Dendritic spines are actin-rich protrusions from neuronal dendrites that harbor the majority of excitatory synapses. The balance of spine formation and retraction may influence dendritic integrity. While knowledge of the molecular mechanisms that promote dendritic spine formation has accumulated, little is known about the factors that limit spine formation. Here, we show that SESTD1, a phosphol...

Dendritic spines serve as the postsynaptic platform for most excitatory synapses in the mammalian brain, and their shape and size are tightly correlated with synaptic strength. The actin cytoskeleton plays a crucial role in the spine structure and its modifications during synapse development and plasticity, but the underlying regulatory mechanisms remain to be elucidated. Here, we report that a...

Background Major depressive disorder is characterized by structural and functional abnormalities of cortical and limbic brain areas, including a decrease in spine synapse number in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus. Recent studies highlighted that both genetic and pharmacological invalidation of the purinergic P2X7 receptor (P2rx7) leads to antidepressant-like phenotype in animal experiments...

Stable expression of long-term synaptic plasticity is critical for the developmental refinement of neural circuits and for some forms of learning and memory. Although structural remodeling of dendritic spines is associated with the stable expression of long-term potentiation (LTP), the relationship between structural and physiological plasticity remains unclear. To define whether these two proc...

This entire special issue of Global Spine Journal is devoted to one topic: “Rare Complications of Cervical Spine Surgery.” This was a combined effort of some of the leading cervical spine surgeons in North America, who pooled their clinical data for this project. Fortunately, these are complications that most surgeons will never experience, since they are, by definition, rare. But because of th...

Rac1 is a member of the Rho family of small GTPases that are important for structural aspects of the mature neuronal synapse including basal spine density and shape, activity-dependent spine enlargement, and AMPA receptor clustering in vitro. Here we demonstrate that selective elimination of Rac1 in excitatory neurons in the forebrain in vivo not only affects spine structure, but also impairs s...

introduction: degenerative changes of the cervical spine are more common in elderly, but anterior cervical osteophytes that cause problems in swallowing are rare. the most common cause of this problem is dish disease (diffuse idiopathic skeletal hyperostosis). trauma is also suggested as a potential cause in osteophyte formation. case report: we report a rare case of anterior cervical osteophyt...

Numerous soluble proteins convert to insoluble amyloid-like fibrils that have common properties. Amyloid fibrils are associated with fatal diseases such as Alzheimer's, and amyloid-like fibrils can be formed in vitro. For the yeast protein Sup35, conversion to amyloid-like fibrils is associated with a transmissible infection akin to that caused by mammalian prions. A seven-residue peptide segme...

Microwave maps may provide critical information on the flux rope interaction and breakout eruption if their polarization is measured with high precision. We demonstrate this diagnostic capability using 17 GHz from Nobeyama Radioheliograph (NoRH) of a circular ribbon flare SOL2014-12-17T04:51. The EUV images SDO/AIA coronal magnetic field extrapolated HMI magnetogram are also used to support int...

The amygdala, which exerts a regulatory influence on the stress response, is itself affected by stress. It has been reported that the serine protease tissue-plasminogen activator (tPA), a key mediator of spine plasticity, is required for stress-induced facilitation of anxiety-like behavior. Importantly, tPA is also involved in stress-induced activation of molecular signals that have the potenti...