Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Glutamate clearance by astrocytes is an essential part of physiological excitatory neurotransmission. Failure to adapt or maintain low levels of glutamate in the central nervous system is associated with multiple acute and chronic neurodegenerative diseases. The primary excitatory amino acid transporters (EAATs) in human astrocytes are EAAT1 and EAAT2 (GLAST and GLT-1 respectively in rodents). While the inhibition of a ubiquitously-expressed serine/threonine protein kinase, the calcium/calmodulindependent kinase (CaMKII) results in diminished glutamate uptake in cultured primary rodent astrocytes, the molecular mechanism underlying this regulation is unknown. In order to delineate this mechanism, we use a heterologous expression model to explore CaMKII regulation of EAAT1 and EAAT2. In transiently transfected HEK293T cells, pharmacological inhibition of CaMKII and overexpression of a dominant-negative version of CaMKII (Asp136Asn) reduces [3H]-glutamate uptake by EAAT1, without altering EAAT2 mediated glutamate uptake. Surprisingly, overexpression of a constitutively active autophosphorylation mutant (Thr287Asp) to increase autonomous CaMKII activity and a mutant incapable of autophosphorylation (Thr287Val) had no effect on either EAAT1 or EAAT2 mediated glutamate uptake. Pulldown of FLAGtagged glutamate transporters suggests CaMKII does not interact with EAAT1 or EAAT2. SPOTS peptide arrays and recombinant GST-fusion proteins of the intracellular N- and C-termini of EAAT1 identified two potential phosphorylation sites at residues Thr26 and Thr37 in the N-terminus. Introducing an Ala (a non-phospho mimetic) but not an Asp (phosphomimetic) at Thr37 diminished EAAT1-mediated glutamate uptake, suggesting that the phosphorylation state of this residue is important for constitutive EAAT1 function. In sum, this is the first report of a glutamate transporter being identified as a direct CaMKII substrate. These findings indicate that CaMKII signaling is a critical driver of homeostatic glutamate uptake by EAAT1. Aberrations in basal CaMKII activity disrupt glutamate uptake, which can perpetuate glutamate-mediated excitotoxicity and result in cellular death.

Les études épidémiologiques ont démontré un risque accru d’autisme chez les enfants nés d’une mère hospitalisée pour infection au cours de la grossesse. L’imitation d’une infection virale dans le but de déclencher une Activation Immunitaire Maternelle (MIA) a été réalisé avec succès dans des modèles animaux. Ceci a démontré qu’une MIA conduit à des altérations physiologiques et comportementales sur le long terme. Notre but consistait à étudier la présence de séquelles néonatales chez des souris nées de mère MIA. Nous avons observé que la MIA altère l’activité et la morphologie des neurones dès la naissance, et que ces modifications restaient présentes dans les animaux âgés de deux semaines. La MIA subie au cours de la grossesse altère donc les neurones dès la naissance. / Epidemiological studies have shown an increased risk for autism in children born from mothers hospitalized for infection during pregnancy. Mimicking a maternal infection during pregnancy to trigger a Maternal Immune Activation (MIA) has been successfully achieved in animal models, showing that it leads to long term physiological and behavioural alterations. Our goal was to investigate neonatal sequels in MIA mice offspring. We found that already at birth MIA alters neuronal activity and morphology, and these changes were still present in two-week-old animals. Consequently, MIA during pregnancy alters neurons already at birth.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Umeå universitet, 2009. / Härtill 4 uppsatser. Även tryckt utgåva.

Many cells in the inferior colliculus (IC) are excited by contralateral and inhibited by ipsilateral stimulation and are thought to be important for sound localization. These excitatory-inhibitory (EI) cells comprise a diverse group, even though they exhibit a common binaural response property. Previous extracellular studies proposed specific excitatory and/or inhibitory events that should be evoked by each ear and thereby generate each of the EI discharge properties. The proposals were inferences based on the well established response features of neurons in lower nuclei, the projections of those nuclei, their excitatory or inhibitory neurochemistry, and the changes in response features that occurred when inhibition was blocked. Here we recorded the inputs, the postsynaptic potentials, discharges evoked by monaural and binaural signals in EI cells with in vivo whole cell recordings from the inferior colliculus (IC) of awake bats. We also computed the excitatory and inhibitory synaptic conductances from the recorded sound evoked responses. First, we showed that a minority of EI cells either inherited their binaural property from a lower binaural nucleus or the EI property was created in the IC via inhibitory projections from the ipsilateral ear, features consistent with those observed in extracellular studies. Second, we showed that in a majority of EI cells ipsilateral signals evoked subthreshold EPSPs that behaved paradoxically in that EPSP amplitudes increased with intensity, even though binaural signals with the same ipsilateral intensities generated progressively greater spike suppressions. These ipsilateral EPSPs were unexpected since they could not have been detected with extracellular recordings. These additional responses suggested that the circuitry underlying EI cells was more complex than previously suggested. We also proposed the functional significance of ipsilaterally evoked EPSPs in responding to moving sound sources or multiple sounds. Third, by computing synaptic conductances, we showed the circuitry of the EI cells was even more complicated than those suggested by PSPs, and we also evaluated how the binaural property was produced by the contralateral and ipsilateral synaptic events. / text

Diss. (sammanfattning) Linköping : Univ., 2003. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma. / Bibliography: leaves 117-135.

