Changes in the transcriptome are critical in shaping the structural plasticity of neurons, which underpins learning and long-term memory storage. Here, we explored the effect of two opposing, plasticity-associated pathways—cAMP second-messenger signaling and metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR1 and mGluR5) signaling—on the transcriptome in hippocampal neurons and how these pathways operate in distinct and coordinated manners to induce structural changes. Integration of transcriptome data and molecular pathway analysis identified central “hub” genes that were rapidly induced by cAMP and/or mGluR1/5 in hippocampal neurons. These included the long noncoding RNA (lncRNA) Gas5, whose expression was induced specifically by cAMP and which was targeted to dendrites by the kinesin motor protein KIF1A. In the dendrites, Gas5 interacted with various proteins and coding and noncoding RNAs associated with synaptic function and plasticity, and these interactions were altered by cAMP signaling. Gas5 interacted with the microRNA miR-26a-5p and sequestered it from several of its mRNA targets associated with neuronal function and whose translation was induced by cAMP. Gas5 was critical for excitatory synaptic transmission induced by cAMP but not those induced by mGluR1/5. Furthermore, Gas5 deficiency impaired dendritic branching and synapse morphology, and Gas5 abundance was decreased in the hippocampus of a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. Together, these findings provide insight into the transcriptional networks involved in synaptic plasticity and a lncRNA interactome that mediates dendritically localized regulation of excitatory synaptic transmission and neuronal architecture.

Concepts of brain function imply congruence and mutual causal influence between molecular events and neuronal activity. Decoding entangled information from concurrent molecular and electrophysiological network events demands innovative methodology bridging scales and modalities. The MEA-seqX platform, integrating high-density microelectrode arrays, spatial transcriptomics, optical imaging, and advanced computational strategies, enables the simultaneous recording and analysis of molecular and electrical network activities at mesoscale spatial resolution. Applied to a mouse hippocampal model of experience-dependent plasticity, MEA-seqX unveils massively enhanced nested dynamics between transcription and function. Graph–theoretic analysis reveals an increase in densely connected bimodal hubs, marking the first observation of coordinated hippocampal circuitry dynamics at molecular and functional levels. This platform also identifies different cell types based on their distinct bimodal profiles. Machine-learning algorithms accurately predict network-wide electrophysiological activity features from spatial gene expression, demonstrating a previously inaccessible convergence across modalities, time, and scales.

The pathway between the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and hippocampus (HPC) has been associated with various psychiatric disorders. While hippocampal brain slices are extensively utilized, their use has traditionally been constrained in studying long connectivity between PFC and HPC due to nerve fiber rupture during the slicing process. Consequently, optimizing brain slice preparation is crucial. The experiment consisted of three phases. Initially, the structural connection of the PFC-HPC pathway was examined using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data from healthy male rats. Subsequently, combined PFC-HPC brain slices were created through vibratome based on imaging acquisition. Finally, the morphology and electrophysiology of the combined brain slices were analyzed. DTI findings revealed numerous nerve fibers linking the two brain regions in the rat brain. Subsequently, a successful preparation of combined PFC-HPC brain slices cut at a 7 – 8° angle relative to the middle sagittal plane was achieved using a vibratome. Hematoxylin and eosin staining results confirmed that PFC-HPC fibers remained well-preserved in the combined brain slice. Electrophysiological recordings indicated that synchronized neuronal activity occurred in the HPC upon PFC stimulation, which depended on hippocampal activity and the integrity of PFC-to-HPC connectivity. A novel procedure for the successful preparation of healthy combined HPC-PFC brain slices, maintaining a complete fiber bundle connection between PFC and HPC, is proposed. This methodology enhances the understanding of the preservation of PFC-HPC connectivity in specific angled brain slice preparations, thereby facilitating neuroscience research focused on the longrange circuitry of subregions of interest.

The brain is a complex system of interconnected regions that underlie memory, cognition, and perception. Today, our understanding of the brain’s dynamic processes remains incomplete, particularly regarding differences in electrophysiological activity and inter-regional connectivity among specific areas. To explore this, we investigated the electrical activity, functional connectivity, and interactions of neural cultures differentiated into hippocampal, isocortical, and entorhinal networks using multi-electrode arrays (MEAs) to record extracellular local field potentials. Our results showed that collective synchronization events, or network bursts, were present in all cultures except for the hippocampal networks. Interestingly, introducing entorhinal neuron spheroids onto hippocampal cultures induced synchronized activity. Furthermore, Self-organized criticality analysis confirmed that all networks, except hippocampal cultures, were in a critical regime. Moreover, we found that entorhinal-hippocampal coupling facilitated criticality, promoting recurrent synchronized activity patterns. The consistent scaling exponents across configurations underscore the universality of criticality in biological networks. Finally, power spectrum analysis revealed a theta band peak in connected entorhinal-hippocampal cultures, consistent with in vivo studies, highlighting the role of theta oscillations in memory consolidation. Our findings provide more insights into brain functioning and offer an in vitro model for studying learning and memory.

The retina contains distinct types of ganglion cells, which form mosaics with cells of each type at each position of the visual field. Displaced retinal ganglion cells (dRGCs) occur with cell bodies in the inner nuclear layer (INL), and regularly placed RGCs with cell bodies in the ganglion cell layer. An example of mammalian dRGCs are M1-type intrinsically photosensitive ganglion cells (ipRGCs). Little is known, however, about their relationship with regularly placed ipRGCs. We identified mouse ipRGC types M1, M2, and M4/sONɑ by immunohistochemistry and light microscopy. Reconstruction of immunolabeled mosaics from M1 and sONɑ RGCs indicated that dRGCs tiled the retina with their regular RGC partners. Multi-electrode array recordings revealed conventional receptive fields of displaced sONɑ RGCs which fit into the mosaic of their regular counterparts. An RGC distribution analysis showed type-specific dRGC patterns which followed neither the global density distribution of all RGCs nor the local densities of corresponding cell types. The displacement of RGC bodies into the INL occurs in a type-dependent manner, where dRGCs are positioned to form complete mosaics with their regular partners. Our data suggest that dRGCs and regular RGCs serve the same functional role within their corresponding population of RGCs.

Multiplexed visual coding by retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) has gained much support. Mouse transient OFF alpha RGCs (tOFFα RGCs) are excellent subjects to study this issue as they form direct RGC–RGC gap junctions (GJs) that serve spike synchronization, population coding and likely information multiplexing. In addition, tOFFα RGCs maintain GJs with a population of wide-field amacrine cells (ACs) that have been suspected to mediate an additional, loose medium-scale correlation of tOFFα RGC spikes. However, the spatial and temporal constraints of the GJ-mediated AC–RGC signalling have yet to be tested directly via a combination of morphological and functional approaches. Here we show that AC-mediated medium-scale spike correlations are strongly related to spike bursts. On the other hand, our data also show that coupled ACs’ somata form spatially separated clusters each overlapping with only a single tOFFα RGC dendritic arbour suggesting the existence of GJ-coupled tOFFα RGC–AC functional units. This finding seemingly argues against the hypothesis that ACs distribute common noise for burst-based medium-scale RGC spike correlations. However, we also found a high incidence of AC–AC GJ connections thereby forming the morphological substrate for the interconnection of functional units to correlate spike bursts on a medium time scale. These data thus suggest that besides encoding visual information by a single cell, tOFFα RGCs utilize RGC–RGC GJs to directly connect RGCs as well as AC–AC GJs to interconnect tOFFα RGC functional units to mediate two forms of population codes via precise spike synchronization and loose burst correlations, respectively.

The pupillary light reflex (PLR) is crucial for protecting the retina from excess light. The intrinsically photosensitive retinal ganglion cells (ipRGCs) in the retina are neurons that are critical to generating the PLR, receiving rod/cone photoreceptor signals and directly sensing light through melanopsin. Previous studies have investigated the roles of photoreceptors and ipRGCs in PLR using genetically-modified mouse models. Herein, we acutely ablated photoreceptors using N-nitroso-N-methylurea (MNU) to examine the roles of ipRGCs in the PLR. We conducted PLR and multiple electrode array (MEA) recordings evoked by three levels of light stimuli before and 5 days after MNU intraperitoneal (i.p..) injection using C57BL6/J wildtype (WT) mice. We also conducted these measurements using the rod & cone dysfunctional mice (Gnat1^–/–& Cnga3^–/–:dKO) to compare the results to published studies in which mutant mice were used to show the role of photoreceptors and ipRGCs in PLR. PLR pupil constriction increased as the light stimulus intensified in WT mice. In MNU mice, PLR was not induced by the low light stimulus, suggesting that photoreceptors induced the PLR at this light intensity. By contrast, the high light stimulus fully induced PLR, similar to the response in WT mice. In dKO mice, no PLR was evoked by the low-light stimulus and a slow-onset PLR was evoked by the high-light stimulus, consistent with previous reports. Ex vivo MEA recording in the MNU tissue revealed a population of ipRGCs with a fast onset and peak time, suggesting that they drove the fast PLR response. These results suggest that ipRGCs primarily contribute to the PLR at a high light intensity, which does not agree with the previous results shown by mutant mouse models. Our results indicate that the melanopsin response in ipRGCs generate fast and robust PLR when induced by high light.

The lack of effective therapies for visual restoration in Retinitis pigmentosa and macular degeneration has led to the development of new strategies, such as optogenetics and retinal prostheses. However, visual restoration is poor due to the massive light-evoked activation of retinal neurons, regardless of the segregation of visual information in ON and OFF channels, which is essential for contrast sensitivity and spatial resolution. Here, we show that Ziapin2, a membrane photoswitch that modulates neuronal capacitance and excitability in a light-dependent manner, is capable of reinstating, in mouse and rat genetic models of photoreceptor degeneration, brisk and sluggish ON, OFF, and ON-OFF responses in retinal ganglion cells evoked by full-field stimuli, with reactivation of their excitatory and inhibitory conductances. Intravitreally injected Ziapin2 in fully blind rd10 mice restores light-driven behavior and optomotor reflexes. The results indicate that Ziapin2 is a promising molecule for reinstating physiological visual responses in the late stages of retinal degeneration.

Presently, the in vitro recording of intracellular neuronal signals on microelectrode arrays (MEAs) requires complex 3D nanostructures or invasive and approaches such as electroporation. Here, it is shown that laser poration enables intracellular coupling on planar electrodes without damaging neurons or altering their spontaneous electrophysiological activity, allowing the process to be repeated multiple times on the same cells. This capability distinguishes laser-based neuron poration from more invasive methods like electroporation, which typically serve as endpoint measurement for cells. It is demonstrated that planar MEA electrodes, when combined with laser cell optoporation and live cell staining, can record spontaneous intracellular signaling from primary neurons in vitro. This approach allows for the detection of attenuated signals resembling positive monophasic intracellular action potentials. Recordings after laser optoporation also reveal subthreshold signals such as post-synaptic potentials that are essential for assessing neuronal network plasticity and connectivity. Moreover, the noninvasiveness of the process enables repeated intracellular recordings over multiple days from the same cells.

Keywords

Action potential; bioelectronics; intracellular recordin;g micro electrode arrays; optoacoustic poration

‍

Highlights

• MAPK/ERK and BMP inhibition (MiBi) specifies an entorhinal-like identity
• MiBi neurons activate a distinct gene expression profile for neuronal connectivity
• MiBi and isocortical neurons show different connectivity with hippocampal cells
• MiBi/hippocampal functional assembloids develop spontaneous theta activity

‍

Summary

The mechanisms that determine distinct embryonic pallial identities remain elusive. The central role of Wnt signaling in directing dorsal telencephalic progenitors to the isocortex or hippocampus has been elucidated. Here, we show that timely inhibition of MAPK/ERK and BMP signaling in neuralized mouse embryonic stem cells (ESCs) specifies a cell identity characteristic of the allocortex. Comparison of the global gene expression profiles of neural cells generated by MAPK/ERK and BMP inhibition (MiBi cells) with those of cells from early postnatal encephalic regions reveals a pallial identity of MiBi cells, distinct from isocortical and hippocampal cells. MiBi cells display a unique pattern of gene expression and connectivity, and share molecular and electrophysiological features with the entorhinal cortex. Our results suggest that early changes in cell signaling can specify distinct pallial fates that are maintained by specific neuronal lineages independent of subsequent embryonic morphogenetic interactions and can determine their functional connectivity.

