With a $35,000 bridge grant from FRAXA Research Foundation, Dr. Peter Vanderklish and colleagues explored the basis of anxiety in Fragile X syndrome in a mouse model of the disorder. His focus is an area of the brain, BNST.
Altered neural excitability in the BNST as a basis of, and therapeutic target for, chronic emotional symptoms in Fragile X syndrome
Long-term anxiety and fear states are mediated by the brain’s bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST), a hub for modulation of anxiety and stress responses. We have found evidence in Fragile X mice that suggests a state of chronically reduced anxiolytic drive of BNST by insula and other inputs. This suggests a state at baseline that is analogous to the effects of long-term stress on BNST in normal individuals. We propose further that these changes involve insula-BNST pathways underlying social anxiety and aversion.
Our objectives are to test this hypotheses and the efficacy of HSD11[beta]1 inhibitors on BNST function and anxiety behaviors in Fragile X model mice.
Previous Grants to this Team
Since 2003 when Dr. Vanderklish attended a Fragile X Banbury meeting, he has been studying neurons from the Fragile X knockout mouse. He has applied a variety of biochemical, proteomic, and electrophysiological methods to elucidate dysfuntions in synaptic function that may contribute to Fragile X syndrome, and to identify new strategies for pharmacological therapy.
$40,000 in 2008
$50,000 in 2007
$80,000 in 2006
$50,000 in 2005
$95,000 in 2004
