The Role of BDNF in the Antidepressant Effects of Electroconvulsive Therapy.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is an effective treatment method for depression therapy. It produces a number of biological effects, including neurotrophic factors regulation. In the present paper, we investigated the ECT response in depressed rats subjected to the variable frequency ultrasound (20-45 kHz) and examined the contribution of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) expression changes to the observed effects.

[Effects of diet on the gut microbiome in patients with depression].

Objective: To investigate the effects of diet on the gut microbiota and to assess the relationship of these factors with depression.

Material And Methods: Microorganisms that predominate in depressed patients were identified and associations of the identified organisms with the patients' diet were performed. Fourteen depressed patients and 14 healthy volunteers with the same socio-demographic parameters were included in the study.

Social and Cognitive Impairments in Rat Offspring after Ultrasound-Induced Prenatal Stress.

We studied the possibility of developing an autism model based on chronic prenatal psychological stress caused by variable frequency ultrasound 20-45 kHz. The offspring of female rats stressed during pregnancy demonstrated reduced time of social contacts in the social interaction test, increased anxiety in the open-field test, and memory impairment in the Morris water maze test in comparison with the control (intact) rat offspring. We also found a reducing trend in the BDNF gene expression in the amygdala in males of the experimental group.

Chronic Exposure to Ultrasonic Frequencies Selectively Increases Aggression in Rats.

We studied aggression in male Sprague-Dawley rats in a model of a depressive-like state induced by unpredictable treatment with ultrasonic waves with the frequencies of 20-45 kHz for 1, 2 or 3 weeks. We did not find any increase in the number of animals exhibiting aggression in the "resident-intruder" test after the treatment of any selected duration. However, the aggressive animals exposed to ultrasound exhibited the substantially increased number of attacks and their total duration as well as decreased latency of the first attack compared to the respective indices in the animals of the control group.

Post-Weaning Social Isolation Disturbs Gene Expression in Rat Brain Structures.

Post-weaning social isolation of male Wistar rats for 10 weeks led to an increase of their aggressiveness, sensorimotor reactivity, and cognitive deficiency, manifesting in training disorders evaluated by the acoustic startle response (amplitude of the response decreasing). Expression of gene encoding serine protease prolyl endopeptidase (EC 3.4.

[Genetic aspects of schizophrenia].

Schizophrenia is a disease with a complex non-Mendelian inheritance mechanism in most cases involving the combined action of a large number of genes. Identifying of genomic variations associated with schizophrenia endophenotypes has a great potential. This review describes genetic markers of the disease, current methods of their analysis, including genome-wide association study (GWAS).

Blood-brain barrier permeability in healthy rats and rats with experimental C6 glioma after fractionated radiotherapy of the brain.

Objective: To evaluate the effect of fractionated radiotherapy on permeability of the blood-brain barrier in healthy rats and rats with C6 glioma in vivo.

Material And Methods: An increase in BBB permeability in C6 glioma was assessed by dynamic MRI monitoring (glioma size before and after radiation therapy in combination with immunotherapy, n=30) and confocal microscopy (fluorescence imaging of tumor invasion boundaries in a dose-dependent experiment for the amount of injected antibodies). In healthy rats, BBB permeability to macromolecular substances (MMS) was assessed by ELISA (n=23, 192 plasma samples) and confocal microscopy (n=7).

Effect of γ-irradiation on expression of tight and adherens junction protein mRNA on in vitro blood-brain barrier model.

We studied the effect of γ-irradiation on HUVEC endothelial cells co-cultured with allogeneic astrocytes. This 2D in vitro model of the blood-brain barrier has the same parameters as cerebral microvascular endothelial cells forming the blood-brain barrier and allows reproducing its functions in vivo. Dose-dependent changes in cell morphology and violation of monolayer integrity were observed.

Treatment of poorly differentiated glioma using a combination of monoclonal antibodies to extracellular connexin-43 fragment, temozolomide, and radiotherapy.

Antitumor efficiencies of monoclonal antibodies to connexin-43 second extracellular loop (MAbE2Cx43), temozolomide, and fractionated γ-irradiation in the monotherapy mode and in several optimized combinations were studied in Wistar rats with induced C6 glioma. The survival of animals with glioma and the dynamics of intracerebral tumor development were evaluated by MRT. Temozolomide monotherapy (200 mg/m(2)) and isolated radiotherapy in a total dose of 36 Gy shifted the survival median from 28 days (no therapy) to 34 and 38 days, respectively; 100% animals died under conditions of temozolomide monotherapy and radiotherapy.

Expression of VEGF, GFAP, and BDNF genes in the brain of rats after fractionated γ-irradiation according to different protocols.

The expression of VEGF, GFAP, and BDNF genes in the nervous tissue changed on weeks 4, 8, and 12 after fractionated irradiation of the brain according to different protocols in a fixed total dose of 36 Gy. The expression of VEGF gene decreased in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus after 4 and 8 weeks. After week 12, the expression of VEGF normalized in the prefrontal cortex and remained low in the hippocampus.

Organ, cellular, and subcellular localization of brain-specific anion transporter BSAT1.

Organ, cellular, and subcellular localization of brain-specific anion transporter BSAT1 was studied in rats using antibodies to the extracellular fragment (451-557 a.a). The antibodies were shown to recognize the antigen predominantly localized in the nervous tissue, tumors of glial origin, and primordial ovarian follicles.