‍

Corticospinal motor neurons (CSMN), located in the motor cortex of the brain, are one of the key components of the motor neuron circuitry. They are in part responsible for the initiation and modulation of voluntary movement, and their degeneration is the hallmark for numerous diseases, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), hereditary spastic paraplegia, and primary lateral sclerosis. Cortical hyperexcitation followed by in-excitability suggests the early involvement of cortical dysfunction in ALS pathology. However, a high-spatiotemporal resolution on our understanding of their functional health and connectivity is lacking. Here, we combine optical imaging with high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA) system enabling single cell resolution and utilize UCHL1-eGFP mice to bring cell-type specificity to our understanding of the electrophysiological features of healthy CSMN, as they mature and form network connections with other cortical neurons, in vitro. This novel approach lays the foundation for future cell-type specific analyses of CSMN that are diseased due to different underlying causes with cellular precision, and it will allow the assessment of their functional response to compound treatment, especially for drug discovery efforts in upper motor neuron diseases.

Background

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) targeting globus pallidus internus (GPi) is a recognised therapy for drug-refractory dystonia. However, the mechanisms underlying this effect are not fully understood. This study explores how pallidal DBS alters spatiotemporal pattern formation of neuronal dynamics within the cerebellar cortex in a dystonic animal model, the dt^sz hamster.

Methods

We conducted in vitro analysis using a high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA) in the cerebellar cortex. For investigating the spatiotemporal pattern, mean firing rates (MFR), interspike intervals (ISI), spike amplitudes, and cerebellar connectivity among healthy control hamsters, dystonic dt^sz hamsters, DBS- and sham-DBS-treated dt^sz hamsters were analysed. A nonlinear data-driven method characterised the low-dimensional representation of the patterns in MEA data.

Results

Our HD-MEA recordings revealed reduced MFR and spike amplitudes in the dt^sz hamsters compared to healthy controls. Pallidal DBS induced network-wide effects, normalising MFR, spike amplitudes, and connectivity measures in hamsters, thereby countervailing these electrophysiological abnormalities. Additionally, network analysis showed neural activity patterns organised into communities, with higher connectivity in both healthy and DBS groups compared to dt^sz.

Conclusions

These findings suggest that pallidal DBS exerts some of its therapeutic effects on dystonia by normalising neuronal activity within the cerebellar cortex. Our findings of reduced MFR and spike amplitudes in the dt^sz hamsters could be a hint of a decrease in neuronal fibres and synaptic plasticity. Treatment with pallidal DBS led to cerebellar cortical activity similar to healthy controls, displaying the network-wide impact of local stimulation.

Keywords

Cerebellar network activity, pallidal deep brain stimulation, generalised dystonia, high-density microelectrode arrays, dt^sz mutant hamster, spatiotemporal analysis

CD2-associated protein (CD2AP) was identified as a genetic risk factor for late-onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD). However, it is unclear how CD2AP contributes to LOAD synaptic dysfunction underlying AD memory deficits. We have shown that loss of CD2AP function increases β-amyloid (Aβ) endocytic production, but it is unknown whether it contributes to synapse dysfunction. As CD2AP is an actin-binding protein, it may also function in F-actin-rich dendritic spines, which are the excitatory postsynaptic compartments. Here, we demonstrate that CD2AP colocalizes with F-actin in dendritic spines of primary mouse cortical neurons of both sexes. Cell-autonomous depletion of CD2AP specifically reduces spine density and volume, resulting in a functional decrease in synapse formation and neuronal network activity. Postsynaptic reexpression of CD2AP, but not blocking Aβ production, is sufficient to rescue spine density. CD2AP overexpression increases spine density, volume, and synapse formation, while a rare LOAD CD2AP mutation induces aberrant F-actin spine-like protrusions without functional synapses. CD2AP controls postsynaptic actin turnover, with the LOAD mutation in CD2AP decreasing F-actin dynamicity. Our data support that CD2AP risk variants could contribute to LOAD synapse dysfunction by disrupting spine formation and growth by deregulating actin dynamics.

Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor high-density microelectrode array (CMOS-HD-MEA) systems can record neurophysiological activity from cell cultures and ex vivo brain slices in unprecedented electrophysiological detail. CMOS-HD-MEAs were first optimized to record high-quality neuronal unit activity from cell cultures but have also been shown to produce quality data from acute retinal and cerebellar slices. Researchers have recently used CMOS-HD-MEAs to record local field potentials (LFPs) from acute, cortical rodent brain slices. One LFP of interest is seizure-like activity. While many users have produced brief, spontaneous epileptiform discharges using CMOS-HD-MEAs, few users reliably produce quality seizure-like activity. Many factors may contribute to this difficulty, including electrical noise, the inconsistent nature of producing seizure-like activity when using submerged recording chambers, and the limitation that 2D CMOS-MEA chips only record from the surface of the brain slice. The techniques detailed in this protocol should enable users to consistently induce and record high-quality seizure-like activity from acute brain slices with a CMOS-HD-MEA system. In addition, this protocol outlines the proper treatment of CMOS-HD-MEA chips, the management of solutions and brain slices during experimentation, and equipment maintenance.

Cryopreservation is a widely used technique for the storage of isolated neural cells and has recently been demonstrated to maintain electrical activity in simple neural organoids. However, recovery of action potentials from cryopreserved acutely resected neural tissue remains an ongoing challenge for the field. Here, we cryopreserve and rewarm acutely resected rat cerebellar slices, demonstrating electrical activity after rewarming. This is, to our knowledge, the first report of recovery of electrical activity in acutely resected mammalian brain tissue with accompanying protocols for validation and replication.

Radiation therapy and stereotactic radiosurgery are common treatments for brain malignancies. However, the impact of radiation on underlying neuronal circuits is poorly understood. In the prefrontal cortex (PFC), neurons communicate via action potentials that control cognitive processes, thus it is important to understand the impact of radiation on these circuits. Here we present a novel protocol to investigate the effect of radiation on the activity and survival of PFC networks in vitro. Escalating doses of radiation were applied to PFC slices using a robotic radiosurgery platform at a standard dose rate of 10 Gy/min. High-density multielectrode array recordings of radiated slices were collected to capture extracellular activity across 4,096 channels. Radiated slices showed an increase in firing rate, functional connectivity, and complexity. Graph-theoretic measures of functional connectivity were altered following radiation. These results were compared to pharmacologically induced epileptic slices where neural complexity was markedly elevated, and functional connections were strong but remained spatially focused. Finally, propidium iodide staining revealed a dose-dependent effect of radiation on apoptosis. These findings provide a novel assay to investigate the impacts of clinically relevant doses of radiation on brain circuits and highlight the acute effects of escalating radiation doses on PFC neurons.

‍

Highlights

• Human medullary SpV-like organoids (hmSpVOs) are created from hPSCs
• hmSpVOs resemble the spinal trigeminal nucleus (SpV) of the dorsal medulla
• hmSpVOs exhibit structural and functional maturation in long-term culture
• Trigeminothalamic tracts are established between hmSpVOs and thalamic organoids

‍

Summary

Brain organoids with nucleus-specific identities provide unique platforms for studying human brain development and diseases at a finer resolution. Despite its essential role in vital body functions, the medulla of the hindbrain has seen a lack of in vitro models, let alone models resembling specific medullary nuclei, including the crucial spinal trigeminal nucleus (SpV) that relays peripheral sensory signals to the thalamus. Here, we report a method to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells into region-specific brain organoids resembling the dorsal domain of the medullary hindbrain. Importantly, organoids specifically recapitulated the development of the SpV derived from the dorsal medulla. We also developed an organoid system to create the trigeminothalamic projections between the SpV and the thalamus by fusing these organoids, namely human medullary SpV-like organoids (hmSpVOs), with organoids representing the thalamus (hThOs). Our study provides a platform for understanding SpV development, nucleus-based circuit organization, and related disorders in the human brain.

‍

Keywords

brain organoid, medulla, spinal trigeminal nucleus, trigeminothalamic projection, hPSCs

‍

Interindividual genetic variation affects the susceptibility to and progression of many diseases^1,2. However, efforts to study how individual human brains differ in normal development and disease phenotypes are limited by the paucity of faithful cellular human models, and the difficulty of scaling current systems to represent multiple people. Here we present human brain Chimeroids, a highly reproducible, multidonor human brain cortical organoid model generated by the co-development of cells from a panel of individual donors in a single organoid. By reaggregating cells from multiple single-donor organoids at the neural stem cell or neural progenitor cell stage, we generate Chimeroids in which each donor produces all cell lineages of the cerebral cortex, even when using pluripotent stem cell lines with notable growth biases. We used Chimeroids to investigate interindividual variation in the susceptibility to neurotoxic triggers that exhibit high clinical phenotypic variability: ethanol and the antiepileptic drug valproic acid. Individual donors varied in both the penetrance of the effect on target cell types, and the molecular phenotype within each affected cell type. Our results suggest that human genetic background may be an important mediator of neurotoxin susceptibility and introduce Chimeroids as a scalable system for high-throughput investigation of interindividual variation in processes of brain development and disease.

Ataxia Telangiectasia (AT) is a rare disorder caused by mutations in the ATM gene and results in progressive neurodegeneration for reasons that remain poorly understood. In addition to its central role in nuclear DNA repair, ATM operates outside the nucleus to regulate metabolism, redox homeostasis and mitochondrial function. However, a systematic investigation into how and when loss of ATM affects these parameters in relevant human neuronal models of AT was lacking. We therefore used cortical neurons and brain organoids from AT-patient iPSC and gene corrected isogenic controls to reveal levels of mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and senescence that vary with developmental maturity. Transcriptome analyses identified disruptions in regulatory networks related to mitochondrial function and maintenance, including alterations in the PARP/SIRT signalling axis and dysregulation of key mitophagy and mitochondrial fission-fusion processes. We further show that antioxidants reduce ROS and restore neurite branching in AT neuronal cultures, and ameliorate impaired neuronal activity in AT brain organoids. We conclude that progressive mitochondrial dysfunction and aberrant ROS production are important contributors to neurodegeneration in AT and are strongly linked to ATM's role in mitochondrial homeostasis regulation.

Keywords

Ataxia telangiectasia, Brain organoids, Mitochondria, Neurodegeneration, Cellular senescence, Oxidative stress

‍

‍

Highlights

• RGC response transience values form a continuum
• A single retinal pathway carries signals to both sustained and transient RGCs
• GJ mediated lateral excitation fine-tunes RGC response kinetics
• tOFFα RGC GJs equalize kinetic features for cells in the coupled array

‍

Summary

Retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) summate inputs and forward a spike train code to the brain in the form of either maintained spiking (sustained) or a quickly decaying brief spike burst (transient). We report diverse response transience values across the RGC population and, contrary to the conventional transient/sustained scheme, responses with intermediary characteristics are the most abundant. Pharmacological tests showed that besides GABAergic inhibition, gap junction (GJ)–mediated excitation also plays a pivotal role in shaping response transience and thus visual coding. More precisely GJs connecting RGCs to nearby amacrine and RGCs play a defining role in the process. These GJs equalize kinetic features, including the response transience of transient OFF alpha (tOFFα) RGCs across a coupled array. We propose that GJs in other coupled neuron ensembles in the brain are also critical in the harmonization of response kinetics to enhance the population code and suit a corresponding task.

‍

Why individuals with Down syndrome (DS) are more susceptible to SARS-CoV-2–induced neuropathology remains elusive. Choroid plexus (ChP) plays critical roles in barrier function and immune response modulation and expresses the ACE2 receptor and the chromosome 21–encoded TMPRSS2 protease, suggesting its substantial role in establishing SARS-CoV-2 infection in the brain. To explore this, we established brain organoids from DS and isogenic euploid iPSC that consist of a core of functional cortical neurons surrounded by a functional ChP-like epithelium (ChPCOs). DS-ChPCOs recapitulated abnormal DS cortical development and revealed defects in ciliogenesis and epithelial cell polarity in ChP-like epithelium. We then demonstrated that the ChP-like epithelium facilitates infection and replication of SARS-CoV-2 in cortical neurons and that this is increased in DS. Inhibiting TMPRSS2 and furin activity reduced viral replication in DS-ChPCOs to euploid levels. This model enables dissection of the role of ChP in neurotropic virus infection and euploid forebrain development and permits screening of therapeutics for SARS-CoV-2–induced neuropathogenesis.

Introduction

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is a widely used therapeutic tool in neurology and psychiatry, but its cellular and molecular mechanisms are not fully understood. Standardizing stimulus parameters, specifically electric field strength, is crucial in experimental and clinical settings. It enables meaningful comparisons across studies and facilitates the translation of findings into clinical practice. However, the impact of biophysical properties inherent to the stimulated neurons and networks on the outcome of rTMS protocols remains not well understood. Consequently, achieving standardization of biological effects across different brain regions and subjects poses a significant challenge.

