Traveling wave solutions of integro-differential equations for modeling one-dimensional neuronal networks, are studied. Under moderate continuity assumptions, necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence and uniqueness of monotone increasing (decreasing) traveling wave solutions are established. Some faults in previous studies are corrected.

The present work investigates the applicability of Genetic Algorithms (GA) to the problem of signal propagation in Native Neuronal Networks (NNNs). These networks are comprised of neurons, some of which receive input signals. The signals propagate though the network by transmission between neurons. The research focuses on the regeneration of the output signal of the network without knowing the original input signal. The computational complexity of the problem is prohibitive for the exact computation. We propose to use a heuristic approach called Genetic Algorithm. Three algorithms are developed, based on the GA technique. The developed algorithms are tested on two different networks with varying input signals. The results obtained from the testing indicate significantly better performance of the developed algorithms compared to the Uniform Random Search (URS) technique, which is used as a control group. The importance of the research is in the demonstration of the ability of GA-based algorithms to successfully solve the problem at hand.

Spontaneously active frontal cortex and spinal cord networks grown on microelectrode arrays were used to study effects of D-methylphenidate. These central nervous system tissues have relatively low concentrations of dopaminergic and noradrenergic neurons compared to the richly populated loci, yet exhibit similar neurophysiological responses to methylphenidate. The spontaneous spike activity of both tissues was inhibited in a concentration-dependent manner by serial additions of 1-500 µM methylphenidate. Methylphenidate is non-toxic as spike inhibition was recovered following washes. The average concentrations for 50% spike rate inhibition (IC50 ± SD) were 118 ± 52 (n= 6) and 57 ± 43 (n = 11) for frontal cortex and spinal cord networks, respectively. A 3 hour exposure of a network to 1 mM methylphenidate was nontoxic. The effective concentrations described in this study are within the therapeutic dosage range. Therefore, the platform may be used for further investigations of drug mechanisms.

