164 results match your criteria: "Carl-Ludwig-Institute for Physiology[Affiliation]"

Succinate is a pivotal tricarboxylic acid cycle metabolite but also specifically activates the G- and G-coupled succinate receptor 1 (SUCNR1). Contradictory roles of succinate and succinate-SUCNR1 signaling include reports about its anti- or pro-inflammatory effects. The link between cellular metabolism and localization-dependent SUCNR1 signaling qualifies as a potential cause for the reported conflicts.

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In Alzheimer's disease (AD) research, the 5xFAD mouse model is commonly used as a heterozygote crossed with other genetic models to study AD pathology. We investigated whether the parental origin of the 5xFAD transgene affects plaque deposition. Using quantitative light-sheet microscopy, we found that paternal inheritance of the transgene led to a 2-fold higher plaque burden compared with maternal inheritance, a finding consistent across multiple 5xFAD colonies.

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Catecholaminergic dysfunction drives postural and locomotor deficits in a mouse model of spinal muscular atrophy.

Cell Rep

January 2025

Center for Motor Neuron Biology and Disease, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA; Department of Neurology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA; Department of Pathology and Cell Biology, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032, USA. Electronic address:

Article Synopsis
  • Understanding posture is crucial for how mammals move, and dysregulation of certain brain chemicals, specifically dopamine and noradrenaline, can lead to motor problems in diseases like spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).
  • Research using a mouse model of SMA revealed that the loss of synapses in the spinal neurons, caused by non-cell autonomous mechanisms, contributes to motor dysfunction and postural issues.
  • Restoring a specific protein (survival motor neuron) in either catecholaminergic or serotonergic neurons can improve movement, but significant postural issues only improve with restoration in both neuron types or treatment with l-dopa, highlighting new potential treatment strategies.
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Physiological and Pathological Role of mTOR Signaling in Astrocytes.

Neurochem Res

December 2024

Carl-Ludwig-Institute for Physiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Leipzig, D- 04103, Leipzig, Germany.

Article Synopsis
  • The mTOR signaling pathway is a crucial regulator of cellular energy metabolism, responding to changes in nutrients and growth factors in the brain.
  • Astrocytes play a key role in brain function by influencing energy and neurotransmitter metabolism, yet the role of mTOR signaling in astrocytes is not fully understood.
  • Dysregulation of mTOR can impair astrocytic functions, potentially leading to neurological issues, and this review explores how mTOR signaling impacts astrocyte activities and overall brain health.
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Brain function requires a constant supply of glucose. However, the brain has no known energy stores, except for glycogen granules in astrocytes. In the present study, we report that continuous oligodendroglial lipid metabolism provides an energy reserve in white matter tracts.

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Article Synopsis
  • * The study used advanced techniques such as proteomics and interactomics on mouse models with varying disease severities to identify networks of proteins and their interactions that illuminate both similarities and differences in SMA presentation.
  • * By integrating data on the SMN protein with these molecular networks, researchers were able to pinpoint critical connections and disruptions that contribute to SMA, offering a new way to analyze monogenic diseases through a systematic approach.
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Astrocytes constitute a heterogeneous cell population within the brain, contributing crucially to brain homeostasis and playing an important role in overall brain function. Their function and metabolism are not only regulated by local signals, for example, from nearby neurons, but also by long-range signals such as hormones. Thus, two prominent hormones primarily known for regulating the energy balance of the whole organism, insulin, and leptin, have been reported to also impact astrocytes within the brain.

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We addressed the question of mitochondrial lactate metabolism using genetically-encoded sensors. The organelle was found to contain a dynamic lactate pool that leads to dose- and time-dependent protein lactylation. In neurons, mitochondrial lactate reported blood lactate levels with high fidelity.

