DREADD users blog

A provocative new paper on-line in Nature Communications shows hM4Di when activated by CNO suppresses a variety of experimental seizures.  Also further evidence for silencing of synapses with hM4Di in this paper....

I occasionally get questions regarding approaches for using DREADDs in rats.  There are now a number of papers wherein cell-type specific expression of DREADDs in neurons was achieved using several platforms: HSV-transduction using either Enkephalin or Prodynorphin promotors for cell-type specific expression in striatal neurons: Transient neuronal inhibition reveals opposing roles of indirect and direct pathways in sensitization Ferguson SM, Eskenazi D, Ishikawa M, Wanat MJ, Phillips PE, Dong Y,   Roth BL ,   Neumaier   JF. Nat Neurosci . 2011 Jan;14(1):22-4. doi: 10.1038/nn.2703. Epub 2010 Dec 5. AAV-DIO-DREADD using TH-Cre mice Norepinephrine-neuron-selective expression  using AAV-based delivery and the  synthetic promoter PRSx8

I get occasional queries from folks in Pharma and Academia about model organisms and using DREADDs for various genetic/chemical genetic screening platforms. A suite of DREADD-based flies are available from Charles Nichols and published in Cell Reports .  I believe Chuck will make these available (or may already) at Flybase. Of course they work great in yeast and probably as well in all other organisms which use GPCRs (fish, worms, llamas, humans). Bryan