Article
Biology
Jinli Geng, Yingjun Tang, Zhen Yu, Yunming Gao, Wenxiang Li, Yitong Lu, Bo Wang, Huiming Zhou, Ping Li, Nan Liu, Ping Wang, Yubo Fan, Yaxiong Yang, Zengcai Guo, Xiaodong Liu
Summary: GCaMP-X performs well in chronic calcium imaging, causing less damage to neurons compared to traditional GCaMP. Its expression allows researchers to observe spontaneous and global calcium oscillations, with less impact on neural development and neuronal health.
Article
Cell Biology
Davide Warm, Davide Bassetti, Jonas Schroer, Heiko J. Luhmann, Anne Sinning
Summary: The early occurrence of calcium transients is strongly linked to neuronal survival, with silent neurons exhibiting a higher probability of cell death. Activity of neighboring neurons in local clusters exerts a pro-survival effect, while networks with a high modular topology are associated with lower cell death rates.
FRONTIERS IN CELL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Yuanlong Zhang, Guoxun Zhang, Xiaofei Han, Jiamin Wu, Ziwei Li, Xinyang Li, Guihua Xiao, Hao Xie, Lu Fang, Qionghai Dai
Summary: Widefield microscopy allows optical access to large areas of mammalian brains and thousands of neurons, but signal deterioration due to tissue scattering and background contamination makes neuronal extraction challenging. DeepWonder, a deep-learning-based widefield neuron finder, effectively removes background contaminations and achieves high-fidelity neuronal extraction. It enhances signal-to-background ratio by 50-fold and extracts over 14,000 neurons in 17 hours, providing accurate and efficient neuronal segmentation.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Changjia Cai, Johannes Friedrich, Amrita Singh, M. Hossein Eybposh, Eftychios A. Pnevmatikakis, Kaspar Podgorski, Andrea Giovannucci
Summary: This paper introduces VolPy, a software framework that greatly simplifies preprocessing of new brain imaging datasets, making it more accessible to a wide audience. The software includes efficient algorithms that can accurately identify neurons and extract activity information. Voltage imaging enables monitoring neural activity at sub-millisecond and sub-cellular scale, providing unprecedented spatio-temporal resolution.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Neurosciences
Andoni Asencor, Gennady Dvoryanchikov, Vivien Makhoul, Pantelis Tsoulfas, Nirupa Chaudhari
Summary: Due to their ease of use, AAVs are important tools in neuroscience. However, they have been underutilized in the study of peripheral sensory neurons due to the lack of selective targeting methods. The introduction of the AAV-PHP.S capsid with enhanced tropism for peripheral neurons has provided a solution. This study demonstrates the successful targeting of mouse sensory ganglia using AAV-PHP.S, allowing for visualization of terminals and selective expression in specific cell types.
Article
Pharmacology & Pharmacy
Elodie Passeri, Philippe Bun, Kamil Elkhoury, Michel Linder, Catherine Malaplate, Frances T. Yen, Elmira Arab-Tehrany
Summary: The study demonstrates that salmon lecithin nanoliposomes can be internalized by cortical neurons through an active endocytic-like process, suggesting their potential use for the prevention or treatment of neurodegenerative diseases.
Article
Biochemical Research Methods
Matthew S. Creamer, Kevin S. Chen, Andrew M. Leifer, Jonathan W. Pillow
Summary: Imaging neural activity in a behaving animal is challenging due to motion artifacts. A method called Two-channel Motion Artifact Correction (TMAC) is proposed to remove these artifacts by modeling the fluorescence with a generative model. The performance of motion correction algorithms is evaluated by comparing two types of neural recordings.
