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Armour EM, Thomas CM, Greco G, Bhatnagar A, Elefant F. Experience-dependent Tip60 nucleocytoplasmic transport is regulated by its NLS/NES sequences for neuroplasticity gene control. Mol Cell Neurosci 2023; 127:103888. [PMID: 37598897 DOI: 10.1016/j.mcn.2023.103888] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Revised: 08/14/2023] [Accepted: 08/16/2023] [Indexed: 08/22/2023] Open
Abstract
Nucleocytoplasmic transport (NCT) in neurons is critical for enabling proteins to enter the nucleus and regulate plasticity genes in response to environmental cues. Such experience-dependent (ED) neural plasticity is central for establishing memory formation and cognitive function and can influence the severity of neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease (AD). ED neural plasticity is driven by histone acetylation (HA) mediated epigenetic mechanisms that regulate dynamic activity-dependent gene transcription profiles in response to neuronal stimulation. Yet, how histone acetyltransferases (HATs) respond to extracellular cues in the in vivo brain to drive HA-mediated activity-dependent gene control remains unclear. We previously demonstrated that extracellular stimulation of rat hippocampal neurons in vitro triggers Tip60 HAT nuclear import with concomitant synaptic gene induction. Here, we focus on investigating Tip60 HAT subcellular localization and NCT specifically in neuronal activity-dependent gene control by using the learning and memory mushroom body (MB) region of the Drosophila brain as a powerful in vivo cognitive model system. We used immunohistochemistry (IHC) to compare the subcellular localization of Tip60 HAT in the Drosophila brain under normal conditions and in response to stimulation of fly brain neurons in vivo either by genetically inducing potassium channels activation or by exposure to natural positive ED conditions. Furthermore, we found that both inducible and ED condition-mediated neural induction triggered Tip60 nuclear import with concomitant induction of previously identified Tip60 target genes and that Tip60 levels in both the nucleus and cytoplasm were significantly decreased in our well-characterized Drosophila AD model. Mutagenesis of a putative nuclear localization signal (NLS) sequence and nuclear export signal (NES) sequence that we identified in the Drosophila Tip60 protein revealed that both are functionally required for appropriate Tip60 subcellular localization. Our results support a model by which neuronal stimulation triggers Tip60 NCT via its NLS and NES sequences to promote induction of activity-dependent neuroplasticity gene transcription and that this process may be disrupted in AD.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ellen M Armour
- Department of Biology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
| | - Christina M Thomas
- Department of Biology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
| | - Gabrielle Greco
- Department of Biology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
| | - Akanksha Bhatnagar
- Department of Biology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America
| | - Felice Elefant
- Department of Biology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, United States of America.
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2
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Dyakonova VE. DNA Instability in Neurons: Lifespan Clock and Driver of Evolution. BIOCHEMISTRY. BIOKHIMIIA 2023; 88:1719-1731. [PMID: 38105193 DOI: 10.1134/s0006297923110044] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2023] [Revised: 07/19/2023] [Accepted: 09/20/2023] [Indexed: 12/19/2023]
Abstract
In the last ten years, the discovery of neuronal DNA postmitotic instability has changed the theoretical landscape in neuroscience and, more broadly, biology. In 2003, A. M. Olovnikov suggested that neuronal DNA is the "initial substrate of aging". Recent experimental data have significantly increased the likelihood of this hypothesis. How does neuronal DNA accumulate damage and in what genome regions? What factors contribute to this process and how are they associated with aging and lifespan? These questions will be discussed in the review. In the course of Metazoan evolution, the instability of neuronal DNA has been accompanied by searching for the pathways to reduce the biological cost of brain activity. Various processes and activities, such as sleep, evolutionary increase in the number of neurons in the vertebrate brain, adult neurogenesis, distribution of neuronal activity, somatic polyploidy, and RNA editing in cephalopods, can be reconsidered in the light of the trade-off between neuronal plasticity and DNA instability in neurons. This topic is of considerable importance for both fundamental neuroscience and translational medicine.