Doctor en Ciencias Mención Biología Molecular, Celular y Neurociencias. / El estrés oxidativo y la desregulación de la señalización de calcio son señales importantes en una variedad de enfermedades neurodegenerativas, incluyendo la enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA). El factor de transcripción STAT3 tiene un rol crucial en el desarrollo y mantención del sistema nervioso. Recientemente, la pérdida de la actividad transcripcional de STAT3 ha sido ligada a la EA. En este trabajo, tratamos astrocitos primarios con los oligómeros del péptido β-amiloide (AβOs), los cuales muestran una potente actividad sinaptotóxica, y estudiamos los efectos de los mediadores presentes en el medio condicionado de astrocitos tratados con AβOs (MCA+AβOs) en la depleción nuclear de STAT3 fosforilado en el residuo 727 (pSer-STAT3) en las neuronas. El tratamiento de los cultivos neuronales ricos en astrocitos con 0,5 μM de AβOs indujo en las neuronas una disminución significativa de pSer-STAT3, pero no de fosfotirosina 705-STAT3, la otra forma fosforilada de STAT3. Esta disminución no ocurrió en cultivos neuronales pobres en astrocitos revelando un rol fundamental de los astrocitos en esta respuesta. Para probar si los mediadores, liberados por los astrocitos en respuesta a los AβOs, induce la depleción nuclear de pSer-STAT3, cultivos neuronales pobres en astrocitos fueron tratados con MCA+AβOs, lo que causó depleción nuclear de pSer-STAT3 pero no modificó los niveles totales de STAT3. El uso de catalasa y hemoglobina extracelular previno la depleción nuclear de pSer-STAT3 causada por el MCA+AβOs, indicando que posiblemente el peróxido de hidrógeno y el óxido nítrico son los mediadores liberados por los astrocitos involucrados en esta respuesta. Además, el MCA+AβOs indujo un aumento significativo de la espresión y la secreción de la citoquina pro-inflamamtoria IL-6. El MCA+AβOs aumentó el tono oxidativo neuronal y generó en las neuronas señales de calcio mediadas por el receptor de ryanodina, que son esenciales para la depleción nuclear de pSer-STAT3. Usando adenovirus, se demostró que la inhibición de calcineurina abolió la depleción nuclear de pSer-STAT3 inducida por el MCA+AβOs: También se demostró que la activación de calcineurina produjo un leve aumento de la depleción nuclear y mayor defosforilación de pSer-STAT3 en las neuronas, revelando que si bien calcineurina participa en la depleción nuclear de pSer-STAT3, no es el único componente involucrado en el proceso. En suma, el MCA+AβOs generó una disminución significativa de los niveles de ARNm de genes de sobrevivencia Bcl-2 y survivina y un aumento de la razón pro-apoptótica Bax/Bcl-2. No obstante, el MCA+AβOs no promovió la apoptosis por si solo. El MCA+AβOs sensibilizó a la neuronas hacia la muerte apoptótica pero solo en presencia de NMDA a concentraciones excitotóxicas. Esta es la primera descripción que el MCA+AβOs promueve señales de calcio neuronales que regulan la distribución nuclear de pSer-STAT3 en las neuronas. En esta tesis se propone que los AβOs inducen la producción de peróxido de hidrógeno, óxido nitric e IL-6, lo cual aumenta el tono oxidativo neuronal, generando una señal de calcio que activa la fosfatasa calcineurina, la cual causa (en parte) la depleción nuclear de pSer-STAT3 y la pérdida de la actividad transcripcional protectora de STAT3. / Oxidative stress and dysregulation of calcium signaling are pivotal signs in a variety of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer´s disease (AD). The transcription factor STAT3 has a crucial role in the development and maintenance of the central nervous system. Recently, the loss of transcriptional activity of STAT3 has been linked to AD. In this work, we treated astrocytes with amyloid beta peptide oligomers (AβOs), which display potent synaptotoxic activity, and studied the nature and effects of astrocyte-conditioned medium treated with AβOs on the nuclear depletion of neuronal serine-727-phosphorylated STAT3 (pSer-STAT3). Treatment of mixed neuron-astrocyte cultures with 0.5 μM AβOs induced in neurons a significant decrease of nuclear pSer-STAT3, but not of phosphotyrosine-705 STAT3, the other form of STAT3 phosphorylation. This decrease did not occur in astrocyte-poor neuronal cultures revealing a pivotal role for astrocytes in this response. To test if mediators released by astrocytes in response to AβOs induce pSer-STAT3 nuclear depletion, we used conditioned medium derived from AβOs-treated astrocyte cultures (ACM+AβOs). Treatment of astrocyte-poor neuronal cultures with ACM+AβOs caused pSer-STAT3 nuclear depletion but did not modify overall STAT3 levels. Extracellular catalase and haemoglobin prevented the pSerSTAT3 nuclear depletion caused by AβOs, indicating that reactive oxygen species (ROS) and nitric oxide could mediate this response. Besides, ACM+AβOs produced an increase of production and secretion of the pro-inflamamtory cytokine IL-6. Also, ACM+AβOs increased the neuronal oxidative tone and calcium signals in neurons, leading to a ryanodine-sensitive intracellular calcium signal that proved to be essential for pSer-STAT3 nuclear depletion. Using adenoviruses we showed that calcineurin inhibition abolished the nuclear depletion of pSer-STAT3 induced by ACM+AβOs and that calcineurin activation produced just a mild increase of the nuclear depletion of pSer-STAT3 in neurons, revealing that calcineurin participate in nuclear depletion of pSer-STAT3, however, it is not the only component involved in the process. In addition, ACM+AβOs generated decreased Bcl-2 and Survivin transcription and significantly increased Bax/Bcl-2 ratio but ACM+AβOs did not execute apoptosis itself. ACM+AβOs sensibilized neurons to apoptotic death when it was incubated in presence of NMDA at an excitotoxic concentration. This is the first description that ACM+AβOs and neuronal calcium signals jointly regulate pSer-STAT3 nuclear distribution in neurons. We propose that AβOs induce hydrogen peroxide, nitric oxide and IL-6 production, which by increasing the neuronal oxidative tone, generate a calcium signal that activates the phosphatase calcineurin, which cause (in part) pSer-STAT3 nuclear depletion and loss of STAT3 protective transcriptional activity. / -Beca CONICYT doctorado nacional N°21130445 y extensión de beca doctoral. -Proyecto Anillo ACT-1114 del Programa de investigación asociativa de CONICYT (PIA, adjudicado por el Dr. Marco Tulio Núñez) -Proyecto FONDECYT 1150736 (adjudicado por la Dra. Andrea Paula-Lima) -Proyecto FONDECYT 1130068 (adjudicado por el Dr. Marco Tulio Núñez) -Becas CONICYT de asistencia a congresos N°81140457 (2014) y N°81150376 (2015) También quiero agradecer a las siguientes instituciones internacionales que gracias a sus becas me permitieron asistir a diferentes cursos de neurociencia y a congresos internacionales de alto nivel: -International Society for Neurochemistry (ISN) por el financiamiento completo para asistir al curso “3rd ISN Latin American School of Advanced Neurochemistry” (Montevideo, Uruguay, 2014) y la beca para asistir al congreso “26th ISN-ESN biennal meeting” en Paris, Francia (2017). -International Brain Research Organization (IBRO) por el financiamiento completo para asistir al curso “IBRO-USCRC 10th Canadian School of Neuroscience” (Montreal, Canadá, 2016) y al congreso “10th Annual Canadian Neuroscience Meeting” en Toronto (2016) y por la beca para asistir al congreso “13th Conference Alzheimer and Parkinson Disease” en Viena, Austria (2017). -Francais Société des Neurosciences-IBRO quienes financiaron mi viaje a Bordeaux, Francia para asistir al congreso “NeuroFrance 2017” y buscar postdoc. -Grass Foundation, IBRO LATP y USCRC y a Society for Neuroscience quienes financiaron mi beca completa para participar en el curso: “Latinoamerican Training program 2018” en Valparaíso, Chile y quienes financiarán mi participación en el congreso Society for Neuroscience 2019 en Chicago, EEUU. / Diciembre 2019

