DREADD users blog

Nice paper in Cell Reports: Here, we identify a population of neurons in the ventral premammillary nucleus of the hypothalamus (PM V ) that are strongly activated in male intruder mice in response to a larger resident male but that are not responsive to females. 

Nice paper in bioarchivx

Paper here.

Nice paper combining allostatin Gi linked receptors and DREADDS in elife

As I recently suggested in an article in Neuron , because of receptor reserve when DREADDs are expressed desensitization is unlikely to occur to any significant extent.  We now have some nice validation of this basic principle of GPCR molecular pharmacology in a nice paper just published in Nature Communications .

Paper here.

Nice paper here

Distinct Synaptic Strengthening of the Striatal Direct and Indirect Pathways Drives Alcohol Consumption In this study, we measured both glutamatergic and GABAergic activity in D1-MSNs and D2-MSNs and found that NMDA receptor (NMDAR) activity in D1-MSNs and GABAergic activity in D2-MSNs were selectively potentiated following cycles of alcohol consumption and withdrawal. Using a chemogenetic approach employing designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs), which allowed selective manipulation of D1- or D2-MSN activity  (23) , we discovered that both of these cell types were not only necessary, but also sufficient, to drive alcohol consumption. Furthermore, we observed that D2R-glycogen synthase kinase-3β (GSK3β) signaling regulated GABAergic activity and thus, alcohol consumption. The findings of this study provide detailed mechanistic information indicating how different forms of neuroplasticity in distinct neuronal populations of the striatal direct and indi