Please Welcome our Faculty member, Manoela V. Fogaca, PhD - February 1, 2023 to the Department of Pharmacology and Physiology
Monday, January 9, 2023
Dr. Fogaça’s research focuses on understanding the molecular basis of behaviors relevant to stress and the actions of antidepressant and anxiolytic drugs, aiming at identifying specific circuits, neuronal subpopulations and synaptic mechanisms involved in these responses, as well as novel pharmacological strategies to treat neuropsychiatric disorders. Dr. Fogaça received her Master’s and PhD in Pharmacology from the Department of Pharmacology at the University of São Paulo (Brazil), where she studied molecular mechanisms of action of cannabinoid compounds in multiple brain systems involved in stress-related disorders. As a postdoctoral fellow at Yale University, Dr. Fogaça has investigated cellular and synaptic mechanisms underlying the rapid and sustained effects of fast-acting antidepressants, including ketamine and ketamine-like drugs, with the goal of contributing to the development of more effective medications to treat major depression disorder (MDD).
Because currently available antidepressants have serious limitations for treating MDD, including low response rates, a significant number of treatment resistant patients, and a time-lag before there is a therapeutic response, exploring the mechanisms of action of rapid antidepressants is an important strategy to understand the pathophysiology of MDD and to guide efforts to develop safer and better-tolerated drugs. Low doses of ketamine, an NMDA receptor (NMDA-R) blocker, can induce rapid (2 h) and sustained (up to 7 days) antidepressant effects in chronically stressed mice and in patients diagnosed with MDD, even in patients that are refractory to current antidepressants. Early findings suggest that these drugs initially target specific subpopulations of GABA interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and promote a fast enhancement of neurotrophic factors release, such as the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), as well as glutamate- and GABA-induced neuroplasticity, leading to protein synthesis, synaptogenesis and new spine formation. One hypothesis is that this local re-organization re-establishes the excitation:inhibition balance (E:I) in the mPFC, leading to a restoration of correct firing patterns and the integrity of signal transfer to target regions, and thereby promoting antidepressant effects. At the University of Rochester, research at Fogaça’s lab will expand these studies to understand how complex local and long-range neural circuits interact and modulate brain plasticity that culminate in distinct behavioral outcomes. Her lab will combine molecular neuropharmacology, genetic approaches and circuit-level studies of neurobiological systems to investigate how specific subpopulations of GABAergic and glutamatergic neurons crosstalk to modulate the cortical E:I network dynamics that lead to phenotypes relevant to stress disorders. On the long-term, Dr. Fogaça’s research will span the mPFC to additional brain circuits, with the objective of mapping downstream regions and neuromodulatory systems to determine how the interaction between the mPFC and its projections promotes stress resilience and rapid antidepressant responses.
Congratulations Chen Li!
Sunday, January 1, 2023
Chen Li, 4th year graduate student in the laboratory of Dr. Craig Morrell was awarded a two-year American Heart Association Predoctoral Fellowship entitled, “Thrombocytopenia Independently Leads to Monocyte Immune Dysfunction in Sepsis”.
Project Summary
In addition to their well-studied hemostatic functions, platelets are immune cells. We have now found that thrombocytopenia leads to monocyte dysfunction, independent of the cause of thrombocytopenia, in a manner that is dependent on direct platelet-monocyte CD47 interactions that regulate monocyte immunometabolism. Using mouse models of thrombocytopenia and sepsis we found that normal platelet numbers are needed to limit immune dysregulation in sepsis. Our studies demonstrate that in healthy conditions resting platelets maintain monocyte immune tolerance by regulating monocyte metabolic processes that lead to changes in gene expression regulation.