Lactate has been long thought of as a dead-end waste product of glycolysis. In the brain, recent evidence has revealed a key role of L-lactate creating a paradigm-shift in our understanding of the neuronal energy metabolism. The Astrocyte neuron lactate shuttle (ANLS) model, has shown L-Lactate as the main energy substrate delivered by astrocytes to neurons to sustain neuronal oxidative metabolism. This metabolic coupling is an essential mechanism for long-term memory formation. Experimental evidence indicates that the role of lactate in cognitive function is not limited to being a neuronal metabolic substrate, but rather it is also an important signaling molecule for synaptic plasticity. One of the new emerging roles of lactate is its effect on gene expression levels; however, our current understanding of the mechanism of lactate effect on gene expression is rudimentary. Here, I investigate the role of lactate as an epigenetic modulator in neuronal cultures. First, I explored the effect of lactate on the transcriptome and methylome of the neuronal cells using primary neuronal cell culture models. Our results reveal a significant role for lactate in inducing neuronal cell differentiation. Following, I characterized a neuroblastoma cell line as our neuronal differentiation cell model and assessed its metabolic features relative to other immortal cell lines. Further, using the cell line in vitro model, I looked into the metabolic reprograming that occurs in parallel with the first indications of differentiation, focusing on lactate production rates. Subsequently, I investigated the role of lactate in differentiation through transcriptomic analysis. We show that lactate induced histone acetylation and promoted expression of dopaminergic markers, with a stronger effect of D-lactate over L-lactate. Further studies to establish potential linkages between those two pathways will enhance our understanding of the effect of lactate.

The work presented in this thesis investigates whether primitive pallial brain circuits such as those found in teleost fish may also encode complex information such as spatial memory despite its circuitry being “simpler” than those found in species with much larger brains such as primates and rodents. Previous behavioral studies have already shown that most teleost fish are capable of spatially orienting themselves and remembering past food locations. Behavioral studies combined with selective brain lesions and related anatomical studies have identified a hippocampal-like region in the fish’s pallium; however, it is unknown whether the neurons located in this structure can also perform cortical-like computations as those found in the mammalian hippocampus. Consequently, this thesis will first present an anatomical characterization of the intrinsic circuitry of this hippocampal-like structure, followed by an in vitro electrophysiological characterization of its constituent neurons. Surprisingly, we have found that this hippocampal-like structure possesses many features reminiscent of the mammalian cortex, including recurrent local connectivity as well as a laminar/columnar-like organization. Furthermore, we have also identified many biophysical properties which would describe these hippocampal-like neurons as sparse coders, including a prominent after-hyperpolarizing potential and an adapting spike threshold with slow recovery. Since this particular dynamic spike threshold mechanism has not been thoroughly characterized in the mammalian hippocampus, we have further investigated the dynamic threshold in the major rodent hippocampal cell types. We have found that only a subset of excitatory neurons displayed this dynamic spike threshold on the time scale that was observed in teleost pallial cells, which allowed us to discuss its potential role in encoding spatial information in both species. Nevertheless, the fact that this teleost hippocampal homologue possesses characteristics that are both akin to the cortex and hippocampus suggest that it may perform computations that, in a mammalian brain, would require both structures and makes this ancestral structure a very interesting candidate to study the mechanism(s) underlying spatial memory.

No description available.

