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The Duration of Stress Determines Sex Specificities in the Vulnerability to Dep...
Gaspar, Rita; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Coimbra, Bárbara; Baptista, Filipa; Pinto, Luísa; Ambrósio, António; Rodrigues, Ana-JoãoStress exposure has been shown to induce a variety of molecular and functional alterations associated with anxiety and depression. Some studies suggest that microglia, the immune cells of the brain, play a significant role in determining neuronal and behavioral responses to chronic stress and also contribute to the development of stress-related psychopathologies. However, little is known about the impact of the...
Resilience to stress and sex-specific remodeling of microglia and neuronal morp...
Gaspar, Rita; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Coimbra, Bárbara; Baptista, Filipa I.; Pinto, Luísa; Ambrósio, António; Rodrigues, Ana JoãoPrenatal exposure to stress or glucocorticoids (GC) is associated with the appearance of psychiatric diseases later in life. Microglia, the immune cells of the brain, are altered in stress-related disorders. Synthetic GC such as dexamethasone (DEX) are commonly prescribed in case of preterm risk labour in order to promote fetal lung maturation. Recently, we reported long-lasting differences in microglia morphol...
Fractionating stem cells secretome for Parkinson's disease modeling: Is it the ...
Vilaça-Faria, Helena; Marote, Ana; Lages, Inês; Ribeiro, Clarisse; Mendes-Pinheiro, Bárbara; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Campos, Jonas; Lanceros-Méndez, S.Human mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs) secretome has been have been at the forefront of a new wave of possible therapeutic strategies for central nervous system neurodegenerative disorders, as Parkinson's disease (PD). While within its protein fraction, several promising proteins were already identified with therapeutic properties on PD, the potential of hMSCs-secretome vesicular fraction remains to be elucidated...
Nucleus accumbens medium spiny neurons subtypes signal both reward and aversion
Soares-Cunha, Carina; Vasconcelos, Nivaldo António Portela; Coimbra, Bárbara; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Silva, Joana M.; Loureiro-Campos, EduardoDeficits in decoding rewarding (and aversive) signals are present in several neuropsychiatric conditions such as depression and addiction, emphasising the importance of studying the underlying neural circuits in detail. One of the key regions of the reward circuit is the nucleus accumbens (NAc). The classical view on the field postulates that NAc dopamine receptor D1-expressing medium spiny neurons (D1-MSNs) co...
Role of laterodorsal tegmentum projections to nucleus accumbens in reward-relat...
Coimbra, Bárbara; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Vasconcelos, Nivaldo António Portela; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Borges, Sónia; Sousa, Nuno; Rodrigues, Ana JoãoThe laterodorsal tegmentum (LDT) is associated with reward considering that it modulates VTA neuronal activity, but recent anatomical evidence shows that the LDT also directly projects to nucleus accumbens (NAc). We show that the majority of LDT-NAc inputs are cholinergic, but there is also GABAergic and glutamatergic innervation; activation of LDT induces a predominantly excitatory response in the NAc. Non-sel...
Mild prenatal stress causes emotional and brain structural modifications in rat...
Cunha, Carina Isabel Soares; Coimbra, Bárbara Guimarães Salazar; Borges, Sónia; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Silva, Deolinda; Sousa, NunoStress or high levels of glucocorticoids (GCs) during developmental periods is known to induce persistent effects in the neuroendocrine circuits that control stress response, which may underlie individuals' increased risk for developing neuropsychiatric conditions later in life, such as anxiety or depression. We developed a rat model (Wistar han) of mild exposure to unpredictable prenatal stress (PS), which con...
Nucleus accumbens microcircuit underlying D2-MSN-Driven increase in motivation
Cunha, Carina Isabel Soares; Coimbra, Bárbara Guimarães Salazar; Domingues, Ana Verónica; Vasconcelos, Nivaldo António Portela; Sousa, NunoThe nucleus accumbens (NAc) plays a central role in reinforcement and motivation. Around 95% of the NAc neurons are medium spiny neurons (MSNs), divided into those expressing dopamine receptor D1 (D1R) or dopamine receptor D2 (D2R). Optogenetic activation of D2-MSNs increased motivation, whereas inhibition of these neurons produced the opposite effect. Yet, it is still unclear how activation of D2-MSNs affects ...