Methods

This study compared the effects of 10 Hz repetitive magnetic stimulation (rMS) in entorhino-hippocampal tissue cultures from mice and rats, providing insights into the impact of the same stimulation protocol on similar neuronal networks under standardized conditions.

Results

We observed the previously described plastic changes in excitatory and inhibitory synaptic strength of CA1 pyramidal neurons in both mouse and rat tissue cultures, but a higher stimulation intensity was required for the induction of rMS-induced synaptic plasticity in rat tissue cultures. Through systematic comparison of neuronal structural and functional properties and computational modeling, we found that morphological parameters of CA1 pyramidal neurons alone are insufficient to explain the observed differences between the groups. Although morphologies of mouse and rat CA1 neurons showed no significant differences, simulations confirmed that axon morphologies significantly influence individual cell activation thresholds. Notably, differences in intrinsic cellular properties were sufficient to account for the 10% higher intensity required for the induction of synaptic plasticity in the rat tissue cultures.

Conclusion

These findings demonstrate the critical importance of axon morphology and intrinsic cellular properties in predicting the plasticity effects of rTMS, carrying valuable implications for the development of computer models aimed at predicting and standardizing the biological effects of rTMS.

‍

The recent identification of multiple dominant mutations in the gene encoding β-catenin in both humans and mice has enabled exploration of the molecular and cellular basis of β-catenin function in cognitive impairment. In humans, β-catenin mutations that cause a spectrum of neurodevelopmental disorders have been identified. We identified de novo β-catenin mutations in patients with intellectual disability, carefully characterized their phenotypes, and were able to define a recognizable intellectual disability syndrome. In parallel, characterization of a chemically mutagenized mouse line that displays features similar to those of human patients with β-catenin mutations enabled us to investigate the consequences of β-catenin dysfunction through development and into adulthood. The mouse mutant, designated batface (Bfc), carries a Thr653Lys substitution in the C-terminal armadillo repeat of β-catenin and displayed a reduced affinity for membrane-associated cadherins. In association with this decreased cadherin interaction, we found that the mutation results in decreased intrahemispheric connections, with deficits in dendritic branching, long-term potentiation, and cognitive function. Our study provides in vivo evidence that dominant mutations in β-catenin underlie losses in its adhesion-related functions, which leads to severe consequences, including intellectual disability, childhood hypotonia, progressive spasticity of lower limbs, and abnormal craniofacial features in adults.

Large-scale neuronal networks and their complex distributed microcircuits are essential to generate perception, cognition, and behavior that emerge from patterns of spatiotemporal neuronal activity. These dynamic patterns emerging from functional groups of interconnected neuronal ensembles facilitate precise computations for processing and coding multiscale neural information, thereby driving higher brain functions. To probe the computational principles of neural dynamics underlying this complexity and investigate the multiscale impact of biological processes in health and disease, large-scale simultaneous recordings have become instrumental. Here, a high-density microelectrode array (HD-MEA) is employed to study two modalities of neural dynamics – hippocampal and olfactory bulb circuits from ex-vivo mouse brain slices and neuronal networks from in-vitro cell cultures of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). The HD-MEA platform, with 4096 microelectrodes, enables non-invasive, multi-site, label-free recordings of extracellular firing patterns from thousands of neuronal ensembles simultaneously at high spatiotemporal resolution. This approach allows the characterization of several electrophysiological network-wide features, including single/-multi-unit spiking activity patterns and local field potential oscillations. To scrutinize these multidimensional neural data, we have developed several computational tools incorporating machine learning algorithms, automatic event detection and classification, graph theory, and other advanced analyses. By supplementing these computational pipelines with this platform, we provide a methodology for studying the large, multiscale, and multimodal dynamics from cell assemblies to networks. This can potentially advance our understanding of complex brain functions and cognitive processes in health and disease. Commitment to open science and insights into large-scale computational neural dynamics could enhance brain-inspired modeling, neuromorphic computing, and neural learning algorithms. Furthermore, understanding the underlying mechanisms of impaired large-scale neural computations and their interconnected microcircuit dynamics could lead to the identification of specific biomarkers, paving the way for more accurate diagnostic tools and targeted therapies for neurological disorders.

Voltage-gated sodium channel (Na_V) inhibitors are used to treat neurological disorders of hyperexcitability such as epilepsy. These drugs act by attenuating neuronal action potential firing to reduce excitability in the brain. However, all currently available Na_V-targeting antiseizure medications nonselectively inhibit the brain channels Na_V1.1, Na_V1.2, and Na_V1.6, which potentially limits the efficacy and therapeutic safety margins of these drugs. Here, we report on XPC-7724 and XPC-5462, which represent a new class of small molecule Na_V-targeting compounds. These compounds specifically target inhibition of the Na_V1.6 and Na_V1.2 channels, which are abundantly expressed in excitatory pyramidal neurons. They have a > 100-fold molecular selectivity against Na_V1.1 channels, which are predominantly expressed in inhibitory neurons. Sparing Na_V1.1 preserves the inhibitory activity in the brain. These compounds bind to and stabilize the inactivated state of the channels thereby reducing the activity of excitatory neurons. They have higher potency, with longer residency times and slower off-rates, than the clinically used antiseizure medications carbamazepine and phenytoin. The neuronal selectivity of these compounds is demonstrated in brain slices by inhibition of firing in cortical excitatory pyramidal neurons, without impacting fast spiking inhibitory interneurons. XPC-5462 also suppresses epileptiform activity in an ex vivo brain slice seizure model, whereas XPC-7224 does not, suggesting a possible requirement of Nav1.2 inhibition in 0-Mg²⁺- or 4-AP-induced brain slice seizure models. The profiles of these compounds will facilitate pharmacological dissection of the physiological roles of Na_V1.2 and Na_V1.6 in neurons and help define the role of specific channels in disease states. This unique selectivity profile provides a new approach to potentially treat disorders of neuronal hyperexcitability by selectively downregulating excitatory circuits.

The delicate “Excitatory/Inhibitory balance” between neurons holds significance in neurodegenerative and neurodevelopmental diseases. With the ultimate goal of creating a faithful in vitro model of the human brain, in this study, we investigated the critical factor of heterogeneity, focusing on the interplay between excitatory glutamatergic (E) and inhibitory GABAergic (I) neurons in neural networks. We used high-density Micro-Electrode Arrays (MEA) with 2304 recording electrodes to investigate two neuronal culture configurations: 100% glutamatergic (100E) and 75% glutamatergic / 25% GABAergic (75E25I) neurons. This allowed us to comprehensively characterize the spontaneous electrophysiological activity exhibited by mature cultures at 56 Days in vitro, a time point in which the GABA shift has already occurred. We explored the impact of heterogeneity also through electrical stimulation, revealing that the 100E configuration responded reliably, while the 75E25I required more parameter tuning for improved responses. Chemical stimulation with BIC showed an increase in terms of firing and bursting activity only in the 75E25I condition, while APV and CNQX induced significant alterations on both dynamics and functional connectivity. Our findings advance understanding of diverse neuron interactions and their role in network activity, offering insights for potential therapeutic interventions in neurological conditions. Overall, this work contributes to the development of a valuable human-based in vitro system for studying physiological and pathological conditions, emphasizing the pivotal role of neuron diversity in neural network dynamics.

The maturation of human pluripotent stem cell (hPSC)-derived neurons mimics the protracted timing of human brain development, extending over months to years for reaching adult-like function. Prolonged in vitro maturation presents a major challenge to stem cell-based applications in modeling and treating neurological disease. Therefore, we designed a high-content imaging assay based on morphological and functional readouts in hPSC-derived cortical neurons which identified multiple compounds that drive neuronal maturation including inhibitors of lysine-specific demethylase 1 and disruptor of telomerase-like 1 and activators of calcium-dependent transcription. A cocktail of four factors, GSK2879552, EPZ-5676, N-methyl-d-aspartate and Bay K 8644, collectively termed GENtoniK, triggered maturation across all parameters tested, including synaptic density, electrophysiology and transcriptomics. Maturation effects were further validated in cortical organoids, spinal motoneurons and non-neural lineages including melanocytes and pancreatic β-cells. The effects on maturation observed across a broad range of hPSC-derived cell types indicate that some of the mechanisms controlling the timing of human maturation might be shared across lineages.

‍

Highlights

• Lack of Trem2 in mice impairs hippocampal neuronal bioenergetics during development
• CA1 but not CA3 neurons show reduced mitochondrial mass and metabolism
• CA1 metabolic dysfunction is later accompanied by synaptic and network alterations
• A partial reduction in Trem2 is sufficient to alter neuronal metabolic fitness

‍

Summary

Triggering receptor expressed on myeloid cells 2 (Trem2) is a myeloid cell-specific gene expressed in brain microglia, with variants that are associated with neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease. Trem2 is essential for microglia-mediated synaptic refinement, but whether Trem2 contributes to shaping neuronal development remains unclear. Here, we demonstrate that Trem2 plays a key role in controlling the bioenergetic profile of pyramidal neurons during development. In the absence of Trem2, developing neurons in the hippocampal cornus ammonis (CA)1 but not in CA3 subfield displayed compromised energetic metabolism, accompanied by reduced mitochondrial mass and abnormal organelle ultrastructure. This was paralleled by the transcriptional rearrangement of hippocampal pyramidal neurons at birth, with a pervasive alteration of metabolic, oxidative phosphorylation, and mitochondrial gene signatures, accompanied by a delay in the maturation of CA1 neurons. Our results unveil a role of Trem2 in controlling neuronal development by regulating the metabolic fitness of neurons in a region-specific manner.

‍

Highlights

• Mesoderm induction and patterning signals specify aSHF, pSHF, and FHF progenitors
• Progenitors sort, co-develop, and functionally connect in multi-chamber cardioids
• Multi-chamber cardioids coordinate contraction propagation and share a lumen
• Multi-chamber platform dissects genetic, teratogenic, and physiological defects

‍

Summary

The number one cause of human fetal death are defects in heart development. Because the human embryonic heart is inaccessible and the impacts of mutations, drugs, and environmental factors on the specialized functions of different heart compartments are not captured by in vitro models, determining the underlying causes is difficult. Here, we established a human cardioid platform that recapitulates the development of all major embryonic heart compartments, including right and left ventricles, atria, outflow tract, and atrioventricular canal. By leveraging 2D and 3D differentiation, we efficiently generated progenitor subsets with distinct first, anterior, and posterior second heart field identities. This advance enabled the reproducible generation of cardioids with compartment-specific in vivo-like gene expression profiles, morphologies, and functions. We used this platform to unravel the ontogeny of signal and contraction propagation between interacting heart chambers and dissect how mutations, teratogens, and drugs cause compartment-specific defects in the developing human heart.

Dietary restriction, such as low glycemic index diet (LGID), have been successfully used to treat drug-resistant epilepsy. However, if such diet could also counteract antiepileptogenesis is still unclear. Here, we investigated whether the administration of LGID during the latent pre-epileptic period, prevents or delays the appearance of the overt epileptic phenotype. To this aim, we used the Synapsin II knockout (SynIIKO) mouse, a model of temporal lobe epilepsy in which seizures manifest 2–3 months after birth, offering a temporal window in which LGID may affect epileptogenesis. Pregnant SynIIKO mice were fed with either LGID or standard diet during gestation and lactation. Both diets were maintained in weaned mice up to 5 months of age. LGID delayed the seizure onset and induced a reduction of seizures severity only in female SynIIKO mice. In parallel with the epileptic phenotype, high-density multielectrode array recordings revealed a reduction of frequency, amplitude, duration, velocity of propagation and spread of interictal events by LGID in the hippocampus of SynIIKO females, but not mutant males, confirming the gender-specific effect. ELISA-based analysis revealed that LGID increased cortico-hippocampal allopregnanolone (ALLO) levels only in females, while it was unable to affect ALLO plasma concentrations in either sex. The results indicate that the gender-specific interference of LGID with the epileptogenic process can be ascribed to a gender-specific increase in cortical ALLO, a neurosteroid known to strengthen GABAergic transmission. The study highlights the possibility of developing a personalized gender-based therapy for temporal lobe epilepsy.

