Prenatal Cocaine Exposure Upregulates BDNF-TrkB Signaling.

Prenatal cocaine exposure causes profound changes in neurobehavior as well as synaptic function and structure with compromised glutamatergic transmission. Since synaptic health and glutamatergic activity are tightly regulated by brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) signaling through its cognate tyrosine receptor kinase B (TrkB), we hypothesized that prenatal cocaine exposure alters BDNF-TrkB signaling during brain development. Here we show prenatal cocaine exposure enhances BDNF-TrkB signaling in hippocampus and prefrontal cortex (PFCX) of 21-day-old rats without affecting the expression levels of TrkB, P75NTR, signaling molecules, NMDA receptor-NR1 subunit as well as proBDNF and BDNF.

Demonstrated brain insulin resistance in Alzheimer's disease patients is associated with IGF-1 resistance, IRS-1 dysregulation, and cognitive decline.

While a potential causal factor in Alzheimer's disease (AD), brain insulin resistance has not been demonstrated directly in that disorder. We provide such a demonstration here by showing that the hippocampal formation (HF) and, to a lesser degree, the cerebellar cortex in AD cases without diabetes exhibit markedly reduced responses to insulin signaling in the IR→IRS-1→PI3K signaling pathway with greatly reduced responses to IGF-1 in the IGF-1R→IRS-2→PI3K signaling pathway. Reduced insulin responses were maximal at the level of IRS-1 and were consistently associated with basal elevations in IRS-1 phosphorylated at serine 616 (IRS-1 pS⁶¹⁶) and IRS-1 pS⁶³⁶/⁶³⁹.