La synaptogenèse est un processus précis : chaque type d'afférences innerve des domaines subcellulaires post-synaptiques spécifiques sur leur cible neuronale. Pour tester si cette spécificité est contrôlée par une combinaison unique de molécules à chaque synapse, j'ai utilisé le système olivo-cérébelleux comme modèle. Deux afférences excitatrices, les fibres parallèles issues des grains et les fibres grimpantes issues des neurones de l'olive inférieure, innervent des territoires distincts sur la même cible, la cellule de Purkinje. Une analyse comparative des profils d'expressions génique des grains et des neurones olivaires a montré que ces derniers expriment une plus grande diversité de protéines membranaires et sécrétées liées au système immunitaire. De plus, chaque type d'afférences exprime une combinaison spécifique de gènes liés à la voie du complément du système immunitaire inné. Parmi ceux-ci, la protéine sécrétée C1QL1, de la famille C1Q, joue un rôle instructif pour l'établissement du territoire d'innervation des fibres grimpantes sur les cellules de Purkinje. La protéine membranaire liée au complément SUSD4 assure, quant à elle, la maturation fonctionnelle et la stabilisation de ces synapses. Sachant que la protéine CBLN1 de la famille C1Q contrôle la synaptogenèse des fibres parallèles, ces résultats montrent que les différents membres de la famille C1Q sont des déterminants importants de l'identité et de la connectivité spécifique de chaque synapse excitatrice dans le cortex cérébelleux. Cette étude porte un nouvel éclairage sur l'hypothèse de la " chemoaffinité " et de sa participation à la formation de circuits neuronaux spécifiques et précis. / Synapse connectivity occurs in a precise manner such that no two types of afferents innervate the same postsynaptic subcellular domain. To test whether this specificity is controlled by a unique combination of molecules at each synapse, I used the olivo-cerebellar circuit as a model. There, two excitatory inputs, the Parallel fibers originating from granule cells and Climbing fibers originating from inferior olivary neurons, innervate distinct territories on the same target neuron, the Purkinje cell. Comparative gene expression analysis of these two inputs showed that the inferior olivary neurons express a greater diversity of genes encoding membrane and secreted proteins belonging to immune system-related pathways. Moreover, each input expresses a specific combination of complement-related genes. Among these, I identified the functional roles of two novel candidate genes specifically expressed by inferior olivary neurons. Secreted C1Q-related protein C1QL1 plays an instructive role in specifying Climbing fiber innervation territory on Purkinje cells, while membrane-bound complement control-related protein SUSD4 ensures the acquisition of proper functional properties of Climbing fiber synapses and their long-term stability. Given that C1Q-related CBLN1 promotes Parallel fiber synaptogenesis, these results show that different members of the C1Q family are important determinants of the identity and specific connectivity of each excitatory synapse in the cerebellar cortex. This study provides novel insights into the “chemoaffinity code” that controls subcellular specificity at each synapse type during the formation of neural circuits.

