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Showing posts from May, 2017

DREADDs: Lateral thalamic control of nociceptive response after whisker pad injection of varicella zoster virus

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Thalamic neuronal activity was modulated after injecting an  adeno-associated virus  (AAV) expressing an engineered  acetylcholine   Gi-protein  coupled receptor. This receptor inhibits neuronal firing when bound by  clozapine -n- oxide  (CNO). VGAT expression was attenuated in the thalamus by injecting an AAV construct that expressed a VGAT silencing shRNA. VZV induced  nociception  was significantly decreased after administering CNO in male rats. Nociception significantly increased concomitant with increased thalamic c-fos expression after attenuating thalamic VGAT expression. These data establish that the lateral thalamus (posterior,  ventral posteromedial ,  ventral posterolateral  and/or reticular thalamic nucleus) controls VZV induced nociception in the orofacial region, and that  GABA  in this region appears to reduce the response to VZV induced nociception possibly by gating facial pain Nice controls here:

Galanin-expressing GABA neurons in the lateral hypothalamus modulate food reward and non-compulsive locomotion

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Really great set of controls here