RESUMO
At the present time, no viable treatment exists for cognitive and olfactory deficits in Down syndrome (DS). We show in a DS model (Ts65Dn mice) that these progressive nonreproductive neurological symptoms closely parallel a postpubertal decrease in hypothalamic as well as extrahypothalamic expression of a master molecule that controls reproduction-gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH)-and appear related to an imbalance in a microRNA-gene network known to regulate GnRH neuron maturation together with altered hippocampal synaptic transmission. Epigenetic, cellular, chemogenetic, and pharmacological interventions that restore physiological GnRH levels abolish olfactory and cognitive defects in Ts65Dn mice, whereas pulsatile GnRH therapy improves cognition and brain connectivity in adult DS patients. GnRH thus plays a crucial role in olfaction and cognition, and pulsatile GnRH therapy holds promise to improve cognitive deficits in DS.
Assuntos
Cognição , Disfunção Cognitiva , Síndrome de Down , Hormônio Liberador de Gonadotropina , Transtornos do Olfato , Adulto , Animais , Cognição/efeitos dos fármacos , Cognição/fisiologia , Disfunção Cognitiva/tratamento farmacológico , Disfunção Cognitiva/etiologia , Modelos Animais de Doenças , Síndrome de Down/complicações , Síndrome de Down/tratamento farmacológico , Síndrome de Down/psicologia , Feminino , Hormônio Liberador de Gonadotropina/farmacologia , Hormônio Liberador de Gonadotropina/fisiologia , Hormônio Liberador de Gonadotropina/uso terapêutico , Humanos , Hipotálamo/efeitos dos fármacos , Hipotálamo/metabolismo , Masculino , Camundongos , Pessoa de Meia-Idade , Transtornos do Olfato/tratamento farmacológico , Transtornos do Olfato/etiologia , Transmissão Sináptica/efeitos dos fármacos , Adulto JovemRESUMO
In contrast to vision, where retinotopic mapping alone can define areal borders, primary auditory areas such as A1 are best delineated by combining in vivo tonotopic mapping with postmortem cyto- or myeloarchitectonics from the same individual. We combined high-resolution (800 µm) quantitative T(1) mapping with phase-encoded tonotopic methods to map primary auditory areas (A1 and R) within the "auditory core" of human volunteers. We first quantitatively characterize the highly myelinated auditory core in terms of shape, area, cortical depth profile, and position, with our data showing considerable correspondence to postmortem myeloarchitectonic studies, both in cross-participant averages and in individuals. The core region contains two "mirror-image" tonotopic maps oriented along the same axis as observed in macaque and owl monkey. We suggest that these two maps within the core are the human analogs of primate auditory areas A1 and R. The core occupies a much smaller portion of tonotopically organized cortex on the superior temporal plane and gyrus than is generally supposed. The multimodal approach to defining the auditory core will facilitate investigations of structure-function relationships, comparative neuroanatomical studies, and promises new biomarkers for diagnosis and clinical studies.