The protein kinase JNK1 exhibits high activity in the developing brain, where it regulates dendrite morphology through the phosphorylation of cytoskeletal regulatory proteins. JNK1 also phosphorylates dendritic spine proteins, and Jnk1-/- mice displa...
Dendritic spines are actin-rich protrusions that receive a signal from the axon at the synapse. Remodeling of cytoskeletal actin is tightly connected to dendritic spine morphology-mediated synaptic plasticity of the neuron. Remodeling of cytoskeletal...
Brain synapses are neuronal structures of the greatest interest. For a long time, however, the knowledge about them was variable, and interest was mostly focused on their pre-synaptic portions, especially neurotransmitter release from axon terminals....
Compartmentalization of the membrane is essential for cells to perform highly specific tasks and spatially constrained biochemical functions in topographically defined areas. These membrane lateral heterogeneities range from nanoscopic dimensions, of...
Dendritic spine formation/maintenance is highly dependent on actin cytoskeletal dynamics, which is regulated by small GTPases Rac1 and Cdc42 through their downstream p21-activated kinase/LIM-kinase-I/cofilin pathway. ARHGEF7, also known as ß-PI...
Neurogenesis and functional brain activity require complex associations of inherently programmed secretory elements that are regulated precisely and temporally. Family with sequence similarity 19 A1 (FAM19A1) is a secreted protein primarily expressed...
Dendritic spines are small, bulbous protrusions along neuronal dendrites where most of the excitatory synapses are located. Dendritic spine density in normal human brain increases rapidly before and after birth achieving the highest density around 2–...
Learning and memory formation rely on synaptic plasticity, the process that changes synaptic strength in response to neuronal activity. In the tripartite synapse concept, molecular signals that affect synapse strength and morphology originate not onl...
β-site amyloid precursor protein-cleaving enzyme 1 (BACE1) is considered a therapeutic target to combat Alzheimer’s disease by reducing β-amyloid in the brain. To date, all clinical trials involving the inhibition of BACE1 have been d...
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is defined by the destruction of upper- and lower motor neurons. Post-mortem, nearly all ALS cases are positive for cytoplasmic aggregates containing the DNA/RNA binding protein TDP-43. Recent studies indicate that...
Olfaction could represent a pivotal process involved in fish orientation and migration. The olfactory bulb can manage olfactive signals at the granular cell (GC) and dendritic spine levels for their synaptic plasticity properties and changing their m...
Clinical and preclinical studies indicate that adaptations in corticostriatal neurotransmission significantly contribute to heroin relapse vulnerability. In animal models, heroin self-administration and extinction produce cellular adaptations in both...
Numerous brain diseases are associated with abnormalities in morphology and density of dendritic spines, small membranous protrusions whose structural geometry correlates with the strength of synaptic connections. Thus, the quantitative analysis of d...
Epileptogenesis may be responsible for both of recurrent seizures and comorbid depression in epilepsy. Disease-modifying treatments targeting the latent period before spontaneous recurrent seizures may contribute to the remission of seizures and como...
Human endogenous retroviruses (HERVs) are remnants of ancestral germline infections by exogenous retroviruses. Human endogenous retroviruses W family envelope gene (HERV-W env, also called ERVWE1), located on chromosome 7q21-22, encodes an envelope g...
Dendritic spines are small, thin, hair-like protrusions found on the dendritic processes of neurons. They serve as independent compartments providing large amplitudes of Ca2+ signals to achieve synaptic plasticity, provide sites for newer synapses, f...
EB3 protein is expressed abundantly in the nervous system and transiently enters the dendritic spines at the tip of the growing microtubule, which leads to spine enlargement. Nevertheless, the role of dynamic microtubules, and particularly EB3 protei...
Actin and non-muscle myosins have long been known to play important roles in growth cone steering and neurite outgrowth. More recently, novel functions for non-muscle myosin have been described in axons and dendritic spines. Consequently, possible ro...
The interaction of Rabphilin-3A (Rph3A) with the NMDA receptor (NMDAR) in hippocampal neurons plays a pivotal role in the synaptic retention of this receptor. The formation of a Rph3A/NMDAR complex is needed for the induction of long-term potentiatio...
Three-dimensional (3D) reconstruction from electron microscopy (EM) datasets is a widely used tool that has improved our knowledge of synapse ultrastructure and organization in the brain. Rearrangements of synapse structure following maturation and i...
Dendritic spines are essential for synaptic function because they constitute the postsynaptic compartment of the neurons that receives the most excitatory input. The extracellularly shorter variant of the presynaptic cell adhesion molecules neurexins...
Neurofilaments are one of the main cytoskeletal components in neurons; they can be found in the form of oligomers at pre- and postsynapses. How their presence is regulated at the postsynapse remains largely unclear. Here we systematically quantified,...
Rab27a is an evolutionarily conserved small GTPase that regulates vesicle trafficking, and copy number variants of RAB27a are associated with increased risk of autism. However, the function of Rab27a on brain development is unknown. Here, we identifi...
Among the animal models of Parkinson’s disease (PD), the 1-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine (MPTP)-lesioned mouse model has shown both dopaminergic (DA) damage and related motor control defects, as observed in patients with PD. Recent studi...