In the heart, the existence of an electrical memory was firstly reported by Rosenbaum et al. (1982), but Rios et al. (1975) and Garcia Moreira (1977) were those that firstly described the existence of contractile memories in the amphibian myocardium. These authors developed a mathematical model for representing such phenomenon. In the present study, we aimed to characterize two kinds of contractile memories occurring in the mammalian myocardium. One of them, depresses the tissue (the depressant memory, DM) and the other one acts by stimulating it (the excitatory memory, EM). The pivotal rationale guiding this work was: when the heart is challenged by changing the environment sources like nutrients, chemicals, temperature, etc., its behavior changes in order to optimize the energy expenditure associated with its contractility. This adaptation process allows to be reached a new state of dynamic equilibrium. In order to express such behavior, the tissue creates contractile memories for adjusting the amplitude of myocardial forces. This is provided by balancing the load of DM and EM available at each myocardial beat. The expression and accumulation of these memories were studied in the guinea pig atria submitted to the experimental protocols described previously by Seed & Walker (1988), Shimizu (2000), and Conde-Garcia (not published). The expression and accumulation of myocardial memories were described by employing two static descriptors, LODMmax and LOEMmax. They stand for the maximum load of depressant memory and the maximum load of excitatory memory, respectively. Furthermore, another pair of dynamic descriptors was also used to measure the maximum rate of erasing of the depressant memory (MREDM) and the other one to measure the maximum rate of erasing of the excitatory memory (MREEM). The static descriptors represent the transference of load of both memories but the dynamic descriptors were related to the rate of erasing of such memories. Our results brought us onto the following conclusions: 1. contractile memories are a phenomenon apart from the electrical memory because rising the external potassium from 2.7 to 7.0 mM did not modify (n n = 4) LODMmax that changed from 82,09 ± 1,58 to 81,56 ± 2,01% (p > 0,05), LOEMmax from 83,36 ± 0,56 to 90,12 ± 17,92% (p > 0,05), MREDM changed from -1,36 ± 0,67 to -1,13 ± 0,42gf/s (p > 0,05), and MREED from -2,09 ± 1,65 to -1,56 ± 1,41gf/s (p > 0,05). 2. However, the expression and accumulation of DM and EM are affected by the intracellular calcium transient. The increase of extracellular calcium from 1,37 to 5,47mM (n = 3) reduced LODMmax: from 87,56 ± 2,33 to 63,83 ± 3,78% (p < 0,05); LOEMmax from 84,36 ± 0,54 to 13,91 ± 0,11% (p < 0,05); MREDM from -2,58 ± 0,71 to -1,20 ± 0,37gf/s (p < 0,05) and MREEM from -0,90 ± 0,13 to -0,34 ± 0,05 gf/s (p < 0,05). Adding 5mM cafeine to the bath solution also reduced LODMmax from 79,88 ± 3,48 to 56,68 ± 6,62% (p < 0,05); LOEMmax from 77,14 ± 1,02 to 28,54 ± 2,11% (p < 0,05); MREDM from -1,78 ± 0,50 to -0,60 ± 0,10 gf/s (p < 0,05), and MREED from -1,74 ± 0,64 to -0,33 ± 0,14 gf/s (p < 0,05); 3. In the experimental condition employed in this work, a given beat receives both depressant and excitatory information built by the last ten beats. / A capacidade de o miocárdio memorizar foi estudada inicialmente por Rosenbaum (1982), que, entre outros, relataram uma memória elétrica no coração. Todavia, Rios e cols. (1975) e Moreira (1977) foram os primeiros a descrever a existência de memória contrátil no miocárdio de anfíbio. Eles propuseram um modelo matemático para representar esse fenômeno. A nossa proposta, contudo, visou caracterizar dois tipos de memórias contráteis. Uma delas inibe o inotropismo (memória depressora, MD) e a outra, o estimula (memória excitadora, ME). A hipótese central deste trabalho propõe que, quando o coração é desafiado por um novo ambiente (nutrientes, químicos, pH etc.), ele redefine sua atividade contrátil para que possa alcançar um novo estado de equilíbrio. Para expressar tal comportamento, o miocárdio cria memórias, visando ajustar a amplitude das forças geradas. Isto se dá por meio do balanço entre a carga de MD e de ME de cada batimento. Neste trabalho, a expressão e a acumulação destas memórias foram estudadas em átrio de cobaia, utilizando-se dois descritores para cada uma delas um estático, o IKMDmax e IKMEmax, que representam o incremento máximo de carga de MD e ME, respectivamente, e outro dinâmico VmedAMD e VmedAME - que está associado à velocidade de apagamento de cada memórias. As preparações foram ensaiadas com diferentes protocolos experimentais como os descritos por Seed & Walker (1988), Shimizu, et al. (2000) e Conde-Garcia (não publicado). Os resultados mostraram que a memória contrátil difere do fenômeno relativo à memória elétrica do miocárdio, porque, elevando-se o potássio externo de 2,7 para 7,0 mM, não houve variação significativa dos descritores, pois, para n = 3, o IKMDmax passou de 82,09 ± 1,58 para 81,56 ± 2,01% (p > 0,05), o IKMEmax passou de 83,36 ± 0,56 para 90,12 ± 17,92% (p > 0,05), a VmedAMD variou de -1,36 ± 0,67 para -1,13 ± 0,42gf/s (p > 0,05) e a VmedME foi alterada de -2,09 ± 1,65 para -1,56 ± 1,41gf/s (p > 0,05). A expressão e a acumulação das memórias são fenômenos que dependem do transiente intracelular de cálcio nas células miocárdicas. A elevação do cálcio extracelular de 1,37 para 5,47mM, para n = 3, alterou o IKMDmax: de 87,56 ± 2,33 para 63,83 ± 3,78% (p < 0,05); IKMEmax: 84,36 ± 0,54 para 13,91 ± 0,11% (p < 0,05); VmedAMD: -2,58 ± 0,71 para -1,20 ± 0,37gf/s (p < 0,05) e VmedME: -0,90 ± 0,13 para -0,34 ± 0,05 gf/s (p < 0,05). A adição de 5mM de cafeína à solução controle do banho fez o IKMDmax variar de 79,88 ± 3,48 para 56,68 ± 6,62% (p < 0,05); o IKMEmax de 77,14 ± 1,02 para 28,54 ± 2,11% (p < 0,05); a VmedAMD de -1,78 ± 0,50 para -0,60 ± 0,10 gf/s (p < 0,05) e a VmedME -1,74 ± 0,64 para -0,33 ± 0,14 gf/s (p < 0,05). Nas condições experimentais deste estudo, uma dada contração recebe informações depressoras e excitadoras que foram geradas pelos últimos dez batimentos.