Degeneration of photoreceptors in age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is associated with oxidative stress due to the intense aerobic metabolism of rods and cones that if not properly counterbalanced by endogenous antioxidant mechanisms can precipitate photoreceptor degeneration. In spite of being a priority eye disease for its high incidence in the elderly, no effective treatments for AMD exist. While systemic administration of antioxidants has been unsuccessful in slowing down degeneration, locally administered rare-earth nanoparticles were shown to be effective in preventing retinal photo-oxidative damage. However, because of inherent problems of dispersion in biological media, limited antioxidant power, and short lifetimes, these NPs are still confined to the preclinical stage. Here we propose platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs), potent antioxidant nanozymes, as a therapeutic tool for AMD. PtNPs exhibit high catalytic activity at minimal concentrations and protect primary neurons against oxidative insults and the ensuing apoptosis. We tested the efficacy of intravitreally injected PtNPs in preventing or mitigating light damage produced in dark-reared albino Sprague–Dawley rats by in vivo electroretinography (ERG) and ex vivo retina morphology and electrophysiology. We found that both preventive and postlesional treatments with PtNPs increased the amplitude of ERG responses to light stimuli. Ex vivo recordings demonstrated the selective preservation of ON retinal ganglion cell responses to light stimulation in lesioned retinas treated with PtNPs. PtNPs administered after light damage significantly preserved the number of photoreceptors and inhibited the inflammatory response to degeneration, while the preventive treatment had a milder effect. The data indicate that PtNPs can effectively break the vicious cycle linking oxidative stress, degeneration, and inflammation by exerting antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions. The increased photoreceptor survival and visual performances in degenerated retinas, together with their high biocompatibility, make PtNPs a potential strategy to cure AMD.

‍

The process of learning and memory formation in the hippocampus is a complex phenomenon involving changes in synaptic efficiency that shape the connections between associated neurons. Long-term potentiation (LTP) is a widely used approach for studying activity-dependent synaptic plasticity in the hippocampus. However, conventional methods of measuring LTP using brain slices and low-density microelectrode arrays (MEAs) have limitations in spatial mapping and induction of inter-experiential variability. To overcome these challenges, we implemented a large-scale ex-vivo electrophysiological platform using a high-density CMOS-based biosensor. This approach allows simultaneous recordings of network-wide evoked synaptic responses and LTP in the hippocampal circuit. It provides a platform for large-scale spatial mapping of hippocampal synaptic activity-dependent changes modulated by external electrical stimulation and resultant network LTP in the corresponding SC pathway. This approach can potentially instantiate a large-scale model for learning and memory by identifying network LTP-induced signaling cascades and their mechanisms with applications for aging, disease, and pharmacology in the context of synaptic plasticity.

Experiential richness creates tissue-level changes and synaptic plasticity as patterns emerge from rhythmic spatiotemporal activity of large interconnected neuronal assemblies. Despite numerous experimental and computational approaches at different scales, the precise impact of experience on network-wide computational dynamics remains inaccessible due to the lack of applicable large-scale recording methodology. We here demonstrate a large-scale multi-site biohybrid brain circuity on-CMOS-based biosensor with an unprecedented spatiotemporal resolution of 4096 microelectrodes, which allows simultaneous electrophysiological assessment across the entire hippocampal-cortical subnetworks from mice living in an enriched environment (ENR) and standard-housed (SD) conditions. Our platform, empowered with various computational analyses, reveals environmental enrichment's impacts on local and global spatiotemporal neural dynamics, firing synchrony, topological network complexity, and large-scale connectome. Our results delineate the distinct role of prior experience in enhancing multiplexed dimensional coding formed by neuronal ensembles and error tolerance and resilience to random failures compared to standard conditions. The scope and depth of these effects highlight the critical role of high-density, large-scale biosensors to provide a new understanding of the computational dynamics and information processing in multimodal physiological and experience-dependent plasticity conditions and their role in higher brain functions. Knowledge of these large-scale dynamics can inspire the development of biologically plausible computational models and computational artificial intelligence networks and expand the reach of neuromorphic brain-inspired computing into new applications.

Keywords

Large-scale biosensors, Neural circuit, CMOS-MEAs, Connectome, Graph theory, Enriched environment

‍

Exosomes, key mediators of intercellular transmission of pathogenic proteins, such as amyloid-beta and tau, significantly influence the progression and exacerbation of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) pathology. Present in a variety of biological fluids, including cerebrospinal fluid, blood, saliva, and nasal lavage fluid (NLF), exosomes underscore their potential as integral mediators of AD pathology. By serving as vehicles for disease-specific molecules, exosomes could unveil valuable insights into disease identification and progression. This study emphasizes the imperative to investigate the impacts of exosomes on neural networks to enhance our comprehension of intracerebral neuronal communication and its implications for neurological disorders like AD. After harvesting exosomes derived from NLF of 5XFAD mice, we utilized a high-density multielectrode array (HD-MEA) system, the novel technology enabling concurrent recordings from thousands of neurons in primary cortical neuron cultures and organotypic hippocampal slices. The ensuing results revealed a surge in neuronal firing rates and disoriented neural connectivity, reflecting the effects provoked by pathological amyloid-beta oligomer treatment. The local field potentials in the exosome-treated hippocampal brain slices also exhibited aberrant rhythmicity, along with an elevated level of current source density. While this research is an initial exploration, it highlights the potential of exosomes in modulating neural networks under AD conditions and endorses the HD-MEA as an efficacious tool for exosome studies.

Keywords

Exosome; nasal lavage fluid; 5XFAD; high-density multielectrode array; hippocampal slice; neural network

‍

In vertebrate vision, early retinal circuits divide incoming visual information into functionally opposite elementary signals: On and Off, transient and sustained, chromatic and achromatic. Together these signals can yield an efficient representation of the scene for transmission to the brain via the optic nerve. However, this long-standing interpretation of retinal function is based on mammals, and it is unclear whether this functional arrangement is common to all vertebrates. Here we show that male poultry chicks use a fundamentally different strategy to communicate information from the eye to the brain. Rather than using functionally opposite pairs of retinal output channels, chicks encode the polarity, timing, and spectral composition of visual stimuli in a highly correlated manner: fast achromatic information is encoded by Off-circuits, and slow chromatic information overwhelmingly by On-circuits. Moreover, most retinal output channels combine On- and Off-circuits to simultaneously encode, or multiplex, both achromatic and chromatic information. Our results from birds conform to evidence from fish, amphibians, and reptiles which retain the full ancestral complement of four spectral types of cone photoreceptors.

‍

Highlights

• Human retinal organoids express majority of miRNAs typically found in developing retina
• MiRNAs are differentially expressed in response to light
• Light-regulated miRNAs have a rapid turnover in human retinal tissue
• MiRNAs respond differently to distinct wavelengths of light

‍

Summary

Cells in the human retina must rapidly adapt to constantly changing visual stimuli. This fast adaptation to varying levels and wavelengths of light helps to regulate circadian rhythms and allows for adaptation to high levels of illumination, thereby enabling the rest of the visual system to remain responsive. It has been shown that retinal microRNA (miRNA) molecules play a key role in regulating these processes. However, despite extensive research using various model organisms, light-regulated miRNAs in human retinal cells remain unknown. Here, we aim to characterize these miRNAs. We generated light-responsive human retinal organoids that express miRNA families and clusters typically found in the retina. Using an in-house developed photostimulation device, we identified a subset of light-regulated miRNAs. Importantly, we found that these miRNAs are differentially regulated by distinct wavelengths of light and have a rapid turnover, highlighting the dynamic and adaptive nature of the human retina.

‍

The cerebellum is one of the most connected structures of the central nervous system and receives inputs over an extended frequency range. Nevertheless, the frequency dependence of cerebellar cortical processing remains elusive. In this work, we characterized cerebellar cortex responsiveness to mossy fibers activation at different frequencies and reconstructed the spread of activity in the sagittal and coronal planes of acute mouse cerebellar slices using a high-throughput high-density multielectrode array (HD-MEA). The enhanced spatiotemporal resolution of HD-MEA revealed the frequency dependence and spatial anisotropy of cerebellar activation. Mossy fiber inputs reached the Purkinje cell layer even at the lowest frequencies, but the efficiency of transmission increased at higher frequencies. These properties, which are likely to descend from the topographic organization of local inhibition, intrinsic electroresponsiveness, and short-term synaptic plasticity, are critical elements that have to be taken into consideration to define the computational properties of the cerebellar cortex and its pathological alterations.

Keywords

Cerebellum; multielectrode arrays; granule cells; Purkinje cells; electrophysiology

‍

(1) Background: The contribution of gene-specific variants for congenital heart disease, one of the most common congenital disabilities, is still far from our complete understanding. Here, we applied a disease model using human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to evaluate the function of DAND5 on human cardiomyocyte (CM) differentiation and proliferation. (2) Methods: Taking advantage of our DAND5 patient-derived iPSC line, we used CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing to generate a set of isogenic hiPSCs (DAND5-corrected and DAND5 full-mutant). The hiPSCs were differentiated into CMs, and RT-qPCR and immunofluorescence profiled the expression of cardiac markers. Cardiomyocyte proliferation was analysed by flow cytometry. Furthermore, we used a multi-electrode array (MEA) to study the functional electrophysiology of DAND5 hiPSC-CMs. (3) Results: The results indicated that hiPSC-CM proliferation is affected by DAND5 levels. Cardiomyocytes derived from a DAND5 full-mutant hiPSC line are more proliferative when compared with gene-corrected hiPSC-CMs. Moreover, parallel cardiac differentiations showed a differential cardiac gene expression profile, with upregulated cardiac progenitor markers in DAND5-KO hiPSC-CMs. Microelectrode array (MEA) measurements demonstrated that DAND5-KO hiPSC-CMs showed prolonged field potential duration and increased spontaneous beating rates. In addition, conduction velocity is reduced in the monolayers of hiPSC-CMs with full-mutant genotype. (4) Conclusions: The absence of DAND5 sustains the proliferation of hiPSC-CMs, which alters their electrophysiological maturation properties. These results using DAND5 hiPSC-CMs consolidate the findings of the in vitro and in vivo mouse models, now in a translational perspective. Altogether, the data will help elucidate the molecular mechanism underlying this human heart disease and potentiates new therapies for treating adult CHD.

Keywords

Keywords: DAND5; cardiomyocyte proliferation; congenital heart disease; disease modelling

‍

Specific medications to combat cerebellar ataxias, a group of debilitating movement disorders characterized by difficulty with walking, balance and coordination, are still lacking. Notably, cerebellar microglial activation appears to be a common feature in different types of ataxic patients and rodent models. However, direct evidence that cerebellar microglial activation in vivo is sufficient to induce ataxia is still lacking. Here, by employing chemogenetic approaches to manipulate cerebellar microglia selectively and directly, we found that specific chemogenetic activation of microglia in the cerebellar vermis directly leads to ataxia symptoms in wild-type mice and aggravated ataxic motor deficits in 3-acetylpyridine (3-AP) mice, a classic mouse model of cerebellar ataxia. Mechanistically, cerebellar microglial proinflammatory activation induced by either chemogenetic M3D(Gq) stimulation or 3-AP modeling hyperexcites Purkinje cells (PCs), which consequently triggers ataxia. Blockade of microglia-derived TNF-α, one of the most important proinflammatory cytokines, attenuates the hyperactivity of PCs driven by microglia. Moreover, chemogenetic inhibition of cerebellar microglial activation or suppression of cerebellar microglial activation by PLX3397 and minocycline reduces the production of proinflammatory cytokines, including TNF-α, to effectively restore the overactivation of PCs and alleviate motor deficits in 3-AP mice. These results suggest that cerebellar microglial activation may aggravate the neuroinflammatory response and subsequently induce dysfunction of PCs, which in turn triggers ataxic motor deficits. Our findings thus reveal a causal relationship between proinflammatory activation of cerebellar microglia and ataxic motor symptoms, which may offer novel evidence for therapeutic intervention for cerebellar ataxias by targeting microglia and microglia-derived inflammatory mediators.

With the advent of human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) and differentiation protocols, methods to create in-vitro human-derived neuronal networks have been proposed. Although monolayer cultures represent a valid model, adding three-dimensionality (3D) would make them more representative of an in-vivo environment. Thus, human-derived 3D structures are becoming increasingly used for in-vitro disease modeling. Achieving control over the final cell composition and investigating the exhibited electrophysiological activity is still a challenge. Thence, methodologies to create 3D structures with controlled cellular density and composition and platforms capable of measuring and characterizing the functional aspects of these samples are needed. Here, we propose a method to rapidly generate neurospheroids of human origin with control over cell composition that can be used for functional investigations. We show a characterization of the electrophysiological activity exhibited by the neurospheroids by using micro-electrode arrays (MEAs) with different types (i.e., passive, C-MOS, and 3D) and number of electrodes. Neurospheroids grown in free culture and transferred on MEAs exhibited functional activity that can be chemically and electrically modulated. Our results indicate that this model holds great potential for an in-depth study of signal transmission to drug screening and disease modeling and offers a platform for in-vitro functional testing.

