Medial preoptic circuits governing instinctive social behaviors.

The medial preoptic area (MPOA) has long been implicated in maternal and male sexual behavior. Modern neuroscience methods have begun to reveal the cellular networks responsible, while also implicating the MPOA in other social behaviors, affiliative social touch, and aggression. The social interactions rely on input from conspecifics whose most important modalities in rodents are olfaction and somatosensation.

Lateral septum as a possible regulatory center of maternal behaviors.

The lateral septum (LS) is involved in controlling anxiety, aggression, feeding, and other motivated behaviors. Lesion studies have also implicated the LS in various forms of caring behaviors. Recently, novel experimental tools have provided a more detailed insight into the function of the LS, including the specific role of distinct cell types and their neuronal connections in behavioral regulations, in which the LS participates.

A thalamo-preoptic pathway promotes social grooming in rodents.

Social touch is an essential component of communication. Little is known about the underlying pathways and mechanisms. Here, we discovered a novel neuronal pathway from the posterior intralaminar thalamic nucleus (PIL) to the medial preoptic area (MPOA) involved in the control of social grooming.

Autophagy is required for spermatogonial differentiation in the Drosophila testis.

Autophagy is a conserved, lysosome-dependent catabolic process of eukaryotic cells which is involved in cellular differentiation. Here, we studied its specific role in the differentiation of spermatogonial cells in the Drosophila testis. In the apical part of the Drosophila testis, there is a niche of germline stem cells (GSCs), which are connected to hub cells.

The Effect of Sleep Deprivation and Subsequent Recovery Period on the Synaptic Proteome of Rat Cerebral Cortex.

Sleep deprivation (SD) is commonplace in the modern way of life and has a substantial social, medical, and human cost. Sleep deprivation induces cognitive impairment such as loss of executive attention, working memory decline, poor emotion regulation, increased reaction times, and higher cognitive functions are particularly vulnerable to sleep loss. Furthermore, SD is associated with obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and a vast majority of psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders are accompanied by sleep disturbances.

Sex-specific parenting and depression evoked by preoptic inhibitory neurons.

The role of preoptic GABAergic inhibitory neurons was addressed in parenting, anxiety and depression. Pup exposure and forced swimming resulted in similar activation pattern in neurons expressing vesicular GABA transporter in the preoptic area with generally stronger labeling and different distributional pattern in females than in males. Chemogenetic stimulation of preoptic GABAergic cells resulted in elevated maternal motivation and caring behavior in females and mothers but aggression toward pups in males.

Proteomic comparison of different synaptosome preparation procedures.

Synaptosomes are frequently used research objects in neurobiology studies focusing on synaptic transmission as they mimic several aspects of the physiological synaptic functions. They contain the whole apparatus for neurotransmission, the presynaptic nerve ending with synaptic vesicles, synaptic mitochondria and often a segment of the postsynaptic membrane along with the postsynaptic density is attached to its outer surface. As being artificial functional organelles, synaptosomes are viable for several hours, retain their activity, membrane potential, and capable to store, release, and reuptake neurotransmitters.

Complement component 1q subcomponent binding protein in the brain of the rat.

Complement component 1q subcomponent binding protein (C1qbp) is a multifunctional protein involved in immune response, energy homeostasis of cells as a plasma membrane receptor, and a nuclear, cytoplasmic or mitochondrial protein. Recent reports suggested its neuronal function, too, possibly in axon maintenance, synaptic function, and neuroplasticity. Therefore, we addressed to identify C1qbp in the rat brain using in situ hybridization histochemistry and immunolabelling at light and electron microscopic level.

Physiochemical and protein datasets related to citrus juice sac cells-derived nanovesicles and microvesicles.

Qualitative and quantitative data obtained on micro and nanovesicle enriched fractions isolated from four citrus species, , , and are presented. It includes physiochemical characterization by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic laser scattering (DLS); and molecular characterization of the biocargo of citrus vesicles by quantitative label-free proteomics. Vesicular transport related proteins of were predicted by (i) finding orthologues based on previously described vesicular transport proteins and (ii) GO term enrichment analysis.

Protein biocargo of citrus fruit-derived vesicles reveals heterogeneous transport and extracellular vesicle populations.

Cell-derived vesicles are membrane-enclosed organelles that transport material inside and outside the cell. Plant-derived vesicles are receiving more and more attention due to their potential as nanovectors for the delivery of biologically active substances. Here, we studied the heterogeneity and protein biocargo in citrus fruit juice sac cell-derived vesicles populations.

Lysosomal response in relation to α-synuclein pathology differs between Parkinson's disease and multiple system atrophy.

Intracellular deposition of pathologically altered α-synuclein mostly in neurons characterises Parkinson's disease (PD), while its accumulation predominantly in oligodendrocytes is a feature of multiple system atrophy (MSA). Recently a prion-like spreading of pathologic α-synuclein has been suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of PD and MSA. This implicates a role of protein processing systems, including lysosomes, supported also by genetic studies in PD.

Chronic Cerebral Hypoperfusion Induced Synaptic Proteome Changes in the rat Cerebral Cortex.

Chronic cerebral hypoperfusion (CCH) evokes mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and contributes to the progression of vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease (AD). How CCH induces these neurodegenerative processes that may spread along the synaptic network and whether they are detectable at the synaptic proteome level of the cerebral cortex remains to be established. In the present study, we report the synaptic protein changes in the cerebral cortex after stepwise bilateral common carotid artery occlusion (BCCAO) induced CCH in the rat.

Retromer Ensures the Degradation of Autophagic Cargo by Maintaining Lysosome Function in Drosophila.

The retromer is an evolutionarily conserved coat complex that consists of Vps26, Vps29, Vps35 and a heterodimer of sorting nexin (Snx) proteins in yeast. Retromer mediates the recycling of transmembrane proteins from endosomes to the trans-Golgi network, including receptors that are essential for the delivery of hydrolytic enzymes to lysosomes. Besides its function in lysosomal enzyme receptor recycling, involvement of retromer has also been proposed in a variety of vesicular trafficking events, including early steps of autophagy and endocytosis.

Intracellular processing of disease-associated α-synuclein in the human brain suggests prion-like cell-to-cell spread.

Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), Parkinson's disease (PD) and multiple system atrophy are characterized by the deposition of disease-associated α-synuclein. In the present study we 1) examined the molecular specificity of the novel anti-α-synuclein 5G4 antibody; 2) evaluated immunoreactivity patterns and their correlation in human brain tissue with micro- and astrogliosis in 57 cases with PD or DLB; and 3) performed a systematic immunoelectron microscopical mapping of subcellular localizations. 5G4 strongly binds to the high molecular weight fraction of β-sheet rich oligomers, while no binding to primarily disordered oligomers or monomers was observed.

Rapidly progressive dementia with thalamic degeneration and peculiar cortical prion protein immunoreactivity, but absence of proteinase K resistant PrP: a new disease entity?

Background: Human prion diseases are a group of rare fatal neurodegenerative conditions with well-developed clinical and neuropathological diagnostic criteria. Recent observations have expanded the spectrum of prion diseases beyond the classically recognized forms.

Results: In the present study we report six patients with a novel, apparently sporadic disease characterised by thalamic degeneration and rapidly progressive dementia (duration of illness 2-12 months; age at death: 55-81 years).