A5103126277- Neuroscience and Neuropharmacology Research
- Maternal Mental Health During Pregnancy and Postpartum
- Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior
- Stress Responses and Cortisol
- Receptor Mechanisms and Signaling
- RNA Research and Splicing
- Memory and Neural Mechanisms
- Circadian rhythm and melatonin
- Neurotransmitter Receptor Influence on Behavior
- Genomics and Chromatin Dynamics
- Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration Mechanisms
- Mental Health Research Topics
- Ion channel regulation and function
- Immune Cell Function and Interaction
- Pain Mechanisms and Treatments
- Cancer-related molecular mechanisms research
Medical University of South Carolina
2019-2025
Johns Hopkins University
2019-2024
Johns Hopkins Medicine
2019-2024
Self-administration of addictive substances like heroin can couple the rewarding/euphoric effects drug with drug-associated cues, and opioid cue reactivity contributes to relapse vulnerability in abstinent individuals recovering from an use disorder (OUD). Opioids are reported alter intrinsic excitability medium spiny neurons (MSNs) nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key brain reward region linked seeking, but how opioids NAc MSN neuronal impact altered on relapse-like seeking remain unclear. Here...
Emotional experiences often evoke neural plasticity that supports adaptive changes in behavior, including maladaptive associated with mood and substance use disorders. These adaptations are supported part by experience-dependent activation of immediate-early response genes, such as
Abstract Neuronal activation induces immediate early response genes expression, essential for behavioral adaptation to emotional stimuli. Npas4 is rapidly induced by synaptic activity, regulating responses cocaine reward conditioning and chronic stress. A novel long non-coding RNA (LncRNA) transcribed from enhancer identified as stimuli-induced mRNA expression formation of reward-associated context in NAc stress-induced deficits sucrose preference mPFC. Notably, LncRNA forms DNA:RNA hybrid...
Abstract Repeated cocaine use produces adaptations in brain function that contribute to long‐lasting behaviors associated with disorder (CUD). In rodents, the activity‐regulated cytoskeleton‐associated protein (Arc) can regulate glutamatergic synaptic transmission, and regulates Arc expression subcellular localization multiple regions, including nucleus accumbens (NAc)—a region linked CUD‐related behavior. We show here repeated, non‐contingent administration global KO male mice produced a...
Abstract Mutations in the astrocyte-enriched enzyme aldehyde dehydrogenase 7a1 (ALDH7A1) cause a neonatal epilepsy accompanied by treatment-resistant, inter-ictal neuropsychiatric symptoms. Nevertheless, mechanistic impact of ALDH7A1 dysfunction brain remains elusive. We generated knockout mice and report that constitutive global depletion increases chemoconvulsant sensitivity altered mood-associated behaviors. However, contrary to our expectation, astrocyte-specific only affects...
Abstract Stress during childhood and adolescence increases the risk for postpartum depression (PPD). Patients with who have experienced adverse life events tend to be treatment refractory. However, mechanism by which stress are involved in pathophysiology of PPD remains unclear. We investigated longitudinal effects adolescent on hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis behaviors period through mouse human studies. observed that social isolation caused an aberrantly sustained elevation...