Keywords

Microelectrode arrays; electrophysiology; 3D neuronal network; neurospheroids; brain-on-a-chip; rapid differentiation; h-iPSC; functional test

‍

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a multifactorial disorder that affects cognitive functioning, behavior, and neuronal properties. The neuronal dysfunction is primarily responsible for cognitive decline in AD patients, with many causal factors including plaque accumulation of Aβ42. Neural hyperactivity induced by Aβ42 deposition causes abnormalities in neural networks, leading to alterations in synaptic activity and interneuron dysfunction. Even though neuroimaging techniques elucidated the underlying mechanism of neural connectivity, precise understanding at the cellular level is still elusive. Previous multielectrode array studies have examined the neuronal network modulation in in vitro cultures revealing the relevance of ion channels and the chemical modulators in the presence of Aβ42. In this study, we investigated neuronal connectivity and dynamic changes using a high-density multielectrode array, particularly looking at network-wide parameter changes over time. By comparing the neuronal network between normal and Aβ42treated neuronal cultures, it was possible to discover the direct pathological effect of the Aβ42 oligomer altering the network characteristics. The detrimental effects of the Aβ42 oligomer included not only a decline in spike activation but also a qualitative impairment in neural connectivity as well as a disorientation of dispersibility. As a result, this will improve our understanding of how neural networks are modified during AD progression.

Keywords

Alzheimer’s disease; Aβ42; oligomer; high-density multielectrode array; neuronal network; graph theory; center of activity trajectory

‍

Mutations in PCDH19 gene, which encodes protocadherin-19 (PCDH19), cause Developmental and Epileptic Encephalopathy 9 (DEE9). Heterogeneous loss of PCDH19 expression in neurons is considered a key determinant of the disorder; however, how PCDH19 mosaic expression affects neuronal network activity and circuits is largely unclear. Here, we show that the hippocampus of Pcdh19 mosaic mice is characterized by structural and functional synaptic defects and by the presence of PCDH19-negative hyperexcitable neurons. Furthermore, global reduction of network firing rate and increased neuronal synchronization have been observed in different limbic system areas. Finally, network activity analysis in freely behaving mice revealed a decrease in excitatory/inhibitory ratio and functional hyperconnectivity within the limbic system of Pcdh19 mosaic mice. Altogether, these results indicate that altered PCDH19 expression profoundly affects circuit wiring and functioning, and provide new key to interpret DEE9 pathogenesis.

Background

In the cerebral cortex, disinhibited activity is characterized by propagating waves that spread across neural tissue. In this pathological state, a widely reported form of activity are spiral waves that travel in a circular pattern around a fixed spatial locus termed the center of mass. Spiral waves exhibit stereotypical activity and involve broad patterns of co-fluctuations, suggesting that they may be of lower complexity than healthy activity.

Results

To evaluate this hypothesis, we performed dense multi-electrode recordings of cortical networks where disinhibition was induced by perfusing a pro-epileptiform solution containing 4-Aminopyridine as well as increased potassium and decreased magnesium. Spiral waves were identified based on a spatially delimited center of mass and a broad distribution of instantaneous phases across electrodes. Individual waves were decomposed into “snapshots” that captured instantaneous neural activation across the entire network. The complexity of these snapshots was examined using a measure termed the participation ratio. Contrary to our expectations, an eigenspectrum analysis of these snapshots revealed a broad distribution of eigenvalues and an increase in complexity compared to baseline networks. A deep generative adversarial network was trained to generate novel exemplars of snapshots that closely captured cortical spiral waves. These synthetic waves replicated key features of experimental data including a tight center of mass, a broad eigenvalue distribution, spatially-dependent correlations, and a high complexity. By adjusting the input to the model, new samples were generated that deviated in systematic ways from the experimental data, thus allowing the exploration of a broad range of states from healthy to pathologically disinhibited neural networks.

Conclusions

Together, results show that the complexity of population activity serves as a marker along a continuum from healthy to disinhibited brain states. The proposed generative adversarial network opens avenues for replicating the dynamics of cortical seizures and accelerating the design of optimal neurostimulation aimed at suppressing pathological brain activity.

Introduction

FIRES is a rare epileptic encephalopathy induced by acute unremitting seizures that occur suddenly in healthy children or young adults after a febrile illness in the preceding 2 weeks. This condition results in high mortality, neurological disability, and drug-resistant epilepsy. The development of new therapeutics is hampered by the lack of validated experimental models. Our goal was to address this unmet need by providing a simple tool for rapid throughput screening of new therapies that target pathological inflammatory mechanisms in FIRES. The model was not intended to mimic the etiopathogenesis of FIRES which is still unknown, but to reproduce salient features of its clinical presentation such as the age, the cytokine storm and the refractoriness of epileptic activity to antiseizure medications (ASMs).

Methods

‍We refined an in vitro model of mouse hippocampal/temporal cortex acute slices where drug-resistant epileptic activity is induced by zero Mg²⁺/100 μM 4-aminopirydine. Clinical evidence suggests that acute unremitting seizures in FIRES are promoted by neuroinflammation triggered in the brain by the preceding infection. We mimicked this inflammatory component by exposing slices for 30 min to 10 μg/ml lipopolysaccharide (LPS).

Results

‍LPS induced a sustained neuroinflammatory response, as shown by increased mRNA levels of IL-1β, CXCL1 (IL-8), TNF, and increased IL-1β/IL-1Ra ratio. Epileptiform activity was exacerbated by neuroinflammation, also displaying increased resistance to maximal therapeutic concentrations of midazolam (100 μM), phenytoin (50 μM), sodium valproate (800 μM), and phenobarbital (100 μM). Treatment of LPS-exposed slices with two immunomodulatory drugs, a mouse anti-IL-6 receptor antibody (100 μM) corresponding to tocilizumab in humans, or anakinra (1.3 μM) which blocks the IL-1 receptor type 1, delayed the onset of epileptiform events and strongly reduced the ASM-resistant epileptiform activity evoked by neuroinflammation. These drugs were shown to reduce ASM-refractory seizures in FIRES patients.

Discussion

‍The neuroinflammatory component and the pharmacological responsiveness of epileptiform events provide a proof-of-concept validation of this in vitro model for the rapid selection of new treatments for acute ASM-refractory seizures in FIRES.

‍

Reactive astrocytes play an important role in neurological diseases, but their molecular and functional phenotypes in epilepsy are unclear. Here, we show that in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) and mouse models of epilepsy, excessive lipid accumulation in astrocytes leads to the formation of lipid-accumulated reactive astrocytes (LARAs), a new reactive astrocyte subtype characterized by elevated APOE expression. Genetic knockout of APOE inhibited LARA formation and seizure activities in epileptic mice. Single-nucleus RNA sequencing in TLE patients confirmed the existence of a LARA subpopulation with a distinct molecular signature. Functional studies in epilepsy mouse models and human brain slices showed that LARAs promote neuronal hyperactivity and disease progression. Targeting LARAs by intervention with lipid transport and metabolism could thus provide new therapeutic options for drug-resistant TLE.

‍

Highlights

• GDF11 enables transition from trunk to sacral neural crest in human PSCs
• Posterior neural crest emerges via a neuro-mesodermal progenitor in vitro
• Vagal and sacral neural crest exhibit distinct migratory behaviors
• Combined vagal/sacral neural crest injection induces rescue in severe HSCR model

‍

Summary

The enteric nervous system (ENS) is derived from both the vagal and sacral component of the neural crest (NC). Here, we present the derivation of sacral ENS precursors from human PSCs via timed exposure to FGF, WNT, and GDF11, which enables posterior patterning and transition from posterior trunk to sacral NC identity, respectively. Using a SOX2::H2B-tdTomato/T::H2B-GFP dual reporter hPSC line, we demonstrate that both trunk and sacral NC emerge from a double-positive neuro-mesodermal progenitor (NMP). Vagal and sacral NC precursors yield distinct neuronal subtypes and migratory behaviors in vitro and in vivo. Remarkably, xenografting of both vagal and sacral NC lineages is required to rescue a mouse model of total aganglionosis, suggesting opportunities in the treatment of severe forms of Hirschsprung’s disease.

‍

Microglia are the primary resident immune cells in the retina. They regulate neuronal survival and synaptic pruning making them essential for normal development. Following injury, they mediate adaptive responses and under pathological conditions they can trigger neurodegeneration exacerbating the effect of a disease. Retinal organoids derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) are increasingly being used for a range of applications, including disease modelling, development of new therapies and in the study of retinogenesis. Despite many similarities to the retinas developed in vivo, they lack some key physiological features, including immune cells. We engineered an hiPSC co-culture system containing retinal organoids and microglia-like (iMG) cells and tested their retinal invasion capacity and function. We incorporated iMG into retinal organoids at 13 weeks and tested their effect on function and development at 15 and 22 weeks of differentiation. Our key findings showed that iMG cells were able to respond to endotoxin challenge in monocultures and when co-cultured with the organoids. We show that retinal organoids developed normally and retained their ability to generate spiking activity in response to light. Thus, this new co-culture immunocompetent in vitro retinal model provides a platform with greater relevance to the in vivo human retina.

Dystonia is a neurological syndrome that alters muscle control for voluntary movement and sustained posture. Although the basal ganglia play a role in dystonia, an abnormal cerebellar function is also involved. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a standard treatment option for drug-refractory dystonia, and the most promising targets are the Globus Pallidus internus (GPi) or the subthalamic nucleus. The mechanisms of DBS, however, are as yet unclear. In this context, we were interested in the impact of DBS on cerebellar activity and, specifically, the role of glutamatergic transmission in DBS-induced changes.

We explored this question in a genetic animal model of primary paroxysmal dystonia (dtsz mutant hamster) and appropriate controls, bilaterally implanted with bipolar DBS electrodes in the entopeduncular nucleus (homolog to the GPi in humans).

The dtsz hamster is known for alteration in the ganglia–thalamocortical circuit, cortico-striatal circuit, and limbic structures. These further support us in investigating the cerebellum network, especially the synapse plasticity and the expression of NR2A subunits of NMDA since we already know that the NR2A/NR2B ratio is increased in the striatum of dystonic hamsters.

To gauge cerebellar activity, parasagittal slices were recorded with a high-density microelectrode array (200 μm thick) (HD-MEA; 3Brain AG). To analyze the involvement of the glutamatergic system, cerebellar slices were treated with 50 μM of PEAQX, an antagonist selective GluN2A, and their activity compared to baseline recordings in Krebs solution (10 minutes, 2 mL/min, at room temperature).

Our previous results indicate that blocking the NMDA receptor with PEAQX might modulate the Purkinje cell spike firing concerning amplitude and frequency differentially between the DBS and sham-DBS groups.

Acknowledgment This study was supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the Collaborative Research Centre (SFB 1270/1 ELAINE 299150580). We also thank Tina Sellmann and Anna Einsle for all their support.

Keywords

DBS, Cerebellum, Microelectrode array, Dystonia

Visual information processing in the retina requires the rhythmic expression of clock genes. The intrinsic retinal circadian clock is independent of the master clock located in the hypothalamic suprachiasmatic nucleus and emerges from retinal cells, including glia. Less clear is how glial oscillators influence the daily regulation of visual information processing in the mouse retina. Here, we demonstrate that the adult conditional deletion of the gene Bmal1 in GLAST-positive glial cells alters retinal physiology. Specifically, such deletion was sufficient to lower the amplitude of the electroretinogram b-wave recorded under light-adapted conditions. Furthermore, recordings from > 20,000 retinal ganglion cells (RGCs), the retina output, showed a non-uniform effect on RGCs activity in response to light across different cell types and over a 24-h period. Overall, our results suggest a new role of a glial circadian gene in adjusting mammalian retinal output throughout the night-day cycle.

A striking example of the brain's complexity and continued plasticity is the addition of new neuronal components to a circuit in a process called neurogenesis. Two brain regions exhibit profound circuit remodeling through this process - the olfactory bulb and hippocampus. However, how local network changes in both regions influence global circuit rewiring and dynamic network features remain largely unexplored due to the lack of spatiotemporal resolution technology and large-scale electrophysiological activity recordings. Here, we demonstrate large-scale recordings using a high-density neurochip to reveal multimodal circuit-wide electrophysiological properties and layer-specific functional connectivity in the olfactory bulb and hippocampal networks. Our findings illustrate simultaneous recordings from the entire network, which allows us to quantify synchronous electrophysiological parameter differences and layer-specific waveform markers. Examining pairwise cross-covariance between active electrode pairs reveals individual neuronal ensemble contributions to synchronous activation between layers and hub microcircuits, demonstrating network-wide rewiring. Our study suggests a novel tool to address the computational implications of large-scale activity patterns in functional multimodal neurogenic circuits.