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Affiliation(s)
- Varvara E Dyakonova
- Koltzov Institute of Developmental Biology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, 119334, Russia.
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3
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Zhuravlev AV. Three levels of information processing in the brain. Biosystems 2023:104934. [PMID: 37245794 DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2023.104934] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/01/2023] [Revised: 05/25/2023] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Information, the measure of order in a complex system, is the opposite of entropy, the measure of chaos and disorder. We can distinguish several levels at which information is processed in the brain. The first one is the level of serial molecular genetic processes, similar in some aspects to digital computations (DC). At the same time, higher cognitive activity is probably based on parallel neural network computations (NNC). The advantage of neural networks is their intrinsic ability to learn, adapting their parameters to specific tasks and to external data. However, there seems to be a third level of information processing as well, which involves subjective consciousness and its units, so called qualia. They are difficult to study experimentally, and the very fact of their existence is hard to explain within the framework of modern physical theory. Here I propose a way to consider consciousness as the extension of basic physical laws - namely, total entropy dissipation leading to a system simplification. At the level of subjective consciousness, the brain seems to convert information embodied by neural activity to a more simple and compact form, internally observed as qualia. Whereas physical implementations of both DC and NNC are essentially approximate and probabilistic, qualia-associated computations (QAC) make the brain capable of recognizing general laws and relationships. While elaborating a behavioral program, the conscious brain does not act blindly or gropingly but according to the very meaning of such general laws, which gives it an advantage compared to any artificial intelligence system.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aleksandr V Zhuravlev
- I. P. Pavlov Institute of Physiology, nab Makarova 6, 199034, St Petersburg, Russian Federation.
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Császár-Nagy N, Bókkon I. Hypnotherapy and IBS: Implicit, long-term stress memory in the ENS? Heliyon 2022; 9:e12751. [PMID: 36685398 PMCID: PMC9849985 DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e12751] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/12/2022] [Revised: 09/20/2022] [Accepted: 12/27/2022] [Indexed: 01/01/2023] Open
Abstract
The association between irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and psychiatric and mood disorders may be more fundamental than was previously believed. Prenatal, perinatal, postnatal, and early-age conditions can have a key role in the development of IBS. Subthreshold mental disorders (SMDs) could also be a significant source of countless diverse diseases and may be a cause of IBS development. We hypothesize that stress-induced implicit memories may persist throughout life by epigenetic processes in the enteric nervous system (ENS). These stress-induced implicit memories may play an essential role in the emergence and maintenance of IBS. In recent decades, numerous studies have proven that hypnosis can improve the primary symptoms of IBS and also reduce noncolonic symptoms such as anxiety and depression and improve quality of life and cognitive function. These significant beneficial effects of hypnosis on IBS may be because hypnosis allows access to unconscious brain processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- N. Császár-Nagy
- National University of Public Services, Budapest, Hungary,Psychosomatic Outpatient Clinics, Budapest, Hungary
| | - I. Bókkon
- Psychosomatic Outpatient Clinics, Budapest, Hungary,Vision Research Institute, Neuroscience and Consciousness Research Department, Lowell, MA, USA,Corresponding author. H-1238, Budapest, Láng Endre 68, Hungary.
