The circadian gene Cryptochrome 2 influences stress-induced brain activity and depressive-like behavior in mice.

Cryptochrome 2 (Cry2) is a core clock gene important for circadian regulation. It has also been associated with anxiety and depressive-like behaviors in mice, but the previous findings have been conflicting in terms of the direction of the effect. To begin to elucidate the molecular mechanisms of this association, we carried out behavioral testing, PET imaging, and gene expression analysis of Cry2-/- and Cry2+/+ mice. Compared to Cry2+/+ mice, we found that Cry2-/- mice spent less time immobile in the forced swim test, suggesting reduced despair-like behavior. Moreover, Cry2-/- mice had lower saccharin preference, indicative of increased anhedonia. In contrast, we observed no group differences in anxiety-like behavior. The behavioral changes were accompanied by lower metabolic activity of the ventro-medial hypothalamus, suprachiasmatic nuclei, ventral tegmental area, anterior and medial striatum, substantia nigra, and habenula after cold stress as measured by PET imaging with a glucose analog. Although the expression of many depression-associated and metabolic genes was upregulated or downregulated by cold stress, we observed no differences between Cry2-/- and Cry2+/+ mice. These findings are consistent with other studies showing that Cry2 is required for normal emotional behavior. Our findings confirm previous roles of Cry2 in behavior and extend them by showing that the effects on behavior may be mediated by changes in brain metabolism.

Control of lysosomal-mediated cell death by the pH-dependent calcium channel RECS1.

Programmed cell death is regulated by the balance between activating and inhibitory signals. Here, we have identified RECS1 (responsive to centrifugal force and shear stress 1) [also known as TMBIM1 (transmembrane BAX inhibitor motif containing 1)] as a proapoptotic member of the TMBIM family. In contrast to other proteins of the TMBIM family, RECS1 expression induces cell death through the canonical mitochondrial apoptosis pathway. Unbiased screening indicated that RECS1 sensitizes cells to lysosomal perturbations. RECS1 localizes to lysosomes, where it regulates their acidification and calcium content, triggering lysosomal membrane permeabilization. Structural modeling and electrophysiological studies indicated that RECS1 is a pH-regulated calcium channel, an activity that is essential to trigger cell death. RECS1 also sensitizes whole animals to stress in vivo in Drosophila melanogaster and zebrafish models. Our results unveil an unanticipated function for RECS1 as a proapoptotic component of the TMBIM family that ignites cell death programs at lysosomes.

Kainate Receptor Auxiliary Subunit NETO2-Related Cued Fear Conditioning Impairments Associate with Defects in Amygdala Development and Excitability.

NETO2 is an auxiliary subunit for kainate-type glutamate receptors that mediate normal cued fear expression and extinction. Since the amygdala is critical for these functions, we asked whether Neto2-/- mice have compromised amygdala function. We measured the abundance of molecular markers of neuronal maturation and plasticity, parvalbumin-positive (PV+), perineuronal net-positive (PNN+), and double positive (PV+PNN+) cells in the Neto2-/- amygdala. We found that Neto2-/- adult, but not postnatal day (P)23, mice had 7.5% reduction in the fraction of PV+PNN+ cells within the total PNN+ population, and 23.1% reduction in PV staining intensity compared with Neto2+/+ mice, suggesting that PV interneurons in the adult Neto2-/- amygdala remain in an immature state. An immature PV inhibitory network would be predicted to lead to stronger amygdalar excitation. In the amygdala of adult Neto2-/- mice, we identified increased glutamatergic and reduced GABAergic transmission using whole-cell patch-clamp recordings. This was accompanied by increased spine density of thin dendrites in the basal amygdala (BA) compared with Neto2+/+ mice, indicating stronger glutamatergic synapses. Moreover, after fear acquisition Neto2-/- mice had a higher number of c-Fos-positive cells than Neto2+/+ mice in the lateral amygdala (LA), BA, and central amygdala (CE). Altogether, our findings indicate that Neto2 is involved in the maturation of the amygdala PV interneuron network. Our data suggest that this defect, together with other processes influencing amygdala principal neurons, contribute to increased amygdalar excitability, higher fear expression, and delayed extinction in cued fear conditioning, phenotypes that are common in fear-related disorders, including the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Immunomodulatory effects of antipsychotic treatment on gene expression in first-episode psychosis.

Previous studies suggest immunological alterations in patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP). Some studies show that antipsychotic compounds may cause immunomodulatory effects. To evaluate the immunological changes and the possible immunomodulatory effects in FEP, we recruited patients with FEP (n = 67) and matched controls (n = 38), aged 18-40 years, from the catchment area of the Helsinki University Hospital and the City of Helsinki, Finland. Fasting peripheral blood samples were collected between 8 and 10 a.m. in 10 ml PAXgene tubes. We applied the NanoString nCounter in-solution hybridization technology to determine gene expression levels of 147 candidate genes reflecting activation of the immune system. Cases had higher gene expression levels of BDKRB1 and SPP1/osteopontin compared with controls. Of the individual medications used as monotherapy, risperidone was associated with a statistically significant upregulation of 11 immune system genes, including cytokines and cytokine receptors (SPP1, IL1R1, IL1R2), pattern recognition molecules (TLR1, TLR2 and TLR6, dectin-1/CLEC7A), molecules involved in apoptosis (FAS), and some other molecules with functions in immune activation (BDKRB1, IGF1R, CR1). In conclusion, risperidone possessed strong immunomodulatory properties affecting mainly innate immune response in FEP patients, whereas the observed effects of quetiapine and olanzapine were only marginal. Our results further emphasize the importance of understanding the immunomodulatory mechanisms of antipsychotic treatment, especially in terms of specific compounds, doses and duration of medication in patients with severe mental illness. Future studies should evaluate the response pre- and post-treatment, and the possible role of this inflammatory activation for the progression of psychiatric and metabolic symptoms.