PLOS COMPUTATIONAL BIOLOGY
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Daniel Ramandi, Nicholas J. Michelson, Lynn A. Raymond, Timothy H. Murphy
Summary: This study developed a method for simultaneous mesoscale cortical imaging and subcortical fiber photometry recording, which allows the study of neuronal activity. The results showed a high correlation between cortical and striatal activity in response to sensory stimulation or movement. This method can provide insights into the cell-specific connectivity in the corticobasal ganglia circuit organization.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Xiaoyu Lu, Yunmiao Wang, Zhuohe Liu, Yueyang Gou, Dieter Jaeger, Francois St-Pierre
Summary: Widefield imaging with genetically encoded voltage indicators (GEVIs) is a promising method for studying the neural coding of behavior in large cortical networks. Through directed evolution, we developed a high-performance GEVI called JEDI-1P and achieved stable brain-wide voltage imaging in awake mice, allowing for investigation of the role of high-frequency signals in brain computations.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Bettina Voelcker, Ravi Pancholi, Simon Peron
Summary: This study investigates the neural activity in different layers of the vibrissal somatosensory cortex during a object localization task in mice. The findings show that the cortical transformation from layer 4 to layer 2 involves a shift from distributed probabilistic coding to sparse and robust ensemble-based coding, leading to more efficient and accurate representation of sensory features.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Neurosciences
Yufan Dong, Jiaqi Li, Min Zhou, Yihui Du, Danqian Liu
Summary: This study reveals that REM sleep in mice can be divided into two distinct substages with different facial movements and autonomic activities. The retrosplenial cortex (RSC) plays a crucial role in dictating cortical dynamics and regulating the transitions between REM sleep substages.
NATURE NEUROSCIENCE
(2022)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sverre Grodem, Ingeborg Nymoen, Guro Helen Vatne, Frederik Sebastian Rogge, Valgerur Bjoernsdottir, Kristian Kinden Lensjo, Marianne Fyhn
Summary: This study explores the use of systemically administered PHP.eB AAVs for brain-wide expression of genetically encoded Ca2+ indicators (GECIs), and compares them to intracerebrally injected AAVs. The findings suggest that systemic administration is a promising strategy for imaging neural activity.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Abdullah J. Alshawaf, Sarah A. Alnassar, Futwan A. Al-Mohanna
Summary: Recent pharmacological studies have revealed the involvement of zinc (Zn2+) in the regulation of intracellular calcium (Ca2+) dynamics and vice versa in neurons and cardiomyocytes. In this study, the authors investigated the changes in intracellular Ca2+ and Zn2+ release in response to modifications in excitability of primary rat cortical neurons using electric field stimulation (EFS) in vitro. The results showed that EFS induced transient membrane hyperpolarization accompanied by elevations in cytosolic Ca2+ and Zn2+ levels. The release of Ca2+ and Zn2+ seemed to be intracellular, and the removal of extracellular Ca2+ enhanced their release and resulted in a stronger and more sustained hyperpolarization. The authors also demonstrated that Zn2+ is released from intracellular vesicles located in the soma, primarily in the lysosomes and endoplasmic reticulum. These findings support the use of EFS as a tool to study the kinetics of intracellular ions in vitro.
FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE
(2023)
Article
Neurosciences
Mario Torso, Marco Bozzali, Giovanna Zamboni, Mark Jenkinson, Steven A. Chance
Summary: This research tested a novel in-vivo brain MRI analysis method for investigating cortical architecture changes in patients with Alzheimer's Disease. The method proved to be accurate in detecting altered cortical grey matter quality in AD patients, providing an additional tool for assessing AD and distinguishing patients from healthy controls. Further development of these measurements within the ATN framework may aid in diagnosis, patient selection, and quantification of Neurodegeneration component in response to therapies in clinical trials.
HUMAN BRAIN MAPPING
(2021)
Article
Cell Biology
Dmitry A. Sibarov, Zoia D. Zhuravleva, Margarita A. Ilina, Sergei I. Boikov, Yulia D. Stepanenko, Tatiana V. Karelina, Sergei M. Antonov
Summary: Na/K-ATPase plays a crucial role in maintaining ionic gradients and functioning as a signal transducer. Ouabain at subnanomolar concentrations provides neuroprotection against calcium overload and apoptosis. This study investigates the role of lipid rafts in the interactions between Na/K-ATPase, sodium-calcium exchanger (NCX), and N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs). Results showed that ouabain attenuated NMDA-evoked calcium responses and prevented an increase in mEPSC frequency, suggesting the involvement of cholesterol-rich membrane microdomains in these effects. It is concluded that cardiotonic steroids can regulate synaptic transmission and impact the efficacy of neurological medications.