Heat shock protein A12A (HSPA12A) is a newly discovered member of the Hsp70 family. The biological characteristics and functional roles of HSPA12A are poorly understood. This study investigated the effects of HSPA12A on ischaemic stroke in mice. Ischaemic stroke was induced by left middle cerebral artery occlusion for 1 h followed by blood reperfusion. We observed that HSPA12A was highly expressed in brain neurons, and neuronal HSPA12A expression was downregulated by ischaemic stroke and stroke-associated risk factors (aging, obesity and hyperglycaemia). To investigate the functional requirement of HSPA12A in protecting ischaemic brain injury, HSPA12A knockout mice (Hspa12a−/−) were generated. Hspa12a−/− mice exhibited an enlarged infarct volume and aggravated neurological deficits compared to their wild-type (WT) littermates after stroke. These aggravations in Hspa12a−/− mice were accompanied by more apoptosis and severer hippocampal morphological abnormalities in ischaemic hemispheres. Long-term examination revealed impaired motor function recovery and neurogenesis in stroke-affected Hspa12a−/− mice compared to stroke-affected WT controls. Significant reduced activation of GSK-3β/mTOR/p70S6K signalling was also observed in ischaemic hemispheres of Hspa12a−/− mice compared to WT controls. Administration with lithium (non-selective GSK-3β inhibitor) activated GSK-3β/mTOR/p70S6K signalling in stroke-affected Hspa12a−/− mice. Notably, lithium administration attenuated the HSPA12A deficiency-induced aggravation in infarct size, neurological deficits and neuronal death in Hspa12a−/− mice after stroke. Altogether, the findings suggest that HSPA12A expression encodes a critical novel prosurvival pathway during ischaemic stroke. We identified HSPA12A as a novel neuroprotective target for stroke patients.

Circadian clocks are endogenous timekeeping mechanisms, which give the sense of time-of-day to most organisms. To help the organisms to adapt to daily fluctuations in the environment, circadian clocks are reset by various environmental cues. Light is one of the cardinal environmental cues that synchronize circadian clocks. In a standard 12:12 light-dark condition, Drosophila exhibits bimodal activity pattern in the anticipation of lights-on and -off. The morning peak of activity is generated by Pigment Dispersing Factor (PDF) positive small ventro-lateral neurons (sLNvs) called the M-oscillators, while the evening peak of activity is generated by the dorsolateral neurons (LNds) and the 5th sLNv together referred to as the E-oscillators. Since the Drosophila circadian clock is extremely sensitive to light, a brief light exposure can robustly shift the phase of circadian behavior. The model for this resetting posits that circadian photoreception is cell-autonomous: the photoreceptor CRYPTOCHROME (CRY) senses light, binds to TIMELESS (TIM) and promotes its degradation via JETLAG (JET). However, it was more recently proposed that interactions between circadian neurons are also required for phase resetting. The goal of my thesis was to map the neuronal circuitry controlling circadian photoreception in Drosophila. In the first half of my dissertation (Chapter II), using a novel severe jetset mutant and JET RNAi, we identified M- and E-oscillators as critical light sensing neurons. We also found that JET functions cell-autonomously to promote TIM degradation in M- and E-oscillators, and non-autonomously in E-oscillators when expressed in M-oscillators. However, JET expression was required in both groups of neurons to phase-shift locomotor rhythms in response to light input. Thus M- and E-oscillators cooperate to shift circadian behavior in response to photic cues. In chapter III, unexpectedly, we found that light can delay or advance circadian behavior even when the M- or E-oscillators are genetically ablated or incapacitated suggesting that behavioral phase shifts in response to light are largely a consequence of cell autonomous light detection by CRY and governed by the molecular properties of the pacemaker. Nevertheless, neural interactions are integral in modulating light responses. The M-oscillator neurotransmitter, PDF was important in coordinating M- and E-oscillators for circadian behavioral response to light input. Moreover, we uncover a potential role for a subset of Dorsal neurons in control of phase advances specifically. Hence, neural modulation of cell autonomous light detection contributes to plasticity of circadian behavior and facilitates its adaptation to environmental inputs.

The wake human brain constantly samples perceptual information from the environment and integrates them into existing neuronal networks. Neuronal oscillations have been ascribed a key role in the formation of novel memories. The theta rhythm (3-8 Hz) reflects a central executive mechanism, which integrates novel information, reflected in theta-coupled gamma oscillations (> 30 Hz). Alpha oscillations (8-14 Hz) reflect an attentional gating mechanism, which inhibit task irrelevant neuronal processes. In my dissertation I further scrutinized the oscillatory dynamics of memory formation. Study 1 demonstrated that theta-gamma coupling reflects a specific mechanism for associative memory formation. In study 2, I experimentally entrained memory encoding by visual evoked theta-gamma coupling processes, to underline its functional relevance. In two developmental studies, I found that the theta rhythm indexes explicit learning processes in adults and young children (study 3), and that visually entrained theta oscillations are sensitive to the encoding of novel, unexpected events, already in the first year of life (study 4). Throughout these studies alpha oscillations were not sensitive to memory formation processes, but indicated perceptual (study 1) and semantic (study 3) processes. I propose an integrative framework, suggesting that the alpha rhythm reflects activated semantic representations in the neocortex, while theta-gamma coupling reflects an explicit mnemonic control mechanism, which selects, elaborates and integrates activated representations. Specifically, by squeezing real time events onto a faster, neuronal time scale, theta-gamma coding facilitates neuronal plasticity in medio-temporal networks and advances neuronal processes ahead of real time to emulate and guide future behavior.