Chronic-Stress-Induced Behavioral Changes Associated with Subregion-Selective Serotonin Cell Death in the Dorsal Raphe.

The current study examined the neurochemical mechanisms and neuroanatomical changes underlying coexisting behavioral effects associated with chronic-stress-induced alterations in serotonin (5HT) neurons. Chronic unpredictable stress (CUS) to adult male rats produced depression-like changes with cognitive dysfunction and selective cell death in the interfascicular nucleus of the dorsal raphe (DRif), resulting in decreased 5HTergic innervation of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Twenty-one days of CUS decreased basal plasma levels of corticosterone and produced a shorter latency to immobility and longer durations of immobility in the force-swim test that persisted for 1 month after CUS.

Effect of Formulation and Process Parameters on Chitosan Microparticles Prepared by an Emulsion Crosslinking Technique.

There are many studies about the synthesis of chitosan microparticles; however, most of them have very low production rate, have wide size distribution, are difficult to reproduce, and use harsh crosslinking agents. Uniform microparticles are necessary to obtain repeatable drug release behavior. The main focus of this investigation was to study the effect of the process and formulation parameters during the preparation of chitosan microparticles in order to produce particles with narrow size distribution.

BBB-Permeable, Neuroprotective, and Neurotrophic Polysaccharide, Midi-GAGR.

An enormous amount of efforts have been poured to find an effective therapeutic agent for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Among those, neurotrophic peptides that regenerate neuronal structures and increase neuron survival show a promise in slowing neurodegeneration. However, the short plasma half-life and poor blood-brain-barrier (BBB)-permeability of neurotrophic peptides limit their in vivo efficacy.

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine increases excitability in the dentate gyrus: role of 5HT2A receptor-induced PGE2 signaling.

3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) is a widely abused psychostimulant, which causes release of serotonin in various forebrain regions. Recently, we reported that MDMA increases extracellular glutamate concentrations in the dentate gyrus, via activation of 5HT2A receptors. We examined the role of prostaglandin signaling in mediating the effects of 5HT2A receptor activation on the increases in extracellular glutamate and the subsequent long-term loss of parvalbumin interneurons in the dentate gyrus caused by MDMA.

Small-molecule agonists of mammalian Diaphanous-related (mDia) formins reveal an effective glioblastoma anti-invasion strategy.

The extensive invasive capacity of glioblastoma (GBM) makes it resistant to surgery, radiotherapy, and chemotherapy and thus makes it lethal. In vivo, GBM invasion is mediated by Rho GTPases through unidentified downstream effectors. Mammalian Diaphanous (mDia) family formins are Rho-directed effectors that regulate the F-actin cytoskeleton to support tumor cell motility.