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5
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Kim B, Sasaki A, Murphy K, Matthews SG. DNA methylation signatures in human neonatal blood following maternal antenatal corticosteroid treatment. Transl Psychiatry 2022; 12:132. [PMID: 35354798 PMCID: PMC8967826 DOI: 10.1038/s41398-022-01902-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/18/2021] [Revised: 03/01/2022] [Accepted: 03/15/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Antenatal corticosteroids (ACS) are used to treat women at risk of preterm birth to improve neonatal survival. Though affected children may be at long-term risk of neurobehavioural disorders, the driving mechanisms remain unknown. Animal studies have shown that ACS exposure can lead to overlapping changes in DNA methylation between the blood and the brain, identifying gene pathways for neurodevelopment, which highlights the potential to examine peripheral blood as a surrogate for inaccessible human brain tissue. We hypothesized that differential methylation will be identified in blood of term-born neonates following ACS. Mother-infant dyads that received ACS were retrospectively identified through the Ontario Birth Study at Sinai Health Complex and matched to untreated controls for maternal age, BMI, parity and foetal sex (n = 14/group). Genome-wide methylation differences were examined at single-nucleotide resolution in DNA extracted from dried bloodspot cards using reduced representative bisulfite sequencing approaches. 505 differentially methylated CpG sites (DMCs) were identified, wherein 231 were hypermethylated and 274 were hypomethylated. These sites were annotated to 219 genes, of which USP48, SH3PXD2A, NTM, CAMK2N2, MAP6D1 were five of the top ten genes with known neurological function. Collectively, the set of hypermethylated genes were enriched for pathways of transcription regulation, while pathways of proteasome activity were enriched among the set of hypomethylated genes. This study is the first to identify DNA methylation changes in human neonatal blood following ACS. Understanding the epigenetic changes that occur in response to ACS will support future investigations to delineate the effects of prenatal glucocorticoid exposure on human development.
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Affiliation(s)
- Bona Kim
- Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada. .,Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, ON, Canada.
| | - Aya Sasaki
- grid.17063.330000 0001 2157 2938Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON Canada ,grid.250674.20000 0004 0626 6184Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, ON Canada
| | - Kellie Murphy
- grid.17063.330000 0001 2157 2938Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON Canada
| | - Stephen G. Matthews
- grid.17063.330000 0001 2157 2938Department of Physiology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON Canada ,grid.250674.20000 0004 0626 6184Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System, Toronto, ON Canada ,grid.17063.330000 0001 2157 2938Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON Canada
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Császár N, Scholkmann F, Bókkon I. Implications on hypnotherapy: Neuroplasticity, epigenetics and pain. Neurosci Biobehav Rev 2021; 131:755-764. [PMID: 34619172 DOI: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.10.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/27/2021] [Revised: 09/07/2021] [Accepted: 10/01/2021] [Indexed: 01/11/2023]
Abstract
We provide a brief review about the significance of hypnosis with respect to applications and physiological processes in hypnotherapy. Our review concludes that hypnosis is a promising method to manage acute and chronic pain. In addition, we discuss indications pointing toward the view that hypnosis can induce changes in neuroplasticity possibly involving epigenetic mechanisms.
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Affiliation(s)
- N Császár
- National University of Public Services, Budapest, Hungary; Psychosomatic Outpatient Clinics, Budapest, Hungary.
| | - F Scholkmann
- Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, Department of Neonatology, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
| | - I Bókkon
- Psychosomatic Outpatient Clinics, Budapest, Hungary; Vision Research Institute, Neuroscience and Consciousness Research Department, Lowell, MA, USA.
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Pegoraro M, Weedall GD. Malaria in the 'Omics Era'. Genes (Basel) 2021; 12:genes12060843. [PMID: 34070769 PMCID: PMC8228830 DOI: 10.3390/genes12060843] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/28/2021] [Revised: 05/24/2021] [Accepted: 05/27/2021] [Indexed: 12/26/2022] Open
Abstract
Genomics has revolutionised the study of the biology of parasitic diseases. The first Eukaryotic parasite to have its genome sequenced was the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. Since then, Plasmodium genomics has continued to lead the way in the study of the genome biology of parasites, both in breadth—the number of Plasmodium species’ genomes sequenced—and in depth—massive-scale genome re-sequencing of several key species. Here, we review some of the insights into the biology, evolution and population genetics of Plasmodium gained from genome sequencing, and look at potential new avenues in the future genome-scale study of its biology.