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Major burdens for patients suffering from stroke are cognitive co-morbidities and epileptogenesis. Neural network disinhibition and deficient inhibitive pulses for fast network activities may result from impaired presynaptic release of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. To test this hypothesis, a cortical photothrombotic stroke was induced in rats, and inhibitory currents were recorded seven days later in the peri-infarct blood-brain barrier disrupted (BBBd) hippocampus via patch-clamp electrophysiology in CA1 pyramidal cells (PC).

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Spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a varying degree of severity that correlates with the reduction of SMN protein levels. Motor neuron degeneration and skeletal muscle atrophy are hallmarks of SMA, but it is unknown whether other mechanisms contribute to the spectrum of clinical phenotypes. Here, through a combination of physiological and morphological studies in mouse models and SMA patients, we identify dysfunction and loss of proprioceptive sensory synapses as key signatures of SMA pathology.

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ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels couple cell metabolism to cellular electrical activity. Humans affected by severe activating mutations in KATP channels suffer from developmental delay, epilepsy and neonatal diabetes (DEND syndrome). While the aetiology of diabetes in DEND syndrome is well understood, the pathophysiology of the neurological symptoms remains unclear.

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Oligodendrocytes and astrocytes are metabolically coupled to neuronal compartments. Pyruvate and lactate can shuttle between glial cells and axons via monocarboxylate transporters. However, lactate can only be synthesized or used in metabolic reactions with the help of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), a tetramer of LDHA and LDHB subunits in varying compositions.

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Similarities in the Electrographic Patterns of Delayed Cerebral Infarction and Brain Death After Aneurysmal and Traumatic Subarachnoid Hemorrhage.

Transl Stroke Res

February 2024

Department of Neurosurgery, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, and Berlin Institute of Health, Berlin, Germany.

While subarachnoid hemorrhage is the second most common hemorrhagic stroke in epidemiologic studies, the recent DISCHARGE-1 trial has shown that in reality, three-quarters of focal brain damage after subarachnoid hemorrhage is ischemic. Two-fifths of these ischemic infarctions occur early and three-fifths are delayed. The vast majority are cortical infarcts whose pathomorphology corresponds to anemic infarcts.

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Glucose homeostasis is maintained by hormones secreted from different cell types of the pancreatic islets and controlled by manifold input including signals mediated through G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). RNA-seq analyses revealed expression of numerous GPCRs in mouse and human pancreatic islets, among them Gpr116/Adgrf5. GPR116 is an adhesion GPCR mainly found in lung and required for surfactant secretion.

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Fully-primed slowly-recovering vesicles mediate presynaptic LTP at neocortical neurons.

Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A

October 2023

Faculty of Medicine, Carl-Ludwig-Institute for Physiology, Leipzig University, Leipzig 04103, Germany.

Pre- and postsynaptic forms of long-term potentiation (LTP) are candidate synaptic mechanisms underlying learning and memory. At layer 5 pyramidal neurons, LTP increases the initial synaptic strength but also short-term depression during high-frequency transmission. This classical form of presynaptic LTP has been referred to as redistribution of synaptic efficacy.

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Human NMDAR autoantibodies disrupt excitatory-inhibitory balance, leading to hippocampal network hypersynchrony.

Cell Rep

October 2023

Section of Translational Neuroimmunology, Department of Neurology, Jena University Hospital, 07747 Jena, Germany. Electronic address:

Anti-NMDA receptor autoantibodies (NMDAR-Abs) in patients with NMDAR encephalitis cause severe disease symptoms resembling psychosis and cause cognitive dysfunction. After passive transfer of patients' cerebrospinal fluid or human monoclonal anti-GluN1-autoantibodies in mice, we find a disrupted excitatory-inhibitory balance resulting from CA1 neuronal hypoexcitability, reduced AMPA receptor (AMPAR) signaling, and faster synaptic inhibition in acute hippocampal slices. Functional alterations are also reflected in widespread remodeling of the hippocampal proteome, including changes in glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission.

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G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) modulate the function of adipose tissue (AT) in general and of adipocytes, specifically. Although it is well-established that GPCRs are widely expressed in AT, their repertoire as well as their regulation and function in (patho)physiological conditions (e.g.

