Restricted Research - Award List, Note/Discussion Page
Fiscal Year: 2023
1800 The University of Texas at El Paso (143688)
Principal Investigator: Iniguez,Sergio Diaz
Total Amount of Contract, Award, or Gift (Annual before 2011): $ 608,000
Exceeds $250,000 (Is it flagged?): Yes
Start and End Dates: 8/1/22 - 6/30/26
Restricted Research: YES
Academic Discipline: Psychology
Department, Center, School, or Institute: Psychology
Title of Contract, Award, or Gift: Psychological Stress Susceptibility In Juvenile Female And Male Mice
Name of Granting or Contracting Agency/Entity:
NIH - NATL INST OF GEN MEDICAL SCIENCES
CFDA Link: HHS
93.859
Program Title:
Biomedical Research and Research Training
CFDA Linked: Biomedical Research and Research Training
Note:
Epidemiologic reports indicate that mood-related illnesses, like major depressive disorder (MDD), are among the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the juvenile population. To make matters worse, women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with MDD, a sex difference that becomes apparent during the adolescent stage of development. Such disparity highlights the critical need for preclinical models designed to uncover the neurobiological factors that underlie MDD as a function of age and sex - particularly, because most animal models mainly incorporate adult male rodents. To address this issue, we developed the vicarious defeat stress (VDS) paradigm wherein a mouse witnesses the defeat bout of a male conspecific from the safety of an adjacent compartment, leading to a behavioral outcome that resembles some of the core symptoms of MDD. Importantly, a strength of this approach is that it allows for the experimental inclusion of females and juveniles. As such, the experiments described in this proposal will evaluate whether exposing juvenile female and male mice to VDS results in behavioral outcomes that recapitulate a depression-related phenotype. This will be accomplished within the framework of the following specific aims: [1] assess the consequences of VDS on sensitivity to reward (cocaine, sucrose), affect, and memory-performance in adolescent mice. Also, [2] to evaluate if traditional (fluoxetine) and novel (ketamine) antidepressants ameliorate the VDS-induced behavioral deficits. Lastly, [3] to examine the integrity of biological markers [brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF)-related signaling] within the hippocampus. Collectively, the outcome of these studies will provide behavioral, pharmacological, and molecular evidence of VDS-induced dysfunction that may underlie the convergent (both sexes experiencing MDD) and divergent (age- and sex-specific) neurobiological underpinnings of MDD.
Discussion: No discussion notes