Spontaneous bursts in neuronal networks with propagation involving a large number of synchronously firing neurons are considered to be a crucial feature of these networks both in vivo and in vitro. Recently, learning has been shown to improve the association and synchronization of spontaneous events in neuronal networks by promoting the firing of spontaneous bursts. However, little is known about the relationship between the learning phase and spontaneous bursts. By combining high-resolution measurement with a 4,096-channel complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) microelectrode array (MEA) and graph theory, we studied how the learning phase influenced the initiation of spontaneous bursts in cultured networks of rat cortical neurons in vitro. We found that a small number of selected populations carried most of the stimulus information and contributed to learning. Moreover, several new burst propagation patterns appeared in spontaneous firing after learning. Importantly, these “learning populations” had more hubs in the functional network that governed the initiation of spontaneous burst activity. These results suggest that changes in the functional structure of learning populations may be the key mechanism underlying increased bursts after learning. Our findings could increase understanding of the important role that synaptic plasticity plays in the regulation of spontaneous activity.

High-density multi-electrode array (HD-MEA) has enabled neuronal measurements at high spatial resolution to record local field potentials (LFP), extracellular action potentials, and network-wide extracellular recording on an extended spatial scale. While we have advanced recording systems with over 4,000 electrodes capable of recording data at over 20 kHz, it still presents computational challenges to handle, process, extract, and view information from these large recordings. We have created a computational method, and an open-source toolkit built in Python, rendered on a web browser using Plotly’s Dash for extracting and viewing the data and creating interactive visualization. In addition to extracting and viewing entire or small chunks of data sampled at lower or higher frequencies, respectively, it provides a framework to collect user inputs, analyze channel groups, generate raster plots, view quick summary measures for LFP activity, detect and isolate noise channels, and generate plots and visualization in both time and frequency domain. Incorporated into our Graphical User Interface (GUI), we also created a novel seizure detection method, which can be used to detect the onset of seizures in all or a selected group of channels and provide the following measures of seizures: distance, duration, and propagation across the region of interest. We demonstrate the utility of this toolkit, using datasets collected from an HD-MEA device comprising of 4,096 recording electrodes. For the current analysis, we demonstrate the toolkit and methods with a low sampling frequency dataset (300 Hz) and a group of approximately 400 channels. Using this toolkit, we present novel data demonstrating increased seizure propagation speed from brain slices of Scn1aHet mice compared to littermate controls. While there have been advances in HD-MEA recording systems with high spatial and temporal resolution, limited tools are available for researchers to view and process these big datasets. We now provide a user-friendly toolkit to analyze LFP activity obtained from large-scale MEA recordings with translatable applications to EEG recordings and demonstrate the utility of this new graphic user interface with novel biological findings.

Environmental perturbations during the first years of life are a major factor in psychiatric diseases. Phencyclidine (PCP), a drug of abuse, has psychomimetic effects, and neonatal subchronic administration of PCP in rodents leads to long-term behavioral changes relevant for schizophrenia. The cerebellum is increasingly recognized for its role in diverse cognitive functions. However, little is known about potential cerebellar changes in models of schizophrenia. Here, we analyzed the characteristics of the cerebellum in the neonatal subchronic PCP model. We found that, while the global cerebellar cytoarchitecture and Purkinje cell spontaneous spiking properties are unchanged, climbing fiber/Purkinje cell synaptic connectivity is increased in juvenile mice. Neonatal subchronic administration of PCP is accompanied by increased cFos expression, a marker of neuronal activity, and transient modification of the neuronal surfaceome in the cerebellum. The largest change observed is the overexpression of Ctgf, a gene previously suggested as a biomarker for schizophrenia. This neonatal increase in Ctgf can be reproduced by increasing neuronal activity in the cerebellum during the second postnatal week using chemogenetics. However, it does not lead to increased climbing fiber/Purkinje cell connectivity in juvenile mice, showing the complexity of PCP action. Overall, our study shows that administration of the drug of abuse PCP during the developmental period of intense cerebellar synaptogenesis and circuit remodeling has long-term and specific effects on Purkinje cell connectivity and warrants the search for this type of synaptic changes in psychiatric diseases.

Computing the spike-triggered average (STA) is a simple method to estimate linear receptive fields (RFs) in sensory neurons. For random, uncorrelated stimuli, the STA provides an unbiased RF estimate, but in practice, white noise at high resolution is not an optimal stimulus choice as it usually evokes only weak responses. Therefore, for a visual stimulus, images of randomly modulated blocks of pixels are often used. This solution naturally limits the resolution at which an RF can be measured. Here, we present a simple super-resolution technique that can overcome these limitations. We define a novel stimulus type, the shifted white noise (SWN), by introducing random spatial shifts in the usual stimulus to increase the resolution of the measurements. In simulated data, we show that the average error using the SWN was 1.7 times smaller than when using the classical stimulus, with successful mapping of 2.3 times more neurons, covering a broader range of RF sizes. Moreover, successful RF mapping was achieved with brief recordings of light responses, lasting only about 1 min of activity, which is more than 10 times more efficient than the classical white noise stimulus. In recordings from mouse retinal ganglion cells with large scale multielectrode arrays, we successfully mapped 21 times more RFs than when using the traditional white noise stimuli. In summary, randomly shifting the usual white noise stimulus significantly improves RFs estimation, and requires only short recordings.

In the study of biological networks, one of the major challenges is to understand the relationships between network structure and dynamics. In this paper, we model in vitro cortical neuronal cultures as stochastic dynamical systems and apply a method that reconstructs directed networks from dynamics [Ching and Tam, Phys. Rev. E 95, 010301(R) (2017)] to reveal directed effective connectivity, namely, the directed links and synaptic weights, of the neuronal cultures from voltage measurements recorded by a multielectrode array. The effective connectivity so obtained reproduces several features of cortical regions in rats and monkeys and has similar network properties as the synaptic network of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, whose entire nervous system has been mapped out. The distribution of the incoming degree is bimodal and the distributions of the average incoming and outgoing synaptic strength are non-Gaussian with long tails. The effective connectivity captures different information from the commonly studied functional connectivity, estimated using statistical correlation between spiking activities. The average synaptic strengths of excitatory incoming and outgoing links are found to increase with the spiking activity in the estimated effective connectivity but not in the functional connectivity estimated using the same sets of voltage measurements. These results thus demonstrate that the reconstructed effective connectivity can capture the general properties of synaptic connections and better reveal relationships between network structure and dynamics.

Neuropathic pain such as that seen in diabetes mellitus, results in part from central sensitisation in the dorsal horn. However, the mechanisms responsible for such sensitisation remain unclear. There is evidence that disturbances in the integrity of the spinal vascular network can be causative factors in the development of neuropathic pain. Here we show that reduced blood flow and vascularity of the dorsal horn leads to the onset of neuropathic pain. Using rodent models (type 1 diabetes and an inducible endothelial specific vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 knockout mouse) that result in degeneration of the endothelium in the dorsal horn we show that spinal cord vasculopathy results in nociceptive behavioural hypersensitivity. This also results in increased hypoxia in dorsal horn neurons, depicted by increased expression of hypoxia markers hypoxia inducible factor 1𝛼, glucose transporter 3 and carbonic anhydrase 7. Furthermore, inducing hypoxia via intrathecal delivery of dimethyloxalylglycine leads to the activation of dorsal horn neurons as well as mechanical and thermal hypersensitivity. This shows that hypoxic signalling induced by reduced vascularity results in increased hypersensitivity and pain. Inhibition of carbonic anhydrase activity, through intraperitoneal injection of acetazolamide, inhibited hypoxia induced pain behaviours. This investigation demonstrates that induction of a hypoxic microenvironment in the dorsal horn, as occurs in diabetes, is an integral process by which neurons are activated to initiate neuropathic pain states. This leads to the conjecture that reversing hypoxia by improving spinal cord microvascular blood flow could reverse or prevent neuropathic pain.

The cerebellar cortex microcircuit is characterized by a highly ordered neuronal architecture having a relatively simple and stereotyped connectivity pattern. For a long time, this structural simplicity has incorrectly led to the idea that anatomical considerations would be sufficient to understand the dynamics of the underlying circuitry. However, recent experimental evidence indicates that cerebellar operations are much more complex than solely predicted by anatomy, due to the crucial role played by neuronal and synaptic properties. To be able to explore neuronal and microcircuit dynamics, advanced imaging, electrophysiological techniques and computational models have been combined, allowing us to investigate neuronal ensembles activity and to connect microscale to mesoscale phenomena. Here, we review what is known about cerebellar network organization, neural dynamics and synaptic plasticity and point out what is still missing and would require experimental assessments. We consider the available experimental techniques that allow a comprehensive assessment of circuit dynamics, including voltage and calcium imaging and extracellular electrophysiological recordings with multi-electrode arrays (MEAs). These techniques are proving essential to investigate the spatiotemporal pattern of activity and plasticity in the cerebellar network, providing new clues on how circuit dynamics contribute to motor control and higher cognitive functions.

Retinal neurons are remarkedly diverse based on structure, function and genetic identity. Classifying these cells is a challenging task, requiring multimodal methodology. Here, we introduce a novel approach for retinal ganglion cell (RGC) classification, based on pharmacogenetics combined with immunohistochemistry and large-scale retinal electrophysiology. Our novel strategy allows grouping of cells sharing gene expression and understanding how these cell classes respond to basic and complex visual scenes. Our approach consists of several consecutive steps. First, the spike firing frequency is increased in RGCs co-expressing a certain gene (Scnn1a or Grik4) using excitatory DREADDs (designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs) in order to single out activity originating specifically from these cells. Their spike location is then combined with post hoc immunostaining, to unequivocally characterize their anatomical and functional features. We grouped these isolated RGCs into multiple clusters based on spike train similarities. Using this novel approach, we were able to extend the pre-existing list of Grik4-expressing RGC types to a total of eight and, for the first time, we provide a phenotypical description of 13 Scnn1a-expressing RGCs. The insights and methods gained here can guide not only RGC classification but neuronal classification challenges in other brain regions as well.

‍

How does the dynamics of neurons in a network respond to changes in synaptic weights? Answer to this question would be important for a full understanding of synaptic plasticity. In this article, we report our numerical study of the effects of changes in inhibitory synaptic weights on the spontaneous activity of networks of spiking neurons with conductance-based synapses. Networks with biologically realistic features, which were reconstructed from multi-electrode array recordings taken in a cortical neuronal culture, and their modifications were used in the simulations. The magnitudes of the synaptic weights of all the inhibitory connections are decreased by a uniform amount subjecting to the condition that inhibitory connections would not be turned into excitatory ones. Our simulation results reveal that the responses of the neurons are heterogeneous: while the firing rate of some neurons increases as expected, the firing rate of other neurons decreases or remains unchanged. The same results show that heterogeneous responses also occur for an enhancement of inhibition. This heterogeneity in the responses of neurons to changes in inhibitory synaptic strength suggests that activity-induced modification of synaptic strength does not necessarily generate a positive feedback loop on the dynamics of neurons connected in a network. Our results could be used to understand the effects of bicuculline on spiking and bursting activities of neuronal cultures. Using reconstructed networks with biologically realistic features enables us to identify a long-tailed distribution of average synaptic weights for outgoing links as a crucial feature in giving rise to bursting in neuronal networks and in determining the overall response of the whole network to changes in synaptic strength. For networks whose average synaptic weights for outgoing links have a long-tailed distribution, bursting is observed and the average firing rate of the whole network increases upon inhibition suppression or decreases upon inhibition enhancement. For networks whose average synaptic weights for outgoing links are approximately normally distributed, bursting is not found and the average firing rate of the whole network remains approximately constant upon changes in inhibitory synaptic strength.

Retinal drug toxicity screening is essential for the development of safe treatment strategies for a large number of diseases. To this end, retinal organoids derived from human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) provide a suitable screening platform due to their similarity to the human retina and the ease of generation in large-scale formats. In this study, two hPSC cell lines were differentiated to retinal organoids, which comprised all key retinal cell types in multiple nuclear and synaptic layers. Single-cell RNA-Seq of retinal organoids indicated the maintenance of retinal ganglion cells and development of bipolar cells: both cell types segregated into several subtypes. Ketorolac, digoxin, thioridazine, sildenafil, ethanol, and methanol were selected as key compounds to screen on retinal organoids because of their well-known retinal toxicity profile described in the literature. Exposure of the hPSC-derived retinal organoids to digoxin, thioridazine, and sildenafil resulted in photoreceptor cell death, while digoxin and thioridazine additionally affected all other cell types, including Müller glia cells. All drug treatments caused activation of astrocytes, indicated by dendrites sprouting into neuroepithelium. The ability to respond to light was preserved in organoids although the number of responsive retinal ganglion cells decreased after drug exposure. These data indicate similar drug effects in organoids to those reported in in vivo models and/or in humans, thus providing the first robust experimental evidence of their suitability for toxicological studies.

