Nucleus accumbens D2-expressing neurons: Balancing reward and licking disruption through rhythmic optogenetic stimulation. by Nikte Requejo-Mendoza, José-Antonio Arias-Montaño, Ranier Gutierrez

“…This study employed optogenetic manipulations to investigate the role of NAc D2-expressing neurons in reward processing and sucrose consumption. …”
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Electrophysiologically calibrated optogenetic stimulation of dentate granule cells mitigates dendritic spine loss in denervated organotypic entorhino-hippocampal slice cultures by Tijana Hanauske, Carolin Christina Koretz, Tassilo Jungenitz, Jochen Roeper, Alexander Drakew, Thomas Deller

“…To achieve this outcome, we had to calibrate the intensity and duration of optogenetic (light) pulses using whole-cell electrophysiological recordings and multi-cell calcium imaging. …”
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Therapeutic landscape for inherited ocular diseases: current and emerging therapies by Hwei Wuen Chan, Jaslyn Oh, Bart Leroy

“…Recent success in adeno-associated virus-based gene therapy, voretigene neparvovec (Luxturna®) for RPE65-related IRDs, has heralded rapid evolution in gene therapy platform technologies and strategies, from gene augmentation to RNA editing, as well as gene agnostic approaches such as optogenetics. This review discusses the fundamentals underlying the mode of inheritance, natural history studies and clinical trial outcomes, as well as current and emerging therapies covering gene therapy strategies, cell-based therapies and bionic vision.…”
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GABAergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area represent and regulate force vectors by Qiaochu Jiang, Konstantin I. Bakhurin, Ryan N. Hughes, Bryan Lu, Shaolin Ruan, Henry H. Yin

“…Their activity usually precedes force exertion, and selective optogenetic manipulations of these neurons systematically modulate force exertion without influencing reward prediction. …”
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Structural insights into light-gating of potassium-selective channelrhodopsin by Takefumi Morizumi, Kyumhyuk Kim, Hai Li, Probal Nag, Tal Dogon, Oleg A. Sineshchekov, Yumei Wang, Leonid S. Brown, Songhwan Hwang, Han Sun, Ana-Nicoleta Bondar, Igor Schapiro, Elena G. Govorunova, John L. Spudich, Oliver P. Ernst

“…Abstract Structural information on channelrhodopsins’ mechanism of light-gated ion conductance is scarce, limiting its engineering as optogenetic tools. Here, we use single-particle cryo-electron microscopy of peptidisc-incorporated protein samples to determine the structures of the slow-cycling mutant C110A of kalium channelrhodopsin 1 from Hyphochytrium catenoides (HcKCR1) in the dark and upon laser flash excitation. …”
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Dendritic excitations govern back-propagation via a spike-rate accelerometer by Pojeong Park, J. David Wong-Campos, Daniel G. Itkis, Byung Hun Lee, Yitong Qi, Hunter C. Davis, Benjamin Antin, Amol Pasarkar, Jonathan B. Grimm, Sarah E. Plutkis, Katie L. Holland, Liam Paninski, Luke D. Lavis, Adam E. Cohen

“…We mapped sub-millisecond voltage dynamics throughout the dendritic trees of CA1 pyramidal neurons under diverse optogenetic and synaptic stimulus patterns, in acute brain slices. …”
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Devaluing memories of reward: a case for dopamine by Benjamin R. Fry, Nicolette Russell, Victoria Fex, Bing Mo, Nathan Pence, Joseph A. Beatty, Fredric P. Manfredsson, Brandon A. Toth, Christian R. Burgess, Samuel Gershman, Alexander W. Johnson

“…This retrieval of the devalued reward memory elicited a reduction in the hedonic evaluation of sucrose reward. Through optogenetic and chemogenetic manipulations, we confirm dopamine cells are both sufficient and necessary for mediated devaluation, and retrieval of these memories reflected dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. …”
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Binding of HCN channels to GABAB receptors in dopamine neurons of the VTA limits synaptic inhibition and prevents the development of anxiety by Enrique Pérez-Garci, Kateryna Pysanenko, Giorgio Rizzi, Florian Studer, Daniel Ulrich, Thorsten Fritzius, Simon Früh, Alessandra Porcu, Valérie Besseyrias, Adolf Melichar, Martin Gassmann, Tania Rinaldi Barkat, Rostislav Tureček, Kelly R. Tan, Bernhard Bettler

“…Consequently, disruption of the GBR/HCN complex in KCTD16−/− mice leads to prolonged optogenetic inhibition of DAVTA neuron firing. KCTD16−/− mice exhibit increased anxiety-like behavior in response to stress - a behavior replicated by CRISPR/Cas9-mediated KCTD16 ablation in DAVTA neurons or by intra-VTA infusion of an HCN antagonist in wild-type mice. …”
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A visual cortical-lateral posterior thalamic nucleus circuit regulates depressive-like behaviors in male mice by Fangfang Wu, Chenxi Gu, Rui Xu, Junwei Ma, Lei Gao, Youjiao Zhang, Siyuan Bu, Qingbo Lu, Te Zhao, Yijun Han, Chen Guo, Yihui Cui, Jianhua Ding, Gang Hu, Zhijun Zhang

“…Here, we demonstrate that the V1, specifically the lateral posterior nucleus of the thalamus (LP)-projecting V1 glutamatergic subpopulation (GluV1→LP neurons), shows reduced activity after chronic restraint stress (CRS) in male mice, leading to depressive-like behaviors. Optogenetic or chemogenetic activation of these neurons ameliorated depressive-like behaviors in CRS-depressed mice, whereas reducing activity exacerbated these behaviors. …”
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Anticancer effects of PEP06 (TB01) in combination with Trifluridine/Tipiracil (TAS-102) in a xenograft model of human colorectal cancer by Ruohong Lin, Jiaxing Cheng, Jinlong Zhao, Liang Zhou, Jian Li, Xinchun Yang

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