Les désordres intellectuels (DI) comprennent une collection hétérogène de désordresneurodéveloppementaux qui émergent pendant l’enfance. Ils ont une incidence de 1 à 3% dansla population et sont associés avec des déficits dans les fonctions mentales et adaptives. Denombreuses mutations ont été identifiées dans des gènes codant pour des protéines quiremplissent des fonctions biologiques très diverses dans le cerveau. Parmi ces protéines,certaines sont enrichies à la synapse, supposant que les déficits cognitifs associés aux DIpourraient être reliés à des déficits synaptiques. L’objectif scientifique de notre équipe et decomprendre le rôle de certaines protéines dans la fonction synaptique et la cognition enutilisant des souris génétiquement modifiées portant des mutations dans le gènecorrespondant. Je me suis concentré sur Il1rapl1, un gène codant pour la protéine Interleukinreceptor-accessory-protein-like-1. Des mutations ou micro-délétions dans ce gène sont liés audéveloppement de DI chez l’homme. Dans les neurones, Il1rapl1 code pour une protéinetransmembranaire qui serait impliquée dans la formation et/ou la stabilisation de synapsesexcitatrices. Les conséquences de l’absence d’IL1RAPL1 à des niveaux plus intégrés restaientpeu étudiées lors du début de ma thèse. J’ai utilisé une souris déficiente pour IL1RAPL1 (KO) afinde comprendre le lien entre les déficits comportementaux et la fonction synaptique. Pour cela,j’ai soumis des souris KO à des taches comportementales de peur conditionnée. J’ai ensuiteutilisé une combinaison d’approches in vitro, ex vivo et in vivo afin de caractériser la fonctionsynaptique dans les circuits neuronaux dédiés : l’amygdale latérale et basolatérale. Desenregistrements electrophysiologiques ont montré une dérégulation de la balance entre latransmission inhibitrice et excitatrice (I/E) dans l’amygdale de souris Il1rapl1 KO, causant ainsides déficits dans la capacité d’acquérir et d’exprimer la mémoire de peur conditionnée. Lacorrection de ce déficit synaptique in vivo par pharmacologie ou par optogénétique a permis derestaurer le comportement chez les souris KO. / Intellectual disability (ID) comprises a highly heterogeneous collection of neurodevelopmentaldisorders that arise during childhood. They have an incidence of 1-3% in the population withimpairments in mental and adaptive functions. While the etiologies of IDs are thought to bevery heterogeneous, a significant proportion of ID has genetic origins. Mutations in single IDgenes lead to dysfunctions in proteins that fulfill highly different biological functions in thebrain. Interestingly, ID-related proteins are often found enriched at synapses, suggesting thatcognitive impairments defining ID could be related to alterations of synaptic function. The maingoal of our research team is to understand the role of ID-related proteins in synaptic functionand cognition using mouse models bearing gene mutations associated to ID in humans. Myresearch focused on the study of Il1rapl1, a gene coding for the Interleukin-receptor-accessoryprotein-like-1 protein. Micro-deletions or point mutations in this gene are directly linked to thedevelopment of ID and autism spectrum disorder in humans. In neurons, Il1rapl1 encodes atrans-membrane protein and several in vitro experiments point to its important role in thedifferentiation and formation/stabilization of excitatory synapses trough interactions withpresynaptic, trans-synaptic or postsynaptic partners. However, the consequences of Il1rapl1deficiency at more integrated levels remains poorly understood. The principal objective of mythesis is to explore the link between synaptic deficits and behavioral impairments in Il1rapl1-deficient mice. To achieve that, wild-type and mutant animals were first submitted to fearlearning tasks. I then used a combination of in vivo, ex vivo and in vitro functional essays tocharacterize synaptic functions in behaviorally relevant neuronal circuits. Ultimately, ourworking hypothesis were challenged in vivo by pharmacological and optogenetic approaches tonormalize behavioral deficits in Il1rapl1 KO mice. Altogether my work demonstrates thatInhibitory/Excitatory imbalances associated with the absence of Il1rapl1 impaired both thecapacity to form new memories as well as the expression of previously formed memories.

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