Intranasally applied neuropeptide S shifts a high-anxiety electrophysiological endophenotype in the ventral hippocampus towards a "normal"-anxiety one

PLoS One. 2015 Apr 1;10(4):e0120272. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0120272. eCollection 2015.

Abstract

The neurobiological basis of pathological anxiety and the improvement of its pharmacological treatment are a matter of intensive investigation. Here, using electrophysiological techniques in brain slices from animals of the high anxiety-related behavior (HAB) and normal anxiety-related behavior (NAB) mouse model, we show that basal neurotransmission at ventral hippocampal CA3-CA1 synapses is weaker in HAB compared to NAB mice. We further demonstrate that paired-pulse facilitation (PPF) and long-term potentiation (LTP) at these synapses are more pronounced in slices from HAB animals. Based on previous findings, we also examined whether intranasal delivery of neuropeptide S (NPS), which increasingly emerges as a potential novel treatment option for anxiety symptoms occurring in a variety of diseases like anxiety disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder, and major depression, impacts on the high-anxiety electrophysiological endophenotype in HAB mice. Strikingly, we detected enhanced basal neurotransmission and reduced PPF and LTP in slices from NPS-treated HAB animals. Collectively, our study uncovers a multifaceted high-anxiety neurophysiological endophenotype in the murine ventral hippocampus and provides the first evidence that an intranasally applied neuropeptide can shift such an endophenotype in an anxiety-regulating brain structure towards a "normal"-anxiety one.

MeSH terms

  • Administration, Intranasal
  • Animals
  • Anxiety / physiopathology*
  • Behavior, Animal / drug effects
  • Electrophysiological Phenomena / drug effects*
  • Endophenotypes*
  • Hippocampus / drug effects*
  • Hippocampus / physiopathology*
  • Long-Term Potentiation / drug effects
  • Male
  • Mice
  • Neuropeptides / administration & dosage*
  • Neuropeptides / pharmacology*
  • Synapses / drug effects
  • Synapses / physiology
  • Synaptic Transmission / drug effects

Substances

  • Neuropeptides

Grants and funding

These authors have no support or funding to report.