Neuroplasticity of Central Nervous System in Health and Disease—Series 2

A special issue of Cells (ISSN 2073-4409). This special issue belongs to the section "Cells of the Nervous System".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 December 2023) | Viewed by 2395

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Division of Human Anatomy-Neuronal Networks Morphology and Systems Biology Lab, Department of Mental, Physical Health and Preventive Medicine University of Campania “Luigi Vanvitelli”, 80138 Naples, Italy
Interests: maladaptive synaptic plasticity; reactive gliosis; neuroinflammation; spinal cord; non-invasive stimulation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The need for a Second Edition of the Special Issue “Neuroplasticity of Central Nervous System in Health and Disease” demonstrates that plasticity represents a key feature of the CNS and a hot topic in the neurosciences. To date, plasticity arises from both short- and long-term adaptive synaptic changes and the “multidirectional” interactions between neural cells and their networks, extracellular matrix, and vascular system. In this context, activated glial cells, through complex mechanisms, including neuroinflammation, failure of neurovascular coupling, and metabolic/mitochondrial dysfunction, contribute to disrupting the complex neuroglial networks underlying neural homeostasis and connectivity within brain circuits. To date, this condition, called maladaptive synaptic plasticity, might represent a common primer pathogenetic mechanism for inflammatory, neurodegenerative, and psychiatric disorders. The possibility to directly modulate synaptic functions and plasticity through induction of both short- and long-term neurobiological after-effects with non-invasive brain stimulation techniques is paving the way for new therapeutic strategies in treating neuropsychiatric disorders. Unraveling the complex brain structure and function at each level, from basic mechanisms to dynamic circuitry, will allow an understanding of synaptic plasticity and higher brain functions and how their perturbations contribute to brain diseases

Dr. Giovanni Cirillo
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cells is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • synaptic plasticity
  • glial cells
  • neuroglial homeostasis
  • maladaptive plasticity
  • neuropsychiatric disorders
  • non-invasive brain stimulation techniques

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • e-Book format: Special Issues with more than 10 articles can be published as dedicated e-books, ensuring wide and rapid dissemination.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue polices can be found here.

Related Special Issue

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

25 pages, 8872 KiB  
Article
Synaptopodin Regulates Denervation-Induced Plasticity at Hippocampal Mossy Fiber Synapses
by Pia Kruse, Gudrun Brandes, Hanna Hemeling, Zhong Huang, Christoph Wrede, Jan Hegermann, Andreas Vlachos and Maximilian Lenz
Cells 2024, 13(2), 114; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells13020114 - 6 Jan 2024
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2099
Abstract
Neurological diseases can lead to the denervation of brain regions caused by demyelination, traumatic injury or cell death. The molecular and structural mechanisms underlying lesion-induced reorganization of denervated brain regions, however, are a matter of ongoing investigation. In order to address this issue, [...] Read more.
Neurological diseases can lead to the denervation of brain regions caused by demyelination, traumatic injury or cell death. The molecular and structural mechanisms underlying lesion-induced reorganization of denervated brain regions, however, are a matter of ongoing investigation. In order to address this issue, we performed an entorhinal cortex lesion (ECL) in mouse organotypic entorhino-hippocampal tissue cultures of both sexes and studied denervation-induced plasticity of mossy fiber synapses, which connect dentate granule cells (dGCs) with CA3 pyramidal cells (CA3-PCs) and play important roles in learning and memory formation. Partial denervation caused a strengthening of excitatory neurotransmission in dGCs, CA3-PCs and their direct synaptic connections, as revealed by paired recordings (dGC-to-CA3-PC). These functional changes were accompanied by ultrastructural reorganization of mossy fiber synapses, which regularly contain the plasticity-regulating protein synaptopodin and the spine apparatus organelle. We demonstrate that the spine apparatus organelle and synaptopodin are related to ribosomes in close proximity to synaptic sites and reveal a synaptopodin-related transcriptome. Notably, synaptopodin-deficient tissue preparations that lack the spine apparatus organelle failed to express lesion-induced synaptic adjustments. Hence, synaptopodin and the spine apparatus organelle play a crucial role in regulating lesion-induced synaptic plasticity at hippocampal mossy fiber synapses. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop