A crucial role for endocannabinoid signalling in age-dependent cross-modal brain plasticity upon vision loss

Abstract

Event Abstract Back to Event A crucial role for endocannabinoid signalling in age-dependent cross-modal brain plasticity upon vision loss Lucas Durieux1*, Maroussia Hennes1, Michele Giugliano2 and Lutgarde Arckens1 1 KU Leuven, Biology, Belgium 2 University of Antwerp, Belgium When sensory inputs become reduced or lost, the brain can undergo neuroplasticity events in order to reorganize the deprived cortex to support new function. Monocular enucleation (ME) is a validated model to study visual cortex reorganization in relation to one-eyed vision. The partially deprived binocular visual cortex will become reactivated by open-eye potentiation though inputs coming from the remaining eye. The deprived monocular visual cortex will however become responsive to non-visual inputs, the cortical neurons will start to respond to whisker stimulation, a typical example of cross-modal brain plasticity. Interestingly, cortical reactivation induced by this cross-modal plasticity phase appears to be age-dependent. Previous research revealed that adolescent mice (P45) do not show this plasticity phenomenon while adult mice (P120) do, and that an altered state of the GABAergic system plays a key role in this age dependency. CB1R is the main endocannabinoid (ECB) receptor of the central nervous system and as a neuronal and astroglial receptor is capable of regulating GABAergic synaptic transmission. Moreover, this receptor shows a similar age-dependent cortical expression pattern and is already known to be an important mediator of synaptic plasticity. With this project, we aim to decipher the involvement of the CB1R in ME-induced cross-modal plasticity as well as its contribution to age-related differences in neuroplasticity in general. Therefore, we will characterize CB1R expression in the ME model and attempt to identify causality between ECB signalling and cross-modal brain plasticity by using a pharmacological approach. In addition, we will interrogate the link between cell-specific adaptations to the GABAergic system, ECBs and cross-modal plasticity by ex vivo slice electrophysiology and decipher the specific contribution of the astroglial CB1R to cross-modal plasticity via a cell type specific gene manipulation strategy. References L. Van Brussel, A. Gerits, L. Arckens, Cerebral Cortex 21 (2011) J. Nys, K. Smolders, M.-E. Laramee, I. Hofman, T.-T. Hu, L. Arckens, Journal of Neuroscience 35 (2015) D. Piomelli, Nature Reviews Neuroscience 4 (2003) T. Yoneda, K. Kameyama, K. Esumi, Y. Daimyo, M. Watanabe, Y. Hata, PLoS ONE 8 (2013) Keywords: CB1 cannabinoid receptor (CB1), Monocular enucleation, neuroplasticity, Visual Cortex, Neuron-astrocyte communication Conference: 13th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience , Brussels, Belgium, 24 May - 24 May, 2019. Presentation Type: Poster presentation Topic: Cellular/Molecular Neuroscience Citation: Durieux L, Hennes M, Giugliano M and Arckens L (2019). A crucial role for endocannabinoid signalling in age-dependent cross-modal brain plasticity upon vision loss. Front. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: 13th National Congress of the Belgian Society for Neuroscience . doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2019.96.00035 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 24 Apr 2019; Published Online: 27 Sep 2019. * Correspondence: Mr. Lucas Durieux, KU Leuven, Biology, Leuven, 3000, Belgium, lucas.durieux@kuleuven.be Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Lucas Durieux Maroussia Hennes Michele Giugliano Lutgarde Arckens Google Lucas Durieux Maroussia Hennes Michele Giugliano Lutgarde Arckens Google Scholar Lucas Durieux Maroussia Hennes Michele Giugliano Lutgarde Arckens PubMed Lucas Durieux Maroussia Hennes Michele Giugliano Lutgarde Arckens Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.