Large-scale multi-site biosensors are essential to probe the olfactory bulb (OB) circuitry for understanding the spatiotemporal dynamics of simultaneous discharge patterns. Current ex-vivo biosensing techniques are limited to recording a small set of neurons and cannot provide an adequate resolution, which hinders revealing the fast dynamic underlying the information coding mechanisms in the OB circuit. Here, we demonstrate a novel biohybrid OB-CMOS biosensing platform to decipher the cross-scale dynamics of the OB electrogenesis and quantify the distinct neuronal coding properties. The approach with 4096-microelectrodes offers a non-invasive, label-free, bioelectrical imaging to decode simultaneous firing patterns from thousands of connected neuronal ensembles in acute OB slices. The platform can measure spontaneous and drug-induced extracellular field potential activity with substantially improved spatiotemporal resolution over conventional OB-based biosensors. Also, we employ our OB-CMOS recordings to perform multidimensional analysis to instantiate specific neurophysiological metrics underlying the olfactory spatiotemporal coding that emerged from the OB interconnected layers. Our results delineate the computational implications of large-scale activity patterns in functional olfactory processing. The systematic interplay of the experimental CMOS-base platform architecture and the high-content characterization of the olfactory circuit with various computational analyses endow significant functional interrogations of the OB information processing, high-spatiotemporal connectivity mapping, and global circuit dynamics. Thus, our study can inspire the design of advanced biomimetic olfactory-based biosensors and neuromorphic approaches for diagnostic biomarkers and drug discovery applications.

Neurovascular coupling (NVC) is the process associating local cerebral blood flow (CBF) to neuronal activity (NA). Although NVC provides the basis for the blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) effect used in functional MRI (fMRI), the relationship between NVC and NA is still unclear. Since recent studies reported cerebellar non-linearities in BOLD signals during motor tasks execution, we investigated the NVC/NA relationship using a range of input frequencies in acute mouse cerebellar slices of vermis and hemisphere. The capillary diameter increased in response to mossy fiber activation in the 6–300 Hz range, with a marked inflection around 50 Hz (vermis) and 100 Hz (hemisphere). The corresponding NA was recorded using high-density multi-electrode arrays and correlated to capillary dynamics through a computational model dissecting the main components of granular layer activity. Here, NVC is known to involve a balance between the NMDAR-NO pathway driving vasodilation and the mGluRs-20HETE pathway driving vasoconstriction. Simulations showed that the NMDAR-mediated component of NA was sufficient to explain the time course of the capillary dilation but not its non-linear frequency dependence, suggesting that the mGluRs-20HETE pathway plays a role at intermediate frequencies. These parallel control pathways imply a vasodilation–vasoconstriction competition hypothesis that could adapt local hemodynamics at the microscale bearing implications for fMRI signals interpretation.

Keywords

Cerebellum; neurovascular coupling; granule cells; nitric oxide; NMDA receptor

‍

Imbalanced iron homeostasis plays a crucial role in neurological diseases, yet direct imaging evidence revealing the distribution of active ferrous iron (Fe²⁺) in the living brain remains scarce. Here, we present a near-infrared excited two-photon fluorescent probe (FeP) for imaging changes of Fe²⁺ flux in the living epileptic mouse brain. In vivo 3D two-photon brain imaging with FeP directly revealed abnormal elevation of Fe²⁺ in the epileptic mouse brain. Moreover, we found that dihydroartemisinin (DHA), a lead compound discovered through probe-based high-throughput screening, plays a critical role in modulating iron homeostasis. In addition, we revealed that DHA might exert its antiepileptic effects by modulating iron homeostasis in the brain and finally inhibiting ferroptosis. This work provides a reliable chemical tool for assessing the status of ferrous iron in the living epileptic mouse brain and may aid the rapid discovery of antiepileptic drug candidates.

Keywords

3D imaging; brain imaging; dihydroartemisinin; epilepsy; ferroptosis; ferrous iron; two-photon.

Optical stimulation technologies are gaining great consideration in cardiology, neuroscience studies, and drug discovery pathways by providing control over cell activity with high spatio-temporal resolution. However, this high precision requires manipulation of biological processes at genetic level concealing its development from broad scale application. Therefore, translating these technologies into tools for medical or pharmacological applications remains a challenge. Here, an all-optical nongenetic method for the modulation of electrogenic cells is introduced. It is demonstrated that plasmonic metamaterials can be used to elicit action potentials by converting near infrared laser pulses into stimulatory currents. The suggested approach allows for the stimulation of cardiomyocytes and neurons directly on commercial complementary metal-oxide semiconductor microelectrode arrays coupled with ultrafast pulsed laser, providing both stimulation and network-level recordings on the same device.

Rho GTPases are a class of G-proteins involved in several aspects of cellular biology, including the regulation of actin cytoskeleton. The most studied members of this family are RHOA and RAC1 that act in concert to regulate actin dynamics. Recently, Rho GTPases gained much attention as synaptic regulators in the mammalian central nervous system (CNS). In this context, ARHGAP22 protein has been previously shown to specifically inhibit RAC1 activity thus standing as critical cytoskeleton regulator in cancer cell models; however, whether this function is maintained in neurons in the CNS is unknown. Here, we generated a knockout animal model for arhgap22 and provided evidence of its role in the hippocampus. Specifically, we found that ARHGAP22 absence leads to RAC1 hyperactivity and to an increase in dendritic spine density with defects in synaptic structure, molecular composition, and plasticity. Furthermore, arhgap22 silencing causes impairment in cognition and a reduction in anxiety-like behavior in mice. We also found that inhibiting RAC1 restored synaptic plasticity in ARHGAP22 KO mice. All together, these results shed light on the specific role of ARHGAP22 in hippocampal excitatory synapse formation and function as well as in learning and memory behaviors.

Human-induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) with their differentiation protocols, constitute a potential tool to investigate the various biological mechanisms of different human cells, such as those of the central nervous system. With the advent of such technique, we have increased the knowledge of biological mechanisms of neural diseases and, new therapies are now emerging. In particular, three-dimensional (3D) neural cell culture models including brain organoids and neurospheroids are increasingly used as in vitro platforms for studying human brain cell biology and drug screening, in genome engineering and transplantation as potential treatment for some neurodegenerative diseases. In this work, we exploited a particular differentiation protocol to generate engineered excitatory cortical neurospheroids of human origin. To assess functional network activity, we used standard Micro Electrodes Arrays (60 channels) and for the first time CMOS based devices (4096 channels). Sample cultures showed electrophysiological activity in 4 weeks and these first results suggest future possible applications for drug screening and transplantation.

Methods for the conversion of human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into motor neurons (MNs) have opened to the generation of patient-derived in vitro systems that can be exploited for MN disease modelling. However, the lack of simplified and consistent protocols and the fact that hiPSC-derived MNs are often functionally immature yet limit the opportunity to fully take advantage of this technology, especially in research aimed at revealing the disease phenotypes that are manifested in functionally mature cells. In this study, we present a robust, optimized monolayer procedure to rapidly convert hiPSCs into enriched populations of motor neuron progenitor cells (MNPCs) that can be further amplified to produce a large number of cells to cover many experimental needs. These MNPCs can be efficiently differentiated towards mature MNs exhibiting functional electrical and pharmacological neuronal properties. Finally, we report that MN cultures can be long-term maintained, thus offering the opportunity to study degenerative phenomena associated with pathologies involving MNs and their functional, networked activity. These results indicate that our optimized procedure enables the efficient and robust generation of large quantities of MNPCs and functional MNs, providing a valid tool for MNs disease modelling and for drug discovery applications.

Keywords

Induced pluripotent stem cells; hiPSC; spinal motor neurons; motor neuron progenitors; cellular models; spinal muscular atrophy

Defects in DNA single‐strand break repair (SSBR) are linked with neurological dysfunction but the underlying mechanisms remain poorly understood. Here, we show that hyperactivity of the DNA strand break sensor protein Parp1 in mice in which the central SSBR protein Xrcc1 is conditionally deleted (Xrcc1^Nes‐Cre) results in lethal seizures and shortened lifespan. Using electrophysiological recording and synaptic imaging approaches, we demonstrate that aberrant Parp1 activation triggers seizure‐like activity in Xrcc1‐defective hippocampus ex vivo and deregulated presynaptic calcium signalling in isolated hippocampal neurons in vitro. Moreover, we show that these defects are prevented by Parp1 inhibition or deletion and, in the case of Parp1 deletion, that the lifespan of Xrcc1^Nes‐Cre mice is greatly extended. This is the first demonstration that lethal seizures can be triggered by aberrant Parp1 activity at unrepaired SSBs, highlighting PARP inhibition as a possible therapeutic approach in hereditary neurological disease.

Drug-induced cardiotoxicity is a major barrier to drug development and a main cause of withdrawal of marketed drugs. Drugs can strongly alter the spontaneous functioning of the heart by interacting with the cardiac membrane ion channels. If these effects only surface during in vivo preclinical tests, clinical trials or worse after commercialization, the societal and economic burden will be significant and seriously hinder the efficient drug development process. Hence, cardiac safety pharmacology requires in vitro electrophysiological screening assays of all drug candidates to predict cardiotoxic effects before clinical trials. In the past 10 years, microelectrode array (MEA) technology began to be considered a valuable approach in pharmaceutical applications. However, an effective tool for high-throughput intracellular measurements, compatible with pharmaceutical standards, is not yet available. Here, we propose laser-induced optoacoustic poration combined with CMOS-MEA technology as a reliable and effective platform to detect cardiotoxicity. This approach enables the acquisition of high-quality action potential recordings from large numbers of cardiomyocytes within the same culture well, providing reliable data using single-well MEA devices and single cardiac syncytia per each drug. Thus, this technology could be applied in drug safety screening platforms reducing times and costs of cardiotoxicity assessments, while simultaneously improving the data reliability.

Keywords

Cardiotoxicity; Plasmonic optoacoustic poration; CMOS-MEA; Intracellular recording; hiPSC

‍

Fine control of protein stoichiometry at synapses underlies brain function and plasticity. How proteostasis is controlled independently for each type of synaptic protein in a synapse-specific and activity-dependent manner remains unclear. Here, we show that Susd4, a gene coding for a complement-related transmembrane protein, is expressed by many neuronal populations starting at the time of synapse formation. Constitutive loss-of-function of Susd4 in the mouse impairs motor coordination adaptation and learning, prevents long-term depression at cerebellar synapses, and leads to misregulation of activity-dependent AMPA receptor subunit GluA2 degradation. We identified several proteins with known roles in the regulation of AMPA receptor turnover, in particular ubiquitin ligases of the NEDD4 subfamily, as SUSD4 binding partners. Our findings shed light on the potential role of SUSD4 mutations in neurodevelopmental diseases.

Retinal dystrophies often lead to blindness. Developing therapeutic interventions to restore vision is therefore of paramount importance. Here we demonstrate the ability of pluripotent stem cell-derived cone precursors to engraft and restore light responses in the Pde6brd1 mouse, an end-stage photoreceptor degeneration model. Our data show that up to 1.5% of precursors integrate into the host retina, differentiate into cones, and engraft in close apposition to the host bipolar cells. Half of the transplanted mice exhibited visual behavior and of these 33% showed binocular light sensitivity. The majority of retinal ganglion cells exhibited contrast-sensitive ON, OFF or ON-OFF light responses and even motion sensitivity; however, quite a few exhibited unusual responses (eg, light-induced suppression), presumably reflecting remodeling of the neural retina. Our data indicate that despite relatively low engraftment yield, pluripotent stem cell-derived cone precursors can elicit light responsiveness even at advanced degeneration stages. Further work is needed to improve engraftment yield and counteract retinal remodeling to achieve useful clinical applications.

