Fine-Tuning Genetic Circuits via Host Context and RBS Modulation.

The choice of organism to host a genetic circuit, the chassis, is often defaulted to model organisms due to their amenability. The chassis-design space has therefore remained underexplored as an engineering variable. In this work, we explored the design space of a genetic toggle switch through variations in nine ribosome binding site compositions and three host contexts, creating 27 circuit variants.

Glial cell deficits are a key feature of schizophrenia: implications for neuronal circuit maintenance and histological differentiation from classical neurodegeneration.

Dysfunctional glial cells play a pre-eminent role in schizophrenia pathophysiology. Post-mortem studies have provided evidence for significantly decreased glial cell numbers in different brain regions of individuals with schizophrenia. Reduced glial cell numbers are most pronounced in oligodendroglia, but reduced astrocyte cell densities have also been reported.

Field EPSPs of dentate gyrus granule cells studied by selective optogenetic activation of hilar mossy cells in hippocampal slices.

Unlabelled: Glutamatergic dentate gyrus (DG) mossy cells (MCs) innervate the primary DG cell type, granule cells (GCs). Numerous MC synapses are on GC proximal dendrites in the inner molecular layer (IML). However, field recordings of the GC excitatory postsynaptic potential (fEPSPs) have not been used to study this pathway selectively.

Longitudinal analysis of astrocyte-derived protein levels in the blood of drug-naive and relapsed patients with schizophrenia.

The potential influence of astrocytes on neuronal circuitry and psychotic symptoms in schizophrenia have recently been highlighted. Human postmortem studies have observed reduced astrocyte numbers in schizophrenia, but whether this pathology is present at disease onset or accumulates progressively with further psychotic episodes remains unclear. Therefore, we analysed serum levels of the astrocyte-derived proteins glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) and fatty acid-binding protein 7 (FABP7) in acutely ill first-episode (n = 60) and relapsed (n = 34) schizophrenia patients compared to 94 matched controls.