Ifeoma Azinge, Winner of the 2024 NIMH Three-Minute Talks Competition

Transcript

Ifeoma Azinge: Hi, my name is Ifeoma. A common way symptoms of mental health disorders are alleviated today are through medications, and medications primarily act on their target receptors. In our brains, there are different types of receptors found, but one common type of receptor called G-protein coupled receptors or GPCRs for short are found on our brain cells, a.k.a, our neurons. Three common symptoms of mental health disorders are lapses in attention, impulsivity and memory deficits. One brain region in particular that has been implicated in all three of these symptoms is the medial septum. The medial septum has different types of receptors found there, including GPCRs, and naturally in our brains, GPCRs can be activated by neuropeptides. One neuropeptide in particular that is not only implicated in all three of these symptoms, but is also found in the medial septum, is the neuropeptide galanin.

Galanin that goes to the medial septum primarily acts on its two GPCRs galanin receptors one and two. So you have galanin that is found throughout the brain that goes to the medial septum, activates its GPCRs there, which in turn causes changes in downstream brain regions, and then ultimately can alter behavior.

For the first part of my thesis project, I'm interested in answering the question, what changes in behavior occur as a result of galanin going to the medial septum and activating its GPCRs found there? In order to answer this question, I use the rat as a model organism, and I train it on a vigilance task that assesses for attention and impulsivity, and a novel object task that assesses for memory. Once my rats are able to do these tasks, I then surgically implant a cannula into the medial septum and infuse galanin receptor agonist and antagonist in order to see what changes in behavior occur as a result of the activation or inactivation of the galanin receptors in the medial septum.

Once I'm able to understand the changes in behavior that occur as a result of galanin receptors in the medial septum, I can then go and look at where the galanin that is coming to the medial septum is coming from in the brain, and when it does activate its receptors in the medial septum, what changes in brain activity occur in downstream brain regions, namely the prefrontal cortex and the hippocampus? And how do changes in these downstream brain region ultimately affect behavior? For my project, I hope to not only provide insight into the use of galanin receptors as potential targets to alleviate symptoms of mental health disorders, but I also hope to add to our knowledge on how neuropeptides influence behavior. Thank you.