[pt] O consumo de álcool durante gravidez pode alterar o desenvolvimento neural do feto, causando defeitos ao longo da vida. As consequências são diversas e compõe o termo coletivo: Transtorno do Espectro Alcoólico Fetal (TEAF). Esse transtorno é considerado a causa mais comum de deficiência cognitiva evitável no mundo. Estimativas apontam que no Brasil entre 1 e 1,5% das crianças nascem com alterações no sistema nervoso devido à exposição ao álcool in útero. O consumo do álcool é frequente entre mulheres grávidas muitas vezes por desconhecimento dos seus efeitos adversos no desenvolvimento do feto. Outra droga comumente utilizada por mulheres grávidas é a maconha com intuito de amenizar o enjoo durante a gestação. A presente dissertação explora os efeitos da exposição pré-natal ao álcool no feto (em conjunto ou não do uso da maconha) em estudos pré-clínicos e clínicos. Dois artigos foram gerados para a realização deste trabalho. O primeiro artigo relata os mecanismos e as consequências do consumo simultâneo de álcool e maconha durante gravidez, cujo efeito é ainda mais nocivo ao desenvolvimento do feto do que apenas a exposição ao álcool. Dados recentes demonstram a interação do etanol e da maconha com o sistema Endocanabinoide, que tem um papel importante no neurodesenvolvimento. Depois do fechamento do tubo neural, que acontece durante a terceira semana da gestação humana, os olhos e o cérebro se desenvolvem do neuroepitélio. Ambos, o álcool e maconha interferem sinergicamente nesse processo via receptores canabinóides, alterando assim a sinalização “sonichedgehog”, que por sua vez, resulta em alterações morfológicas e comportamentais em modelos animais. Além disso, o artigo relata os mais recentes achados de estudos clínicos sobre a combinação da dose e tipo de constituintes químicos da machonha, bem como os desfechos morfológicos e neurocomportamentais da exposição conjunta do álcool e da maconha. O segundo artigo é uma revisão sistemática que investiga as pesquisas realizadas no Brasil sobre o TEAF, com ênfase nos instrumentos usados para a avaliação neuropsicológica de indivíduos com TEAF. Enquanto países desenvolvidos têm décadas de pesquisa sobre o TEAF, no Brasil, inúmeros fatores comprometem o progresso nesta e outras áreas de pesquisa. Entre esses fatores podemos citar, divergências socioeconômicas, culturais e geopolíticas, que dificultam o desenvolvimento, adaptação e validação de instrumentos utilizados no diagnóstico e na avaliação neuropsicológica do TEAF. Além disso, vale ressaltar que a vulnerabilidade socioeconômica da população brasileira é um fator importante no aumento da ocorrência de formas mais graves de TEAF. A revisão sistemática aponta para a necessidade da validação das ferramentas neuropsicológicas de diagnóstico e avaliação cognitiva de pessoas com TEAF e da participação de uma equipe multidisciplinar no diagnóstico do TEAF. / [en] Alcohol consumption during pregnancy may damage the development of the fetus, resulting in the most common preventable cause of neurodevelopmental disability in the world: Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). The present dissertation aims to discuss the effects of alcohol on the developing CNS through two articles. The first article elucidates the mechanisms and outcomes of the combined alcohol and cannabis exposure in the offspring through preclinical studies. Alcohol teratogenesis is more potent when administered with cannabis and has more negative effects on the fetus than alcohol alone. Recent data demonstrate the interaction of ethanol and cannabis with the Endocannabinoid system, which plays an important role in neurodevelopment and explains the morphological and behavioral changes seen in preclinical studies. The second article is a systematic review that investigates Brazilian research on FASD, focusing on the instruments used for the neuropsychological assessment of individuals with FASD. While developed countries have decades of research on FASD, in Brazil numerous factors slow down the progress of in this and other areas of research. Socioeconomic status, cultural, and geopolitical divergences are some of these factors, which hinder the development, adaptation, and validation of instruments used in the diagnosis and neuropsychological assessment of FASD. In addition, it is worth noting that the socioeconomic vulnerability of the Brazilian population is an important factor in the increase in the occurrence of more severe forms of FASD. The systematic review points to the need to validate neuropsychological tools for the diagnosis and cognitive assessment of individuals with FASD in Brazil, and the participation of a multidisciplinary team in the diagnosis of FASD.

