Dr. Morales was chosen to receive a 2023 Winter Conference on Brain Research (WCBR) Pioneer Award for her distinguished career as chief of the Integrative Neuroscience Research Branch and Neuronal Networks Section at the NIDA IRP. Congratulations Dr. Morales, from all of us at the NIDA IRP! From the WCBR Website: “Pioneer Awards were introduced… [Read More]
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Technology Development Initiative – Paper of the Month – February 2023
Polony gels enable amplifiable DNA stamping and spatial transcriptomics of chronic pain. Cell.
Fu*, Sun*, Dong* et. al. generated and validated a novel polony-based ‘stamp gel’ that uses common lab equipment and enzymatic replication to produce copies of the 1 µm resolution barcoded array slide that is used for spatial transcriptomic capture. Taken together, polony gel stamping is poised to increase accessibility of high-resolution spatial transcriptomics. [Read More]
Spironolactone as a potential new pharmacotherapy for alcohol use disorder: convergent evidence from rodent and human studies
Featured Paper of the Month – February 2023
Published in Molecular Psychiatry with authors from the NIDA IRP Clinical Psychoneuroendocrinology and Neuropsychopharmacology Section and Neurobiology of Addiction Section.
The steroid hormone aldosterone regulates fluid and electrolyte homeostasis mainly via its mineralocorticoid receptor. Previous studies suggest that this pathway may also modulate alcohol seeking and consumption. Spironolactone is a nonselective mineralocorticoid receptor antagonist primarily used in clinical practice to treat cardiovascular conditions. Preliminary evidence indicates that spironolactone may also reduce alcohol use…
Role of ventral subiculum neuronal ensembles in incubation of oxycodone craving after electric barrier-induced voluntary abstinence
Hot Off the Press – January 26, 2023 Summary We recently introduced a rat model of incubation (time-dependent increase) of oxycodone craving after voluntary abstinence induced by negative consequences of drug seeking. Here, we used the activity marker Fos, muscimol-baclofen (GABAa+GABAb receptor agonists) global inactivation, and Daun02 selective inactivation of putative relapse-associated neuronal ensembles, to… [Read More]
Illuminating the monoamine transporters: Fluorescently labelled ligands to study dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine transporters
Reviews To Read – January 2023. Published in Basic & Clinical Pharmacology & Toxicology by Gisela Andrea Camacho-Hernandez , Khorshada Jahan, and Amy Hauck Newman of the NIDA IRP Medicinal Chemistry Section. The monoamine transporters are proteins that are primarily responsible for the clearance of dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine, important monoamine neurotransmitters that are involved… [Read More]
Technology Development Initiative – Paper of the Month – January 2023
Rapid Quantum Magnetic IL-6 Point-of-Care Assay in Patients Hospitalized with COVID-19. Diagnostics.
The quantum diamond microscope system is a sensitive method to detect target proteins in a short time compared to similar immunocomplex-based detection methods (e.g. traditional ELISAs). This method does not require removal of unbound beads or extensive wash steps thus providing relatively fast and sensitive assay for measuring protein targets in pre-clinical and clinical applications. [Read More]
A red nucleus-VTA glutamate pathway underlies exercise reward and the therapeutic effect of exercise on cocaine use
Featured Paper of the Month – January 2023
Published in Science Advances by Yi He and Zheng-Xiong Xi, et al. of the NIDA IRP Addiction Biology Unit.
It is well known that physical exercise is rewarding and protective against drug abuse and addiction. However, the neural mechanisms underlying these actions are not fully understood. In this report, we found that prolonged daily voluntary wheel-running produced a more robust increase in c-fos expression in the red nucleus (RN) than in other brain regions. Subsequent neuronal tracing imaging and electrophysiological assays demonstrated that most RN neurons are glutamatergic in its magnocellular portion (RNm) and wheel-running activates a subset of RNm glutamate neurons that project to the neighboring ventral tegmental area (VTA), particularly to contralateral VTA dopamine neurons…
Calcium activity is a degraded estimate of spikes
Hot Off the Press – December 22, 2022 Summary Neurons communicate via electrical signals – spikes – and recording these has provided fundamental information regarding how the brain works. When neurons send electrical signals, several other biological signals occur, notably calcium. Calcium signaling is often used to make inferences about spike activity. However, it was… [Read More]
Kauê Costa named an Allen Institute Next Generation Leader
The Allen Institute has announced six new Next Generation Leaders (NGL), members of a unique neuroscience advisory panel made up of early-career researchers who will help advise research efforts at the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the MindScope Program, and the Allen Institute for Neural Dynamics. Among the new panel members is Kauê Machado Costa,… [Read More]
Technology Development Initiative – Paper of the Month – December 2022
Nanoparticle single-cell multiomic readouts reveal that cell heterogeneity influences lipid nanoparticle-mediated messenger RNA delivery. Nature Nanotechnology.
Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Emory University’s School of Medicine have developed a system that makes nanoparticle delivery to subsets of cells more predictable by combining DNA barcoding with a nanoparticle delivery system called single-cell nanoparticle targeting-sequencing (SENT-seq). Using SENT-seq, the investigators identified how different nanoparticles deliver DNA barcodes and mRNA into cells to affect the transcriptome and proteome with single cell resolution. [Read More]
