NATURE COMMUNICATIONS: Chemo- and optogenetic dissection of ventral hippocampus modulation of feeding
Previous research has focused on feeding circuits residing in the hindbrain and midbrain that
govern homeostatic or hedonic control of food intake. However, the feeding circuits
controlling emotional or cognitive aspects of food intake are largely unknown. Here we use
chemical genetics and optogenetic techniques to dissect appetite control circuits originating
from ventral hippocampus (vHPC), a brain region implicated in emotion and cognition. We
find that the vHPC projects functional glutamatergic synaptic inputs to the lateral septum
(LS) and optogenetic activation of vHPC projections in LS reduces food intake. Consistently,
food intake is suppressed by chemogenetic activation of glutamatergic neurons in the vHPC
that project to the LS and inactivation of LS neurons blunts vHPC-induced suppression of
feeding. Collectively, our results identify an anorexigenic neural circuit originating from vHPC
to LS in the brain, revealing a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of anorexia or
other appetite disorders.
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