La consommation de cannabis durant l'adolescence est associée à des risques accrus de problèmes de santé mentale, y compris la toxicomanie et la psychose. Tout en considérant qu'une partie de l'étiologie de ces troubles est héréditaire, nous avons étudié le risque génétique de psychose et de troubles liés à l'usage de substances et leurs relations avec le cannabis et le système endocannabinoïde. Dans notre premier travail, nous avons étudié la relation entre les marqueurs génétiques endocannabinoïdes et les troubles d’usage d'alcool (TUA) pour deux cohortes d'adolescents. À l’aide d’approches de gènes candidats, nous avons démontré une relation significative entre ces gènes endocannabinoïdes et les TUA, mais ces résultats n'ont pas été répliqués chez une deuxième cohorte indépendante. Lors d’une seconde étude, nous avons examiné si la relation entre le score de risque polygénique pour la schizophrénie (PRS-Sz) et les expériences prépsychotiques (PLE) est médiée et/ou modérée par la consommation de cannabis, pour deux cohortes indépendantes. Des modèles de régression de médiation et de modération ont été utilisés pour examiner dans quelle mesure la relation prospective entre PRS-Sz et PLE est expliquée par la consommation de cannabis. Les résultats des analyses de médiation et de modération n'étaient pas significatifs, bien que le PRS-Sz et la consommation de cannabis aient tous deux prédit indépendamment les PLE. Ces résultats suggèrent que la consommation de cannabis reste un facteur de risque de psychose, au-delà de la vulnérabilité génétique connue pour la schizophrénie et qu’il n'y a pas de preuve que les individus génétiquement vulnérables étaient plus sensibles aux conséquences psychotiques de la consommation de cannabis. Le travail décrit démontre que les risques posés par la consommation de cannabis chez les adolescents pourraient ne pas être associés à une prédisposition génétique aux maladies psychiatriques, nonobstant l’implication du système endocannabinoïde dans la pathogenèse de ces mêmes maladies. / Cannabis consumption during adolescence, increases the likelihood of adverse mental health outcomes, including substance abuse and psychosis. Considering that part of the etiology of these disorders are heritable, we aimed to elucidate the genetic risk for psychosis and substance use disorders and their relationships to cannabis and the endocannabinoid system. In our first work, we investigated the relationship between endocannabinoid genetic markers and alcohol use disorder in two adolescent cohorts. Through candidate gene approaches we demonstrated a significant relationship between these endocannabinoid genes and AUD, but the results were not replicated in the second cohort. In a second work, we examined if the relationship between polygenic risk score for schizophrenia (PRS-Sz) and psychotic like experiences (PLE) is mediated and/or moderated by cannabis use, in two cohorts. Mediation and moderation regression models were used to examine the extent to which the prospective relationship between PRS-Sz and PLE is accounted for by cannabis use. The results of both the mediation and moderation analyses were not significant, although PRS-Sz and cannabis use both independently predicted PLE. These results suggest that cannabis use remains a risk factor for psychotic-like experiences, over and above known genetic vulnerability for schizophrenia and there was no evidence that genetically vulnerable individuals were more susceptible to the psychosis-related outcomes of adolescent onset cannabis use. The work described demonstrates that the risks posed by adolescent cannabis consumption may be unrelated to one’s genetic predisposition to psychiatric disease, notwithstanding the involvement of the endocannabinoid system in the pathogenesis of these same diseases.

No description available.

L’objectif principal de mon projet de thèse a été d’identifier les mécanismes neuronaux adaptatifs se mettant en place au niveau des circuits de la récompense et des circuits activés en réponse à un stress aigu. Plus spécifiquement, nous avons étudié le rôle du noyau du lit de la strie terminale (BNST) au sein de ces deux circuits. Mon hypothèse est que le BNST appartient à un circuit de structures interconnectées dans lequel il intègre des informations contextuelles (hippocampe ventral) et des informations émotionnelles (cortex préfrontal médian) afin, d’une part, de réguler les niveaux d’anxiété innés ainsi que les réponses induites par les centres du stress suite à un épisode de stress aigu mais également, d’adapter l’activité des neurones dopaminergiques de l’aire tegmentale ventrale (VTA) en vue de motiver ou d’empêcher la reproduction d’un comportement associé à un stimulus récompensant ou aversif. Afin de tester cette hypothèse, nous avons mis en place et développé différents projets de recherche combinant des approches d’électrophysiologie in vivo, anatomiques et comportementales. Dans un premier temps, nous nous sommes intéressés au BNST en tant que structure clef participant à la régulation des centres de stress. Grâce à l’utilisation d’approches d’électrophysiologie in vivo chez la souris anesthésiée, nous avons montré qu’après l’exposition à un stress aigu, les neurones du BNST adaptent leur réponse suite à la stimulation du cortex préfrontal médian et passent d’une dépression à long terme (LTD) en situation contrôle à une potentialisation à long terme (LTP) après un stress aigu. Nous avons disséqué une partie des mécanismes permettant l’élaboration de ces plasticités grâce à l’utilisation de souris génétiquement modifiés pour le récepteur aux endocannabinoïdes de type 1 (CB1-R). Ainsi, nous avons trouvé que la LTD et la LTP mis en place dans le BNST sont médiées par le système endocannabinoïde via les récepteurs CB1. Ensuite, nous avons étudié le rôle du ventral subiculum (vSUB) dans la régulation des neurones du BNST ainsi que l’impact de l’activation de cette voie vSUB-BNST sur l’autre voie glutamatergique