Mental illnesses like schizophrenia, autism and depression are common, destabilize families, and incur years of lost work productivity making them the most costly illnesses throughout the world. While some excellent treatment for depression and schizophrenia are available many patients are treatment resistant necessitating novel treatment approaches and no treatment widely accepted to be efficacious for Autism exists. For over thirty years treatment attempts to inject cultured nerve cells into brain areas that are affected by disease have produced disappointing results. The recent possibility of using stem cells for cell-based therapy is intriguing because while stem hold the potential to become neurons and other cells (multipotency). However, the cellular and molecular signals directing stem cells to become neurons remain elusive. One reason for limited success of transplantation therapy is that neurogenesis in the adult brain is restricted to two discrete regions. Other brain structures are thought to be non-permissive to the birth of new neurons. Amongst the two permissive structures is the hippocampus, which is affected by depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, autism and Alzheimer's disease. Several of these diseases were reported to be associated with disturbances in adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Experimental disruption of adult hippocampal neurogenesis leads to deficits in both learning and behavioral responses to antidepressant/antianxiety treatment in rodents. Therefore, hippocampal neurogenesis in the adult brain may be involved in disease states. The cellular and molecular events that permit neurogenesis in the adult brain remain unknown. Using a novel genetic technology we recently discovered that stem cells produce not only neurons, as currently accepted, but also more stem cells, depending on the experiences of the animal and on the location of the stem cell. We also developed a series of environmental manipulations that can drive stem cells to replicate themselves, to become neurons. The goal of the current proposal is to employ our genetic and behavioral systems to uncover the structural and molecular logic that makes neurogenesis and stem cell proliferation permissive in the adult brain. In a series of transplantation, gene expression analyses, and circuit-mapping experiments we intend to explore the mechanisms by which social environment can direct transplanted stem cells to proliferate and to become neurons. The experiments will help us determine how experience changes the stem cell environment and the stem cells themselves to regulate the production of new cells in the adult brain. I will also explore if this type of response to environmental changes helps the brain adapt to adversity by increasing the number of stem cells that can produce more neurons when life experiences become more favorable. Our results will lay the foundation for exploring how existing stem cells can be instructed to multiply and produce more neurons in the adult brain to improve brain function and possibly combat disease. This knowledge may also hold clues to overcoming resistance to neurogenesis in non-permissive brain structures.

Public Health Relevance

The promise of cell-based therapy in the adult brain has not born fruit, but is actively pursued for brain disorders. Here the investigators propose to utilize their technical advances to identify changes in local brain microenvironments and in the stem cells, themselves, that instruct stem cells to proliferate or to make neurons and to examine if these changes can be co-opted for cell-based therapy in the brain. Finally, investigators will explore what role this """"""""experience-directed"""""""" stem cell fate plasticity plays in adaptation to stress.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01MH091844-04
Application #
8449454
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZMH1-ERB-L (04))
Program Officer
Panchision, David M
Project Start
2010-07-21
Project End
2014-12-31
Budget Start
2013-01-01
Budget End
2013-12-31
Support Year
4
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$380,966
Indirect Cost
$85,529
Name
New York State Psychiatric Institute
Department
Type
DUNS #
167204994
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10032
Youssef, Mary; Krish, Varsha S; Kirshenbaum, Greer S et al. (2018) Ablation of proliferating neural stem cells during early life is sufficient to reduce adult hippocampal neurogenesis. Hippocampus 28:586-601
Garcia-Garcia, A L; Canetta, S; Stujenske, J M et al. (2018) Serotonin inputs to the dorsal BNST modulate anxiety in a 5-HT1A receptor-dependent manner. Mol Psychiatry 23:1990-1997
Garcia-Garcia, Alvaro L; Meng, Qingyuan; Canetta, Sarah et al. (2017) Serotonin Signaling through Prefrontal Cortex 5-HT1A Receptors during Adolescence Can Determine Baseline Mood-Related Behaviors. Cell Rep 18:1144-1156
Garcia-Garcia, A L; Meng, Q; Richardson-Jones, J et al. (2016) Disruption of 5-HT1A function in adolescence but not early adulthood leads to sustained increases of anxiety. Neuroscience 321:210-221
Dranovsky, Alex; Leonardo, E David (2015) Neuroscience: The power of positivity. Nature 522:294-5
Samuels, Benjamin Adam; Anacker, Christoph; Hu, Alice et al. (2015) 5-HT1A receptors on mature dentate gyrus granule cells are critical for the antidepressant response. Nat Neurosci 18:1606-16
Kim, Esther S; Dranovsky, Alex (2015) Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells Re-Engineer the Study of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 54:613-4
Sproul, Andrew A; Jacob, Samson; Pre, Deborah et al. (2014) Characterization and molecular profiling of PSEN1 familial Alzheimer's disease iPSC-derived neural progenitors. PLoS One 9:e84547
Samuels, Benjamin A; Leonardo, E David; Dranovsky, Alex et al. (2014) Global state measures of the dentate gyrus gene expression system predict antidepressant-sensitive behaviors. PLoS One 9:e85136
Kirshenbaum, Greer S; Lieberman, Sophie R; Briner, Tamara J et al. (2014) Adolescent but not adult-born neurons are critical for susceptibility to chronic social defeat. Front Behav Neurosci 8:289

Showing the most recent 10 out of 18 publications