The bradykinin system in stress and anxiety in humans and mice.

Pharmacological research in mice and human genetic analyses suggest that the kallikrein-kinin system (KKS) may regulate anxiety. We examined the role of the KKS in anxiety and stress in both species. In human genetic association analysis, variants in genes for the bradykinin precursor (KNG1) and the bradykinin receptors (BDKRB1 and BDKRB2) were associated with anxiety disorders (p < 0.05). In mice, however, neither acute nor chronic stress affected B1 receptor gene or protein expression, and B1 receptor antagonists had no effect on anxiety tests measuring approach-avoidance conflict. We thus focused on the B2 receptor and found that mice injected with the B2 antagonist WIN 64338 had lowered levels of a physiological anxiety measure, the stress-induced hyperthermia (SIH), vs controls. In the brown adipose tissue, a major thermoregulator, WIN 64338 increased expression of the mitochondrial regulator Pgc1a and the bradykinin precursor gene Kng2 was upregulated after cold stress. Our data suggests that the bradykinin system modulates a variety of stress responses through B2 receptor-mediated effects, but systemic antagonists of the B2 receptor were not anxiolytic in mice. Genetic variants in the bradykinin receptor genes may predispose to anxiety disorders in humans by affecting their function.

Genetic Control of Myelin Plasticity after Chronic Psychosocial Stress.

Anxiety disorders often manifest in genetically susceptible individuals after psychosocial stress, but the mechanisms underlying these gene-environment interactions are largely unknown. We used the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) mouse model to study resilience and susceptibility to chronic psychosocial stress. We identified a strong genetic background effect in CSDS-induced social avoidance (SA) using four inbred mouse strains: 69% of C57BL/6NCrl (B6), 23% of BALB/cAnNCrl, 19% of 129S2/SvPasCrl, and 5% of DBA/2NCrl (D2) mice were stress resilient. Furthermore, different inbred mouse strains responded differently to stress, suggesting they use distinct coping strategies. To identify biological pathways affected by CSDS, we used RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) of three brain regions of two strains, B6 and D2: medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), ventral hippocampus (vHPC), and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). We discovered overrepresentation of oligodendrocyte (OLG)-related genes in the differentially expressed gene population. Because OLGs myelinate axons, we measured myelin thickness and found significant region and strain-specific differences. For example, in resilient D2 mice, mPFC axons had thinner myelin than controls, whereas susceptible B6 mice had thinner myelin than controls in the vHPC. Neither myelin-related gene expression in several other regions nor corpus callosum thickness differed between stressed and control animals. Our unbiased gene expression experiment suggests that myelin plasticity is a substantial response to chronic psychosocial stress, varies across brain regions, and is genetically controlled. Identification of genetic regulators of the myelin response will provide mechanistic insight into the molecular basis of stress-related diseases, such as anxiety disorders, a critical step in developing targeted therapy.

Transcriptome analysis reveals signature of adaptation to landscape fragmentation.

We characterize allelic and gene expression variation between populations of the Glanville fritillary butterfly (Melitaea cinxia) from two fragmented and two continuous landscapes in northern Europe. The populations exhibit significant differences in their life history traits, e.g. butterflies from fragmented landscapes have higher flight metabolic rate and dispersal rate in the field, and higher larval growth rate, than butterflies from continuous landscapes. In fragmented landscapes, local populations are small and have a high risk of local extinction, and hence the long-term persistence at the landscape level is based on frequent re-colonization of vacant habitat patches, which is predicted to select for increased dispersal rate. Using RNA-seq data and a common garden experiment, we found that a large number of genes (1,841) were differentially expressed between the landscape types. Hexamerin genes, the expression of which has previously been shown to have high heritability and which correlate strongly with larval development time in the Glanville fritillary, had higher expression in fragmented than continuous landscapes. Genes that were more highly expressed in butterflies from newly-established than old local populations within a fragmented landscape were also more highly expressed, at the landscape level, in fragmented than continuous landscapes. This result suggests that recurrent extinctions and re-colonizations in fragmented landscapes select a for specific expression profile. Genes that were significantly up-regulated following an experimental flight treatment had higher basal expression in fragmented landscapes, indicating that these butterflies are genetically primed for frequent flight. Active flight causes oxidative stress, but butterflies from fragmented landscapes were more tolerant of hypoxia. We conclude that differences in gene expression between the landscape types reflect genomic adaptations to landscape fragmentation.