Mouse Research and Neurodegeneration
Mouse research allows us to understand symptoms such as learning, sleep, and cognitive flexibility, which cannot be understood with simpler systems. All animal research is strictly monitored to ensure the welfare of our important scientific contributors (our mice!). We explore how neurons in the cortex change when the protein alpha-synuclein aggregates. This is the same protein that is found in human patients. We also study how the prefrontal cortex works during behavioral tasks, so that we can better understand what it means when cortical neurons change in anatomy and function during disease.
These are our mouse research publications only- if you are interested in human research, see the "Patient Research" tab.
Weber, M. A., Kerr, G., Thangavel, R., Conlon, M., Gumusoglu., S.B., Gupta. K., Abdelmotilib, H., Halhouli O., Zhang, Q., Geerling, J., Narayanan, N., Aldridge, G.M. Alpha-synuclein pre-formed fibrils injected into prefrontal cortex primarily impact cortical and subcortical structures. 2024;14(1):81-94. Journal of Parkinson’s Disease. DOI 10.3233/JPD-230129
Weber, M.A*., Sivakumar, K*., Tabakovic, E., Oya, M., Aldridge, G.M., Zhang, Q., Simmering, J.E., Narayanan, N.S., Glycolysis-enhancing α1-adrenergic antagonists modify cognitive symptoms related to Parkinson's disease. NPJ Parkinsons Dis 2023 Mar 2;9(1):32. PMID: 36864060
Bosch PJ, Kerr G, Cole R, Warwick CA, Wendt LH, Pradeep A, Bagnall E, Aldridge GM. Enhanced spine stability and survival lead to increases in dendritic spine density as an early response to local alpha-synuclein overexpression in mouse prefrontal cortex. bioRxiv. 2023 Sep 28; [Preprint] PubMed PMID: 37808820; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10557684. DOI: 10.1101/2023.09.28.559765
Keomanivong C, Schamp J, Tabakovic E, Thangavel R, Aldridge G, Pieper AA, Narayanan NS. Mice Expressing A53T/A30P Mutant Alpha-Synuclein in Dopamine Neurons Do Not Display Behavioral Deficits. eNeuro. 2024 Feb;11(2). doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0170-23.2023. Print 2024 Feb. PubMed PMID: 38351057; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC10866330.
Grady, F.S. Graff, S.A., Aldridge, G.M., Geerling, J.C. BoutonNet: an automatic method to detect anterogradely labeled presynaptic boutons in brain tissue sections. Brain Struct Funct 2022 Jul;227(6):1921-1932. doi: 10.1007/s00429-022-02504-y. PMID: 35648216
Zhang Q, Abdelmotilib H, Larson T, Keomanivong C, Conlon M, Aldridge G. M., Narayanan N. S. (2021). Cortical alpha-synuclein preformed fibrils do not affect interval timing in mice. Neuroscience Letters. Sep 30;136273 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2021.136273. PMID: 34601038
Keyes AL*, Kim Y*, Bosch PJ, Usachev YM, Aldridge GM. (2021). Stay or Go? Neuronal activity in medial frontal cortex during a voluntary tactile preference task in head-fixed mice. Cell Calcium.
Zhang Q, Abdelmotilib H, Larson T, Keomanivong C, Conlon M, Aldridge G. M., Narayanan N. S. (2021). Cortical alpha-synuclein preformed fibrils do not affect interval timing in mice. Neuroscience Letters. Sep 30;136273 DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2021.136273. PMID: 34601038
Wagner, L. M., Nathwani, S. M., Ten Eyck, P. P., Aldridge, G. M. (2020) Local cortical overexpression of human wild-type alpha-synuclein leads to increased dendritic spine density in mouse. Neuroscience Letters. PMID: 32417387\
Prior research by Dr. Aldridge:
Pan, F*., Aldridge, G.M*., Greenough, W.T., and Gan, W.B. (2010). Dendritic spine instability and insensitivity to modulation by sensory experience in a mouse model of fragile X syndrome. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A.
Kao, D.I., Aldridge, G.M., Weiler, I.J., and Greenough, W.T. (2010). Altered mRNA transport, docking, and protein translation in neurons lacking fragile X mental retardation protein. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 107, 15601-15606.
Mitchell, A.C., Aldridge, G., Kohler, S., Stanton, G., Sullivan, E., Garbett, K., Faludi, G., Mirnics, K., Cameron, J.L., and Greenough, W. (2010). Molecular correlates of spontaneous activity in non-human primates. J Neural Transm
Grossman, A.W., Aldridge, G.M., Lee, K.J., Zeman, M.K., Jun, C.S., Azam, H.S., Arii, T., Imoto, K., Greenough, W.T., and Rhyu, I.J. (2010). Developmental characteristics of dendritic spines in the dentate gyrus of Fmr1 knockout mice. Brain Res 1355, 221-227.
Aldridge G.M.,* Podrebarac D.M.,*, Greenough W.T., Weiler IJ. (2008) The use of total protein stains as loading controls: an alternative to high-abundance single protein controls in semi-quantitative immunoblotting. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 172:250-254.
Grossman A.W.,*, Aldridge G.M.,*, Weiler IJ., Greenough W.T. (2006) Local protein synthesis and spine morphogenesis: Fragile X syndrome and beyond. J Neurosci 26:7151-7155.