Publications by authors named "Cameron D Freeman"
Article Synopsis
- Loss-of-function mutations in the GRN gene lead to Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD), causing reduced progranulin protein levels and behavioral issues in Grn mice by 9-10 months of age.* -
- Previous research showed that Grn mice exhibit low dominance behavior associated with dendritic changes in the medial prefrontal cortex, affecting social dominance tests.* -
- In this study, analysis of pyramidal neurons revealed that while overall dendritic spine density was similar in Grn and wild-type mice, Grn mice had a shift in spine types, indicating potential impacts on neural circuitry and behavior.*
Article Synopsis
- Proteomic studies on postmortem human brain tissue have assessed the effects of aging and neurodegenerative diseases, particularly Alzheimer's, but identifying specific proteins that influence biological processes remains a challenge.
- A cross-platform analysis focused on synaptic processes in the entorhinal cortex was conducted, using mass spectrometry to identify 2260 proteins and correlate them with dendritic spine metrics.
- The study successfully pinpointed Twinfilin-2 (TWF2) as a key protein linked to spine length, and experimentally validated that enhancing TWF2 levels boosts thin spine growth in neurons, thus contributing to a deeper understanding of synaptic alterations in Alzheimer's.
Dendritic spines are small protrusions on dendrites that serve as the postsynaptic site of the majority of excitatory synapses. These structures are important for normal synaptic transmission, and alterations in their density and morphology have been documented in various disease states. Over 130 years ago, Ramón y Cajal used Golgi-stained tissue sections to study dendritic morphology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRho-associated kinase isoform 2 (ROCK2) is an attractive drug target for several neurologic disorders. A critical barrier to ROCK2-based research and therapeutics is the lack of a mouse model that enables investigation of ROCK2 with spatial and temporal control of gene expression. To overcome this, we generated ROCK2 mice.
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