There is a growing concern worldwide about the potential harmful effects of anesthesia on brain development, based on studies in both humans and animals. In infants, repeated anesthesia exposure is linked to learning disabilities and attention disord...
General anesthetics may accelerate the neuropathological changes related to Alzheimer’s disease (AD), of which amyloid beta (Aβ)-induced toxicity is one of the main causes. However, the interaction of general anesthetics with different A&b...
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder that affects memory formation and storage processes. Dysregulated neuronal calcium (Ca2+) has been identified as one of the key pathogenic events in AD, and it has been suggested that pha...
Cognitive impairments are closely related to synaptic loss in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Functional changes in synaptic contacts are reflected in dendritic spine morphology. Visualization of neurons for morphological studies in vivo is complicat...
Exposure to hypoxia at high altitudes is significantly associated with impairments in learning and memory functions, as well as abnormalities in neuronal function and synaptic plasticity. Recent research has indicated that mitochondrial reactive oxyg...
Disturbances of synaptic connectivity during perinatal and adolescent periods have been hypothesized to be related to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Rho guanine nucleotide exchange factor 11 (ARHGEF11) is a specific guanine nucleotide exchange...
Evidence indicates that inhalative anesthetics enhance the β-site amyloid precursor protein (APP)-cleaving enzyme (BACE) activity, increase amyloid beta 1-42 (Aβ1–42) aggregation, and modulate dendritic spine dynamics. However, the me...
Microribonucleic acids (miRNAs) play a pivotal role in numerous aspects of the nervous system and are increasingly recognized as key regulators in neurodegenerative diseases. This study hypothesized that miR-34c, a miRNA expressed in mammalian hippoc...
Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder with high incidence in children and adolescents characterized by motor hyperactivity, impulsivity, and inattention. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has revealed that ne...
KED and EDR peptides prevent dendritic spines loss in amyloid synaptotoxicity in in vitro model of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The objective of this paper was to study epigenetic mechanisms of EDR and KED peptides’ neuroprotective effects on neuroplast...
Cholesterol-dependent cytolysins (CDCs) are protein toxins that originate from Gram-positive bacteria and contribute substantially to their pathogenicity. CDCs bind membrane cholesterol and build prepores and lytic pores. Some effects of the toxins a...
Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) affects around 1% of children with no effective blood test or cure. Recent studies have suggested that these are neurological disorders with a strong genetic basis and that they are associated with the abnormal formatio...
Studying the morphological changes in dendrites and dendritic spines during the early postnatal period is essential for unraveling the development of neural circuits and synaptic connectivity. Structural alterations in the dendritic arborization and...
The classical motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) are caused by degeneration of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra, which is followed by secondary dendritic pruning and spine loss at striatal medium spiny neurons (MSN). We hypo...
Due to the widespread access to, and implementation of, combination antiretroviral therapy, individuals perinatally infected with human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) are living into adolescence and adulthood. Perinatally infected adolescents...
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease that results in memory impairment. Aegle marmelos (L.) Correa (AM) is used as a traditional medicine. AM leaves have the potential to inhibit acetylcholinesterase activity. T...
α-thalassemia X-linked intellectual disability (ATR-X) syndrome is caused by mutations in ATRX. An ATR-X model mouse lacking Atrx exon 2 displays phenotypes that resemble symptoms in the human intellectual disability: cognitive defects and abno...
HIV-1 Tat continues to play an important role in the development of HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders (HAND), which persist in 15–55% of people living with HIV even with virological control. In the brain, Tat is present on neurons, where...
The neuropeptide VGF (non-acronymic) is induced by brain-derived neurotrophic factor and promotes hippocampal neurogenesis, as well as synaptic activity. However, morphological changes induced by VGF have not been elucidated. Developing hippocampal n...
Non-apoptotic caspase-3 activation is critically involved in dendritic spine loss and synaptic dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease. It is, however, not known whether caspase-3 plays similar roles in other pathologies. Using a mouse model of clin...
Homozygosity of the p.Arg204Trp variation in the Pleckstrin homology and RhoGEF domain containing G2 (PLEKHG2) gene, which encodes a Rho family-specific guanine nucleotide-exchange factor, is responsible for microcephaly with intellectual disability....
Depression is the most common affective disorder worldwide, accounting for 4.4% of the global population, a figure that could increase in the coming decades. In depression, there exists a reduction in the availability of dendritic spines in the front...
Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is characterized by deficits in learning and memory. A pathological feature of AD is the alterations in the number and size of synapses, axon length, dendritic complexity, and dendritic spine numbers in the hippocampus...
Evidence indicates that long-term memory formation creates long-lasting changes in neuronal morphology within a specific neuronal network that forms the memory trace. Dendritic spines, which include most of the excitatory synapses in excitatory neuro...
Exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs) has increased rapidly in children, but information on the effects of RF-EMF exposure to the central nervous system in children is limited. In this study, pups and dams were exposed to whole-...
Ketamine is an N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist that has gained wide attention as a potent antidepressant. It has also been recently reported to have prophylactic effects in animal models of depression and anxiety. Alterations of neuroplastic...
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