7 documents found, page 1 of 1
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...
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...
Criticality between Cortical States
Fontenele, Antonio J.; Vasconcelos, Nivaldo António Portela; Feliciano, Thaís; Aguiar, Leandro A. A.; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Coimbra, BárbaraSince the first measurements of neuronal avalanches, the critical brain hypothesis has gained traction. However, if the brain is critical, what is the phase transition? For several decades, it has been known that the cerebral cortex operates in a diversity of regimes, ranging from highly synchronous states (with higher spiking variability) to desynchronized states (with lower spiking variability). Here, using b...
The Impact of Prenatal Exposure to Dexamethasone on Gastrointestinal Function i...
Ramalhosa, Fátima; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Seixal, Rui Miguel; Sousa, Nuno; Carvalho, Ana Raquel Franky GomesAntenatal treatment with synthetic glucocorticoids is commonly used in pregnant women at risk of preterm delivery to accelerate tissue maturation. Exposure to glucocorticoids during development has been hypothesized to underlie different functional gastrointestinal (GI) and motility disorders. Herein, we investigated the impact of in utero exposure to synthetic glucocorticoids (iuGC) on GI function of adult rat...
A molecular switch on an arrestin-like protein relays glucose signaling to tran...
Becuwe, Michel; Vieira, Neide; Lara, David; Gomes-Rezende, Jéssica; Soares-Cunha, Carina; Casal, Margarida; Haguenauer-Tsapis, Rosine; Vincent, OlivierEndocytosis regulates the plasma membrane protein landscape in response to environmental cues. In yeast, the endocytosis of transporters depends on their ubiquitylation by the Nedd4-like ubiquitin ligase Rsp5, but how extracellular signals trigger this ubiquitylation is unknown. Various carbon source transporters are known to be ubiquitylated and endocytosed when glucose-starved cells are exposed to glucose. We...