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Introduction: The implications of folate deficiency in neuropsychiatric disorders were demonstrated in numerous studies. Genetic deficiency in a key folate metabolism enzyme, MTHFR, is an example of the interaction between genetic and environmental risk factors: the maternal MTHFR deficiency governs nutrient availability, and the embryo's genotype influences its ability to metabolize folates. Here, we explore how the maternal and offspring genotypes affect cortical interneuron densities and distributions, mouse social outcome, and the relation of the different interneuron patterns to cortical excitability.

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In the mouse cortex, oligodendrocytes regain a plastic capacity, transforming into astrocytes after acute injury.

Dev Cell

July 2023

Molecular Physiology, Center for Integrative Physiology and Molecular Medicine, University of Saarland, 66421 Homburg, Germany. Electronic address:

Acute brain injuries evoke various response cascades directing the formation of the glial scar. Here, we report that acute lesions associated with hemorrhagic injuries trigger a re-programming of oligodendrocytes. Single-cell RNA sequencing highlighted a subpopulation of oligodendrocytes activating astroglial genes after acute brain injuries.

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The composition of voltage-gated Ca channel (Ca) subtypes that gate action potential (AP)-evoked release changes during the development of mammalian CNS synapses. Ca2.2 and Ca2.

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Boosting neuregulin 1 type-III expression hastens SMA motor axon maturation.

Acta Neuropathol Commun

March 2023

Departments of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 855 North Wolfe Street, Rangos Building Room 234, Baltimore, MD, 21205, USA.

Intercellular communication between axons and Schwann cells is critical for attaining the complex morphological steps necessary for axon maturation. In the early onset motor neuron disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), many motor axons are not ensheathed by Schwann cells nor grow sufficiently in radial diameter to become myelinated. These developmentally arrested motor axons are dysfunctional and vulnerable to rapid degeneration, limiting efficacy of current SMA therapeutics.

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Deep Isoflurane Anesthesia Is Associated with Alterations in Ion Homeostasis and Specific Na+/K+-ATPase Impairment in the Rat Brain.

Anesthesiology

June 2023

Department of Experimental Neurology, Department of Anesthesiology and Intensive Care, Institute of Neurophysiology, and Neuroscience Research Center, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, corporate member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt - Universität zu Berlin, Berlin, Germany; Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany, and Institute of Computer-assisted Cardiovascular Medicine, Deutsches Herzzentrum der Charité, Berlin, Germany.

Background: Maintenance of ion homeostasis is essential for normal brain function. Inhalational anesthetics are known to act on various receptors, but their effects on ion homeostatic systems, such as sodium/potassium-adenosine triphosphatase (Na+/K+-ATPase), remain largely unexplored. Based on reports demonstrating global network activity and wakefulness modulation by interstitial ions, the hypothesis was that deep isoflurane anesthesia affects ion homeostasis and the key mechanism for clearing extracellular potassium, Na+/K+-ATPase.

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To examine whether and how the inspiratory neuronal network in the preBötzinger complex (preBötC) develops during the early postnatal period, we quantified the composition of the population of inspiratory neurons between postnatal day 1 (p1) and p10 by applying calcium imaging to medullary transverse slices in double-transgenic mice expressing fluorescent marker proteins. We found that putative excitatory and glycinergic neurons formed a majority of the population of inspiratory neurons, and the composition rates of these two inspiratory neurons inverted at p5-6. We also found that the activity patterns of these two types of inspiratory neurons became significantly well-synchronized with the inspiratory rhythmic bursting pattern in the preBötC within the first postnatal week.

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Plastin 3 (PLS3) is an F-actin-bundling protein that has gained attention as a modifier of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) pathology. SMA is a lethal pediatric neuromuscular disease caused by loss of or mutations in the Survival Motor Neuron 1 (SMN1) gene. Pathophysiological hallmarks are cellular maturation defects of motoneurons prior to degeneration.

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