Shift work or transmeridian travel can desynchronize the body's circadian rhythms from local light-dark cycles. The mammalian suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) generates and entrains daily rhythms in physiology and behavior. Paradoxically, we found that vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), a neuropeptide implicated in synchrony among SCN cells, can also desynchronize them. The degree and duration of desynchronization among SCN neurons depended on both the phase and the dose of VIP. A model of the SCN consisting of coupled stochastic cells predicted both the phase-and the dosedependent response to VIP and that the transient phase desynchronization, or "phase tumbling", could arise from intrinsic, stochastic noise in small populations of key molecules (notably, Period mRNA near its daily minimum). The model also predicted that phase tumbling following brief VIP treatment would accelerate entrainment to shifted environmental cycles. We tested this using a prepulse of VIP during the day before a shift in either a light cycle in vivo or a temperature cycle in vitro. Although VIP during the day does not shift circadian rhythms, the VIP pretreatment approximately halved the time required for mice to reentrain to an 8-h shifted light schedule and for SCN cultures to reentrain to a 10-h shifted temperature cycle. We conclude that VIP below 100 nM synchronizes SCN cells and above 100 nM reduces synchrony in the SCN. We show that exploiting these mechanisms that transiently reduce cellular synchrony before a large shift in the schedule of daily environmental cues has the potential to reduce jet lag.circadian oscillator | biological clock | vasopressin | vasoactive intestinal peptide | period gene C ircadian rhythms of living organisms entrain (synchronize) to daily environmental cues such as light and dark. Living organisms have not evolved to make large daily adjustments in their circadian timing, so it is a challenge for them to respond to changes such as those that humans are subjected to during shift work and travel across time zones. Long-term misalignment between internal circadian rhythms in mammals and environmental cycles can induce physiological and psychological abnormalities, including depression, cancer, heart problems, obesity, and increased mortality (1, 2).The master circadian pacemaker in mammals, the bilateral suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN), is composed of ∼20,000 neurons that synchronize their daily rhythms to each other and entrain to ambient light cycles (3, 4). Vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP), released in the SCN as a function of circadian time and light intensity (5-7), plays a critical role in this circadian synchronization. In the absence of VIP or its receptor, VPAC2R, SCN neurons fail to synchronize to each other and consequently many daily rhythms of the organism are lost (8-12). The addition of VIP to SCN cultures induces the production of Period (Per) 1 and 2 (13), two genes implicated in light-induced resetting (14-16), and shifts rhythms in behavior and SCN physiology (17-21). Notably...

Studies of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have predominantly focused on two major pathologies: amyloid-ß (Aß) and hyperphosphorylated tau. These misfolded proteins can accumulate asymptomatically in distinct regions over decades. However, significant Aß accumulation can be seen in individuals who do not develop dementia, and tau pathology limited to the transentorhinal cortex, which can appear early in adulthood, is usually clinically silent. Thus, an interaction between these pathologies appears to be required to initiate and propel disease forward to widespread circuits. Recent multi-disciplinary findings strongly suggest that the third factor required for disease progression is an aberrant microglial immune response. This response may initially be beneficial; however, a maladaptive microglial response eventually develops, fueling a feed-forward spread of tau and Aß pathology.

Circadian oscillations in the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) depend on transcriptional repression by Period (PER)1 and PER2 proteins within single cells and on vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP) signaling between cells. Because VIP is released by SCN neurons in a circadian pattern, and, after photic stimulation, it has been suggested to play a role in the synchronization to environmental light cycles. It is not known, however, if or how VIP entrains circadian gene expression or behavior. Here, we tested candidate signaling pathways required for VIP-mediated entrainment of SCN rhythms. We found that single applications of VIP reset PER2 rhythms in a time- and dose-dependent manner that differed from light. Unlike VIP-mediated signaling in other cell types, simultaneous antagonism of adenylate cyclase and phospholipase C activities was required to block the VIP-induced phase shifts of SCN rhythms. Consistent with this, VIP rapidly increased intracellular cAMP in most SCN neurons. Critically, daily VIP treatment entrained PER2 rhythms to a predicted phase angle within several days, depending on the concentration of VIP and the interval between VIP applications. We conclude that VIP entrains circadian timing among SCN neurons through rapid and parallel changes in adenylate cyclase and phospholipase C activities.

The inflammatory prostaglandin E2 (PGE 2 ) EP2 receptor is a master suppressor of beneficial microglial function, and myeloid EP2 signaling ablation reduces pathology in models of inflammatory neurodegeneration. Here, we investigated the role of PGE 2 EP2 signaling in a model of stroke in which the initial cerebral ischemic event is followed by an extended poststroke inflammatory response. Myeloid lineage cell-specific EP2 knockdown in Cd11bCre;EP2 lox/lox mice attenuated brain infiltration of Cd11b + CD45 hi macrophages and CD45 + Ly6G hi neutrophils, indicating that inflammatory EP2 signaling participates in the poststroke immune response. Inducible global deletion of the EP2 receptor in adult ROSA26-CreER T2 (ROSACreER);EP2 lox/lox mice also reduced brain myeloid cell trafficking but additionally reduced stroke severity, suggesting that nonimmune EP2 receptor-expressing cell types contribute to cerebral injury. EP2 receptor expression was highly induced in neurons in the ischemic hemisphere, and postnatal deletion of the neuronal EP2 receptor in Thy1Cre;EP2 lox/lox mice reduced cerebral ischemic injury. These findings diverge from previous studies of congenitally null EP2 receptor mice where a global deletion increases cerebral ischemic injury. Moreover, ROSACreER;EP2 lox/lox mice, unlike EP2 −/− mice, exhibited normal learning and memory, suggesting a confounding effect from congenital EP2 receptor deletion. Taken together with a precedent that inhibition of EP2 signaling is protective in inflammatory neurodegeneration, these data lend support to translational approaches targeting the EP2 receptor to reduce inflammation and neuronal injury that occur after stroke. PGE 2 | stroke | conditional knockout T he COX-1 and inducible COX-2 catalyze the first committed step in PGE 2 synthesis and function physiologically in the central nervous system to regulate synaptic plasticity, neurovascular coupling, and glial homeostasis. Of the five prostanoids downstream of COX-including PGE 2 , PGD 2 , PGF 2 α, prostacyclin, and thromboxane-PGE 2 has emerged as a unique modulator of disease-promoting neuronal and inflammatory processes. In pathologic contexts, induction of COX-2 in neurons and glia leads to generation of PGE 2 that signals through four G protein coupled receptors, EP1-EP4. In vivo studies of the EP receptor function using genetic knockout models have highlighted EP receptorspecific effects in a broad range of neurological disease models. For example, whereas the EP1 receptor elicits neurotoxic effects in models of cerebral ischemia (1), the EP4 receptor conversely mediates neuroprotective, vasodilatory, and antiinflammatory effects (2, 3). In models of familial Alzheimer's disease (AD), ablation of EP2 or EP3 receptors blunts inflammatory responses, amyloid accumulation, and loss of synaptic proteins (4-7), whereas deletion of microglial EP4 elicits the opposite (8). Thus, genetic studies demonstrate beneficial as well as detrimental PGE 2 EP signaling cascades that operate in receptor-specific ways.The PGE ...