentaose-III (LNFPIII), resulted in amelioration of acute and persisting deficits in synaptic plasticity and transmission as well as trophic factor expression along the hippocampal dorsoventral axis in a mouse model of Gulf War Illness (GWI).
Main Methods: Mice received either coadministered or delayed LNFPIII treatment throughout or following, respectively, exposure to a 15-day GWI induction paradigm. Subsets of animals were subsequently sacrificed 48 h, seven months, or 11 months post GWI-related (GWIR) exposure for hippocampal qPCR or in vitro electrophysiology experiments.
Approximately one-third of Persian Gulf War veterans are afflicted by Gulf War Illness (GWI), a chronic multisymptom condition that fundamentally presents with cognitive deficits (i.e., learning and memory impairments) and neuroimmune dysfunction (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe effects of drugs of abuse, such as cocaine, on learning and memory processes are thought to contribute to drug craving and relapse susceptibility. Using an Escalating (Esc) or Double Escalating (2x Esc) cocaine i.p.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtein degradation plays a critical role in synaptic plasticity, but the molecular mechanisms are not well understood. Previously we showed that proteasome inhibition enhances the early induction part of long-term synaptic plasticity for which protein synthesis is essential. In this study, we tested the effect of proteasome inhibition on protein synthesis using a chemically induced long-lasting synaptic plasticity (cLTP) in the murine hippocampus as a model system.
View Article and Find Full Text PDF