1
|
Caznok Silveira AC, Antunes ASLM, Athié MCP, da Silva BF, Ribeiro dos Santos JV, Canateli C, Fontoura MA, Pinto A, Pimentel-Silva LR, Avansini SH, de Carvalho M. Between neurons and networks: investigating mesoscale brain connectivity in neurological and psychiatric disorders. Front Neurosci 2024; 18:1340345. [PMID: 38445254 PMCID: PMC10912403 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2024.1340345] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/17/2023] [Accepted: 01/29/2024] [Indexed: 03/07/2024] Open
Abstract
The study of brain connectivity has been a cornerstone in understanding the complexities of neurological and psychiatric disorders. It has provided invaluable insights into the functional architecture of the brain and how it is perturbed in disorders. However, a persistent challenge has been achieving the proper spatial resolution, and developing computational algorithms to address biological questions at the multi-cellular level, a scale often referred to as the mesoscale. Historically, neuroimaging studies of brain connectivity have predominantly focused on the macroscale, providing insights into inter-regional brain connections but often falling short of resolving the intricacies of neural circuitry at the cellular or mesoscale level. This limitation has hindered our ability to fully comprehend the underlying mechanisms of neurological and psychiatric disorders and to develop targeted interventions. In light of this issue, our review manuscript seeks to bridge this critical gap by delving into the domain of mesoscale neuroimaging. We aim to provide a comprehensive overview of conditions affected by aberrant neural connections, image acquisition techniques, feature extraction, and data analysis methods that are specifically tailored to the mesoscale. We further delineate the potential of brain connectivity research to elucidate complex biological questions, with a particular focus on schizophrenia and epilepsy. This review encompasses topics such as dendritic spine quantification, single neuron morphology, and brain region connectivity. We aim to showcase the applicability and significance of mesoscale neuroimaging techniques in the field of neuroscience, highlighting their potential for gaining insights into the complexities of neurological and psychiatric disorders.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Ana Clara Caznok Silveira
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
- School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Campinas, Campinas, Brazil
| | | | - Maria Carolina Pedro Athié
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | - Bárbara Filomena da Silva
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | | | - Camila Canateli
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | - Marina Alves Fontoura
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | - Allan Pinto
- Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | | | - Simoni Helena Avansini
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| | - Murilo de Carvalho
- National Laboratory of Biosciences, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
- Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory, Brazilian Center for Research in Energy and Materials, Campinas, Brazil
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Rathi P, Gupta P, Debnath A, Baldi H, Wang Y, Gupta R, Raman B, Singamaneni S. Plasmon-Enhanced Expansion Microscopy. NANO LETTERS 2023. [PMID: 37307329 DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.3c01256] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Expansion microscopy (ExM) is a rapidly emerging super-resolution microscopy technique that involves isotropic expansion of biological samples to improve spatial resolution. However, fluorescence signal dilution due to volumetric expansion is a hindrance to the widespread application of ExM. Here, we introduce plasmon-enhanced expansion microscopy (p-ExM) by harnessing an ultrabright fluorescent nanoconstruct, called plasmonic-fluor (PF), as a nanolabel. The unique structure of PFs renders nearly 15000-fold brighter fluorescence signal intensity and higher fluorescence retention following the ExM protocol (nearly 76%) compared to their conventional counterparts (<16% for IR-650). Individual PFs can be easily imaged using conventional fluorescence microscopes, making them excellent "digital" labels for ExM. We demonstrate that p-ExM enables improved tracing and decrypting of neural networks labeled with PFs, as evidenced by improved quantification of morphological markers (nearly a 2.5-fold increase in number of neurite terminal points). Overall, p-ExM complements the existing ExM techniques for probing structure-function relationships of various biological systems.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Priya Rathi
- Department of Chemistry, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Prashant Gupta
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Avishek Debnath
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Harsh Baldi
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Yixuan Wang
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Rohit Gupta
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Baranidharan Raman
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| | - Srikanth Singamaneni
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, and Institute of Materials Science and Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri 63130, United States
| |
Collapse
|