ILCx-BNST. Tout d’abord, nous avons montré par des approches électrophysiologiques et anatomiques, qu’un même neurone du BNST est capable d’intégrer des informations provenant à la fois du ventral subiculum et du cortex infralimbic (ILCx). Nous avons induit in vivo une LTP NMDA dépendante dans la voie vSUB-BNST suite à un protocole de stimulation haute fréquence dans le vSUB alors qu’en parallèle ce même protocole induit une LTD sur ces mêmes neurones dans la voie ILCx–BNST. Deplus, nous avons noté que ces adaptations plastiques se mettant en place dans le BNST suiteà une simple stimulation haute fréquence dans le vSUB permettent à long terme de diminuerles niveaux d’anxiété innés chez le rat. Enfin, nous avons mis en évidence que le BNST est un relai excitateur entre le vSUBet la VTA. Nous avons montré qu’une stimulation à haute fréquence dans le vSUBpotentialise in vivo l’activité des neurones dopaminergiques (DA) de la VTA. Or le vSUBne projette pas de manière directe sur les neurones DA de la VTA. Nous avons observé quece protocole de stimulation haute fréquence dans le vSUB induit dans un premier temps uneLTP NMDA dépendante dans les neurones du BNST projetant à la VTA qui est nécessairepour observer cette potentialisation des neurones DA. En dernier lieu, nous avons montréque cette potentialisation des neurones DA de la VTA augmente la réponse locomotrice à unchallenge avec de la cocaine.Ainsi, l’ensemble de ces projets nous ont permis de confirmer et de préciser lafonction majeure du BNST dans la régulation du stress et de l’anxiété ainsi que dans lecircuit de la motivation. / The main goal of my PhD was to identify the adaptive neuronal mechanismsdeveloping in the reward circuit and in the circuit implicated in the regulation of stressresponses. More specifically, we have studied the function of the bed nucleus of the striaterminalis (BNST) in both circuits.My hypothesis was that, the BNST belongs to interconnected circuits in whichintegrates contextual (from ventral hippocampus) and emotional informations (from medialprefrontal cortex). Thus, the BNST diffuses these informations in order to regulate the basalinnate level of anxiety and stress centers responses induced after acute stress exposure, butalso to adapt the activity of dopaminergic neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA) thatcan promote or prevent a behavioral task associated with a rewarding or aversive stimulus.To test this hypothesis, we decided to develop several research projects usingelectrophysiological, anatomical and behavioral approaches.Firstly, we focused our interest on the stress circuit in which the BNST is a keystructure which participates in regulating the responses of stress centers after acute stressexposure. By using in vivo electrophysiology approach in anesthetized mice, we haveshown that after acute restraint stress, BNST neurons adapt their plastic responses inducedby the tetanic stimulation of the medial prefrontal cortex: switch from long term depression(LTD) under control condition to long term potentiation (LTP) after acute stress condition.Furthermore, we demonstrated that both LTD and LTP are endocannabinoid dependent byusing genetic modified mice for the type 1 endocannabinoid receptors and localpharmacological approach in the BNST.In a second step, we studied the function of the ventral subiculum (vSUB) in theregulation of BNST neurons and the impact of the vSUB-BNST pathway activation on theother glutamatergic ILCx-BNST pathway. In a first set of experiments, we showed that asame single BNST neuron could integrate informations from both vSUB and the infralimbiccortex. By using high frequency stimulation (HFS) protocols, we induced in vivo NMDAdependentLTP in the vSUB-BNST pathway whereas the same protocol led to LTD in thesame BNST neurons in the ILCx-BNST pathway. Moreover, we noted single application ofHFS protocol in the vSUB induced a long term decrease of the basal innate level of anxietyin rats.Lastly, we presented the BNST as a key excitatory relay between the vSUB and theVTA. Here, we have shown that in vivo HFS protocols in the vSUB potentiate the activity ofdopaminergic (DA) neurons of the VTA. However, the vSUB does not directly project to theVTA. We observed that a HFS protocol in the vSUB first induce NMDA-dependent LTP inBNST neurons that project to the VTA, which is necessary to promote the potentiation of7VTA DA neurons. In the last step, we demonstrated in vivo that the potentiation of VTA DAneurons increases the locomotor response to cocaine challenge.All together, these projects allow us to confirm and detail the major function of theBNST in the regulation of stress and anxiety and also in the motivational circuit.

Modifying the metabolism of the body’s own endocannabinoids is a novel approach for analgesia. Two key catabolic enzymes are fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) and inflammation-inducible cyclooxygenase 2 (COX-2). The cellular uptake of the key endocannabinoid anandamide (AEA) has been found to be regulated by its FAAH-catalysed intracellular degradation, but COX-2 has not been investigated in this respect. We aimed to find out whether or not COX-2 in an in vitro inflammation setting would be able to gate AEA uptake. To achieve this, C6 cells and Raw 264.7 cells were stimulated with LPS/INF-γ and lysates then analyzed by immunoblot in order to verify COX-2 expression. AEA cellular uptake was quantified using a radioassay with [3H]-AEA. It was found that COX-2 was not inducible in C6 cells using the LPS/INF-γ conditions studied, while it was inducible in Raw 264.7 cells. AEA uptake in the COX-2-induced Raw 264.7 cells was not reduced by inhibitors of this enzyme. FAAH appeared to be down-regulated in the stimulated Raw 264.7 cells, and this was reflected in an overall lower AEA uptake. Our interpretation of the data points to FAAH as gating AEA uptake. Additional experiments are required to validate our findings by verifying significance.