Mini-Symposium: Training the Trainers of the Next Generation of Neuroscience Advocates.

Undergraduate neuroscience researchers and educators have a vital voice in working with policymakers to raise public awareness and increase support and funding for neuroscience. While there are many avenues and opportunities to become involved in neuroscience advocacy, finding the most effective training strategies, resources, and opportunities for involvement can sometimes be difficult and overwhelming. To address this challenge and inform faculty of science advocacy opportunities for undergraduates, we organized a mini-symposium at the 2023 Faculty for Undergraduate Neuroscience (FUN) Workshop.

Implementing Updated Intraamniotic Infection Guidelines at a Large Academic Medical Center.

Background: Intraamniotic infection (IAI) affects 2%-5% of pregnancies, causing significant neonatal and maternal morbidity. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology suggests ampicillin and gentamicin as first-line IAI treatment. Due to potential drug toxicity, changes in gentamicin susceptibility cutoff points, and rising Enterobacterales gentamicin and ampicillin resistance, changes in IAI antibiotic treatment were implemented at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Voluntary wheel running as a promising strategy to promote autonomic resilience to social stress in females: Vagal tone lies at the heart of the matter.

Social stress is a major risk factor for comorbid conditions including cardiovascular disease and depression. While women exhibit 2-3× the risk for these stress-related disorders compared to men, the mechanisms underlying heightened stress susceptibility among females remain largely unknown. Due to a lack in understanding of the pathophysiology underlying stress-induced comorbidities among women, there has been a significant challenge in developing effective therapeutics.

The functional role of locus coeruleus microglia in the female stress response.

Neuropsychiatric disorders that result from stress exposure are highly associated with central inflammation. Our previous work established that females selectively exhibit heightened proinflammatory cytokine production within the noradrenergic locus coeruleus (LC) along with a hypervigilant behavioral phenotype in response to witnessing social stress, and ablation of microglia using pharmacological techniques prevents this behavioral response. These studies were designed to further investigate the impact of stress-induced neuroimmune signaling on the long-term behavioral and neuronal consequences of social stress exposure in females using chemogenetics.

Leptin activation of dorsal raphe neurons inhibits feeding behavior.

Unlabelled: Leptin is a homeostatic regulatory element that signals the presence of energy stores -in the form of adipocytes-which ultimately reduces food intake and increases energy expenditure. Similarly, serotonin (5-HT), a signaling molecule found in both the central and peripheral nervous systems, also regulates food intake. Here we use a combination of pharmacological manipulations, optogenetics, retrograde tracing, and hybridization, combined with behavioral endpoints to physiologically and anatomically identify a novel leptin-mediated pathway between 5-HT neurons in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) and hypothalamic arcuate nucleus (ARC) that controls food intake.

Estrogen receptor beta in the central amygdala regulates the deleterious behavioral and neuronal consequences of repeated social stress in female rats.

While over 95% of the population has reported experiencing extreme stress or trauma, females of reproductive age develop stress-induced neuropsychiatric disorders at twice the rate of males. This suggests that ovarian hormones may facilitate neural processes that increase stress susceptibility and underlie the heightened rates of these disorders, like depression and anxiety, that result from stress exposure in females. However, there is contradicting evidence in the literature regarding estrogen's role in stress-related behavioral outcomes.

Site-Specific knockdown of microglia in the locus coeruleus regulates hypervigilant responses to social stress in female rats.

Background: Women are at increased risk for psychosocial stress-related anxiety disorders, yet mechanisms regulating this risk are unknown. Psychosocial stressors activate microglia, and the resulting neuroimmune responses that females exhibit heightened sensitivity to may serve as an etiological factor in their elevated risk. However, studies examining the role of microglia during stress in females are lacking.

Positive Predictive Value of Diagnosis Codes for Hidradenitis Suppurativa and Cutaneous Abscess.

Background: Requisite to the application of clinical databases for observational research in hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is the identification of an accurate case cohort. There is limited information on the validity of using diagnosis codes to identify HS and cutaneous abscess (CA) case cohorts.

Objectives: The objective of the study was to assess the validity in utilizing diagnosis codes to establish the HS and CA cohorts from an integrated health system clinical database.

Emergency contraception in the iPLEDGE program: A cross-sectional survey of pediatric dermatology provider understanding and practice.

For patients with acne treated with the teratogen isotretinoin, emergency contraception (EC) is the only recourse when abstinence fails or effective contraception is not properly used. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current understanding and provision of EC among pediatric dermatology providers. The survey found that 37% (21/57) of providers indicated they were at least somewhat confident in their understanding of EC.

Stress- and drug-induced neuroimmune signaling as a therapeutic target for comorbid anxiety and substance use disorders.