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8
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Kolotova DE, Malyshev AY, Balaban PM. Histone Deacytylase Inhibitor Enhances
Long-Term Synaptic Potentiation in Neurons of a Grape Snail. J EVOL BIOCHEM PHYS+ 2021. [DOI: 10.1134/s0022093021030170] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/23/2022]
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Vinarskaya AK, Balaban PM, Roshchin MV, Zuzina AB. Sodium butyrate as a selective cognitive enhancer for weak or impaired memory. Neurobiol Learn Mem 2021; 180:107414. [PMID: 33610771 DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2021.107414] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Revised: 01/23/2021] [Accepted: 02/15/2021] [Indexed: 01/09/2023]
Abstract
Several recent studies showed that memory can be modulated by manipulating chromatin modifications using histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitors during memory formation, consolidation, and reconsolidation. We used a context fear conditioning paradigm with minimal non-painful current as a reinforcement, what elicited alertness to the context and freezing during tests in rats. Such paradigm resulted in a relatively weak memory in significant part of the rats. Here, we demonstrate that intraperitoneal administration of the HDAC inhibitor sodium butyrate immediately following memory reactivation, produced memory enhancement in rats with weak memory, however, not in rats with strong memory. Additionally, we investigated the ability of the HDAC inhibitor sodium butyrate to restore the contextual memory impaired due to the blockade of protein synthesis during memory reactivation. The results obtained evidence that the HDAC inhibitor sodium butyrate reinstated the impaired contextual memory. This enhancement effect is consistent with other studies demonstrating a role for HDAC inhibitors in the facilitation of contextual fear.
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Affiliation(s)
- Aliya Kh Vinarskaya
- Cellular Neurobiology of Learning Lab, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 5A Butlerova St., Moscow 117485, Russia.
| | - Pavel M Balaban
- Cellular Neurobiology of Learning Lab, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 5A Butlerova St., Moscow 117485, Russia
| | - Matvey V Roshchin
- Cellular Neurobiology of Learning Lab, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 5A Butlerova St., Moscow 117485, Russia
| | - Alena B Zuzina
- Cellular Neurobiology of Learning Lab, Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology, Russian Academy of Sciences, 5A Butlerova St., Moscow 117485, Russia.
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Haas-Neill S, Forsythe P. A Budding Relationship: Bacterial Extracellular Vesicles in the Microbiota-Gut-Brain Axis. Int J Mol Sci 2020; 21:ijms21238899. [PMID: 33255332 PMCID: PMC7727686 DOI: 10.3390/ijms21238899] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/28/2020] [Revised: 11/18/2020] [Accepted: 11/20/2020] [Indexed: 02/07/2023] Open
Abstract
The discovery of the microbiota-gut-brain axis has revolutionized our understanding of systemic influences on brain function and may lead to novel therapeutic approaches to neurodevelopmental and mood disorders. A parallel revolution has occurred in the field of intercellular communication, with the realization that endosomes, and other extracellular vesicles, rival the endocrine system as regulators of distant tissues. These two paradigms shifting developments come together in recent observations that bacterial membrane vesicles contribute to inter-kingdom signaling and may be an integral component of gut microbe communication with the brain. In this short review we address the current understanding of the biogenesis of bacterial membrane vesicles and the roles they play in the survival of microbes and in intra and inter-kingdom communication. We identify recent observations indicating that bacterial membrane vesicles, particularly those derived from probiotic organisms, regulate brain function. We discuss mechanisms by which bacterial membrane vesicles may influence the brain including interaction with the peripheral nervous system, and modulation of immune activity. We also review evidence suggesting that, unlike the parent organism, gut bacteria derived membrane vesicles are able to deliver cargo, including neurotransmitters, directly to the central nervous system and may thus constitute key components of the microbiota-gut-brain axis.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sandor Haas-Neill
- McMaster Brain-Body Institute, The Research Institute of St. Joseph’s Hamilton, Hamilton, ON L8N 4A6, Canada;
| | - Paul Forsythe
- McMaster Brain-Body Institute, The Research Institute of St. Joseph’s Hamilton, Hamilton, ON L8N 4A6, Canada;
- Firestone Institute for Respiratory Health, St. Joseph’s Healthcare and Department of Medicine, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON L8N 4A6, Canada
- Correspondence: ; Tel.: +01-905-522-1155 (ext. 35890)
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