Stress and substance use disorders remain two of the most highly prevalent psychiatric conditions and are often comorbid. While individually these conditions have a debilitating impact on the patient and a high cost to society, the symptomology and treatment outcomes are further exacerbated when they occur together. As such, there are few effective treatment options for these patients, and recent investigation has sought to determine the neural processes underlying the co-occurrence of these disorders to identify novel treatment targets.

Adolescent exposure to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol and ethanol heightens sensitivity to fear stimuli.

Cannabis use disorder (CUD) has doubled in prevalence over the past decade as a nation-wide trend toward legalization allows for increased drug accessibility. As a result, marijuana has become the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States particularly among the adolescent population. This is especially concerning since there is greater risk for the harmful side effects of drug use during this developmental period due to ongoing brain maturation.

Optogenetic manipulation of the prelimbic cortex during fear memory reconsolidation alters fear extinction in a preclinical model of comorbid PTSD/AUD.

Rationale And Objective: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) are disorders of learning and memory that often occur comorbidly. Exposure to trauma-related cues can increase alcohol intake in PTSD patients that are using alcohol to self-medicate. The recurrence of anxiety symptoms with subsequent alcohol use may initiate a destructive cycle where stress and alcohol exposure impair the function of the prefrontal cortex (PFC).

Estimated life expectancy gains with antiretroviral therapy among adults with HIV in Latin America and the Caribbean: a multisite retrospective cohort study.

Background: There are few data on life expectancy gains among people living with HIV in low-income and middle-income settings where antiretroviral therapy (ART) is increasingly available. We aimed to analyse life expectancy trends from 2003 to 2017 among people with HIV beginning treatment with ART within the Caribbean, central America, and South America.

Methods: We did a multisite retrospective cohort study and included people with HIV who had started treatment with ART and were aged 16 years or older between Jan 1, 2003, and Dec 31, 2017, from Caribbean, Central and South America network for HIV epidemiology (CCASAnet) sites in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Peru, who contributed person-time data from the age of 20 years until date of death, last contact, database closure, or Dec 31, 2017.

Efficacy of a student-led community contact tracing program partnered with an academic medical center during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Purpose: Contact tracing has proven successful at controlling coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) globally, and the Center for Health Security has recommended that the United States add 100,000 contact tracers to the current workforce.

Methods: To address gaps in local contact tracing, health professional students partnered with their academic institution to conduct contact tracing for all COVID-19 cases diagnosed onsite, which included identifying and reaching their contacts, educating participants, and providing social resources to support effective quarantine and isolation.

Results: From March 24 to May 28, 536 laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases were contacted and reported an average of 2.

Impact of Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances on Opioid Prescribing: Evidence From I-STOP Program in New York.

New York's Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing (I-STOP) Act, requires prescribers in the state to electronically prescribe controlled substances (EPCS). We examine the effects of this mandate on prescribing patterns of opioids for Medicare Part D beneficiaries. Using 2014-2017 CMS Medicare Part D Prescriber Data, we apply a lagged dependent variable regression approach to identify the impact of I-STOP on the prescription of opioids.

The infralimbic cortex and mGlu5 mediate the effects of chronic intermittent ethanol exposure on fear learning and memory.

Rationale And Objectives: Alcohol use disorder (AUD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often occur comorbidly. While the incidence of these disorders is increasing, there is little investigation into the interacting neural mechanisms between these disorders. These studies aim to identify cognitive deficits that occur as a consequence of fear and ethanol exposure, implement a novel pharmaceutical intervention, and determine relevant underlying neurocircuitry.

N-Acetylcysteine treatment during acute stress prevents stress-induced augmentation of addictive drug use and relapse.

Converging epidemiological studies show that a life-threatening event increases the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which carries 30% to 50% comorbidity with substance use disorders (SUDs). Such comorbidity results in greater drug use and poorer treatment outcomes. There is overlap between the enduring synaptic neuroadaptations produced in nucleus accumbens core (NAcore) by acute restraint stress and cocaine self-administration.

From "brute" to "thug:" the demonization and criminalization of unarmed Black male victims in America.

The synonymy of Blackness with criminality is not a new phenomenon in America. Documented historical accounts have shown how myths, stereotypes, and racist ideologies led to discriminatory policies and court rulings that fueled racial violence in a post-Reconstruction era and has culminated in the exponential increase of Black male incarceration today. Misconceptions and prejudices manufactured and disseminated through various channels such as the media included references to a "" image of Black males.

Ethics of Gaming the System.

Dentists justifiably bridle at having to compromise what they believe, based on evidence, is in the patients' best interests based on reimbursement rules of benefits providers. Benefits providers justifiably bridle at having to pay for services not contracted by those who purchase insurance. A particular case involving performing multiple quadrants of root planing at a single appointment is used as an example of this tension.