It is widely assumed that electrical synapses in the mammalian brain, especially between interneurons, underlie neuronal synchrony. In the hippocampus, principal cells also establish electrical synapses with each other and have also been implicated in network oscillations, whereby the origin of fast electrical activity has been attributed to ectopic spikelets and dendro-dendritic or axo-axonal gap junctions. However, if electrical synapses were in axo-dendritic connections, where chemical synapses occur, the synaptic events would be mixed, having an electrical component preceding the chemical one. This type of communication is less well studied, mainly because it is not easily detected. Moreover, a possible scenario could be that an electrical synapse coexisted with a chemical one, but in a nonconductive state; hence, it would be considered inexistent. Could chemical synapses have a quiescent electrical component? If so, can silent electrical synapses be activated to be detected? We addressed this possibility, and we here report that, indeed, the connexin-36-containing glutamatergic mossy fiber synapses of the rat hippocampus express previously unrecognized electrical synapses, which are normally silent. We reveal that these synapses are pH sensitive, actuate in vitro and in vivo, and that the electrical signaling is bidirectional. With the simultaneous recording of hundreds of cells, we could reveal the existence of an electrical circuit in the hippocampus of adult rats of either sex consisting of principal cells where the nodes are interregional glutamatergic synapses containing silent but ready-to-use gap junctions.

Keywords

electrical circuit; electrical synapses; gap junctions; hippocampus; mixed synapses; mossy fibers

The generation of laminated and light responsive retinal organoids from induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) provides a powerful tool for the study of retinal diseases and drug discovery and a robust platform for cell-based therapies. The aim of this study is to investigate whether retinal organoids can retain their morphological and functional characteristics upon storage at room temperature (RT) conditions and shipment by air using a commercially available container that maintains the environment at ambient temperature. Morphological analysis and measurements of neuroepithelial thickness revealed no differences between control, RT incubated and shipped organoids. Similarly immunohistochemical analysis showed no differences in cell type composition and position within the laminated retinal structure. All groups showed a similar response to light, suggesting that the biological function of retinal organoids was not affected by RT storage or shipment. These findings provide an advance in transport of ready-made retinal organoids, increasing their availability to many research and pharma labs worldwide and facilitating cross-collaborative research.

The mammalian claustrum, owing to its widespread connectivity with other forebrain structures, has been hypothesized to mediate functions that range from decision-making to consciousness¹. Here we report that a homologue of the claustrum, identified by single-cell transcriptomics and viral tracing of connectivity, also exists in a reptile—the Australian bearded dragon Pogona vitticeps. In Pogona, the claustrum underlies the generation of sharp waves during slow-wave sleep. The sharp waves, together with superimposed high-frequency ripples², propagate to the entire neighbouring pallial dorsal ventricular ridge (DVR). Unilateral or bilateral lesions of the claustrum suppress the production of sharp-wave ripples during slow-wave sleep in a unilateral or bilateral manner, respectively, but do not affect the regular and rapidly alternating sleep rhythm that is characteristic of sleep in this species³. The claustrum is thus not involved in the generation of the sleep rhythm itself. Tract tracing revealed that the reptilian claustrum projects widely to a variety of forebrain areas, including the cortex, and that it receives converging inputs from, among others, areas of the mid- and hindbrain that are known to be involved in wake–sleep control in mammals^4,5,6. Periodically modulating the concentration of serotonin in the claustrum, for example, caused a matching modulation of sharp-wave production there and in the neighbouring DVR. Using transcriptomic approaches, we also identified a claustrum in the turtle Trachemys scripta, a distant reptilian relative of lizards. The claustrum is therefore an ancient structure that was probably already present in the brain of the common vertebrate ancestor of reptiles and mammals. It may have an important role in the control of brain states owing to the ascending input it receives from the mid- and hindbrain, its widespread projections to the forebrain and its role in sharp-wave generation during slow-wave sleep.

Electrical coupling has been reported to occur only between homotypic retinal ganglion cells, in line with the concept of parallel processing in the early visual system. Here, however, we show reciprocal correlated firing between heterotypic ganglion cells in multielectrode array recordings during light stimulation in retinas of adult guinea pigs of either sex. Heterotypic coupling was further confirmed via tracer spread after intracellular injections of single cells with neurobiotin. Both electrically coupled cell types were sustained ON center ganglion cells but showed distinct light response properties and receptive field sizes. We identified one of the involved cell types as sustained ON α-ganglion cells. The presence of electrical coupling between heterotypic ganglion cells introduces a network motif in which the signals of distinct ganglion cell types are partially mixed at the output stage of the retina.

Large-scale neural recording methods now allow us to observe large populations of identified single neurons simultaneously, opening a window into neural population dynamics in living organisms. However, distilling such large-scale recordings to build theories of emergent collective dynamics remains a fundamental statistical challenge. The neural field models of Wilson, Cowan, and colleagues remain the mainstay of mathematical population modeling owing to their interpretable, mechanistic parameters and amenability to mathematical analysis. Inspired by recent advances in biochemical modeling, we develop a method based on moment closure to interpret neural field models as latent state-space point-process models, making them amenable to statistical inference. With this approach we can infer the intrinsic states of neurons, such as active and refractory, solely from spiking activity in large populations. After validating this approach with synthetic data, we apply it to high-density recordings of spiking activity in the developing mouse retina. This confirms the essential role of a long lasting refractory state in shaping spatiotemporal properties of neonatal retinal waves. This conceptual and methodological advance opens up new theoretical connections between mathematical theory and point-process state-space models in neural data analysis.

Mechanical forces are increasingly recognized as major regulators of several physiological processes at both the molecular and cellular level; therefore, a deep understanding of the sensing of these forces and their conversion into electrical signals are essential for studying the mechanosensitive properties of soft biological tissues. To contribute to this field, we present a dual-purpose device able to mechanically stimulate retinal tissue and to record the spiking activity of retinal ganglion cells (RGCs). This new instrument relies on combining ferrule-top micro-indentation, which provides local measurements of viscoelasticity, with high-density multi-electrode array (HD-MEAs) to simultaneously record the spontaneous activity of the retina. In this paper, we introduce this instrument, describe its technical characteristics, and present a proof-of-concept experiment that shows how RGC spiking activity of explanted mice retinas respond to mechanical micro-stimulations of their photoreceptor layer. The data suggest that, under specific conditions of indentation, the retina perceive the mechanical stimulation as modulation of the visual input, besides the longer time-scale of activation, and the increase in spiking activity is not only localized under the indentation probe, but it propagates across the retinal tissue.

Accurate estimation of interactions in neuronal circuits is critical in understanding neural information processing and the neuronal dynamics of emergent networks. Transfer entropy(TE) is a model-free information theoretic measure of flow of information between two random processes. TE has recently gained much popularity due to its effectiveness in estimating effective connectivity among neurons from simulated networks. However, experimental recordings inherently lack the ground truth information of neural connectivity - making it difficult to identify true connections from spurious connections. To tackle this problem, we present a superimposition method where the estimated connectivity is superimposed onto the spatial firing density plot. The firing density plot, on itself, does not provide connectivity information but we assume that frequently firing channels are more likely to have more active interactions. A neuron's firing depends on the presynaptic inputs, and highly interconnected neurons tend to have more presynaptic inputs resulting in more frequent firing. The firing density plot is organised in a spatial layout, which corresponds substantially to the structural layout. We demonstrated that the connectivity estimated closely corresponds to the firing density plot when superimposed onto the firing density plot. To strengthen the arguement, we analyse the firing count and the connectivity inferred for each randomly sampled channel and found a positively correlated relationship.

Tissue specific extracellular matrices (ECM) provide structural support and enable access to molecular signals and metabolites, which are essential for directing stem cell renewal and differentiation. To mimic this phenomenon in vitro, tissue decellularisation approaches have been developed, resulting in the generation of natural ECM scaffolds that have comparable physical and biochemical properties of the natural tissues and are currently gaining traction in tissue engineering and regenerative therapies due to the ease of standardised production, and constant availability. In this manuscript we report the successful generation of decellularised ECM-derived peptides from neural retina (decel NR) and retinal pigment epithelium (decel RPE), and their impact on differentiation of human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) to retinal organoids. We show that culture media supplementation with decel RPE and RPE-conditioned media (CM RPE) significantly increases the generation of rod photoreceptors, whilst addition of decel NR and decel RPE significantly enhances ribbon synapse marker expression and the light responsiveness of retinal organoids. Photoreceptor maturation, formation of correct synapses between retinal cells and recording of robust light responses from hPSC-derived retinal organoids remain unresolved challenges for the field of regenerative medicine. Enhanced rod photoreceptor differentiation, synaptogenesis and light response in response to addition of decellularised matrices from RPE and neural retina as shown herein provide a novel and substantial advance in generation of retinal organoids for drug screening, tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

Keywords

Decellularisation, Extracellular matrix, RPENeural retina, Retinal organoids, Human pluripotent stem cells

‍

Mutations in PRoline-Rich Transmembrane protein 2 (PRRT2) underlie a group of paroxysmal disorders including epilepsy, kinesigenic dyskinesia and migraine. Most of the mutations lead to impaired PRRT2 expression and/or function, emphasizing the pathogenic role of the PRRT2 deficiency. In this work, we investigated the phenotype of primary hippocampal neurons obtained from mouse embryos in which the PRRT2 gene was constitutively inactivated. Although PRRT2 is expressed by both excitatory and inhibitory neurons, its deletion decreases the number of excitatory synapses without significantly affecting the number of inhibitory synapses or the nerve terminal ultrastructure. Analysis of synaptic function in primary PRRT2 knockout excitatory neurons by live imaging and electrophysiology showed slowdown of the kinetics of exocytosis, weakened spontaneous and evoked synaptic transmission and markedly increased facilitation. Inhibitory neurons showed strengthening of basal synaptic transmission, accompanied by faster depression. At the network level these complex synaptic effects resulted in a state of heightened spontaneous and evoked activity that was associated with increased excitability of excitatory neurons in both PRRT2 knockout primary cultures and acute hippocampal slices. The data indicate the existence of network instability/hyperexcitability as the possible basis of the paroxysmal phenotypes associated with PRRT2 mutations.

Keywords

hippocampus, knockout, network excitability, PRRT2, synaptic transmission

A major goal in the stem cell field is to generate tissues that can be utilized as a universal tool for in vitro models of development and disease, drug development, or as a resource for patients suffering from disease or injury. Great efforts are being made to differentiate human pluripotent stem cells in vitro toward retinal tissue, which is akin to native human retina in its cytoarchitecture and function, yet the numerous existing retinal induction protocols remain variable in their efficiency and do not routinely produce morphologically or functionally mature photoreceptors. Herein, we determine the impact that the method of embryoid body (EB) formation and maintenance as well as cell line background has on retinal organoid differentiation from human embryonic stem cells and human induced pluripotent stem cells. Our data indicate that cell line-specific differences dominate the variables that underline the differentiation efficiency in the early stages of differentiation. In contrast, the EB generation method and maintenance conditions determine the later differentiation and maturation of retinal organoids. Of the latter, the mechanical method of EB generation under static conditions, accompanied by media supplementation with Y27632 for the first 48 hours of differentiation, results in the most consistent formation of laminated retinal neuroepithelium containing mature and electrophysiologically responsive photoreceptors. Collectively, our data provide substantive evidence for stage-specific differences in the ability to give rise to laminated retinae, which is determined by cell line-specific differences in the early stages of differentiation and EB generation/organoid maintenance methods at later stages.

Keywords

Human embryonic stem cells; Induced pluripotent stem cells; Organoids; Retina; Tissue engineering.

‍

Retinal ganglion cells, the sole output neurons of the retina, exhibit surprising diversity. A recent study reported over 30 distinct types in the mouse retina, indicating that the processing of visual information is highly parallelised in the brain. The advent of high density multi-electrode arrays now enables recording from many hundreds to thousands of neurons from a single retina. Here we describe a method for the automatic classification of large-scale retinal recordings using a simple stimulus paradigm and a spike train distance measure as a clustering metric. We evaluate our approach using synthetic spike trains, and demonstrate that major known cell types are identified in high-density recording sessions from the mouse retina with around 1,000 retinal ganglion cells. A comparison across different retinas reveals substantial variability between preparations, suggesting pooling data across retinas should be approached with caution. As a parameter-free method, our approach is broadly applicable for cellular physiological classification in all sensory modalities.

Fast ripples (FRs; activity of >250 Hz) have been considered as a biomarker of epileptic activity in the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex; it is thought that they signal the focus of seizure generation. Similar high-frequency network activity has been produced in vitro by changing extracellular medium composition, by using pro-epileptic substances, or by electrical stimulation. Here we study the propagation of these events between different subregions of the male rat hippocampus in a recently introduced experimental model of FRs in entorhinal cortex–hippocampal slices in vitro. By using a matrix of 4096 microelectrodes, the sites of initiation, propagation pathways, and spatiotemporal characteristics of activity patterns could be studied with unprecedented high resolution. To this end, we developed an analytic tool based on bidimensional current source density estimation, which delimits sinks and sources with a high precision and evaluates their trajectories using the concept of center of mass. With this methodology, we found that FRs can arise almost simultaneously at noncontiguous sites in the CA3-to-CA1 direction, underlying the spatial heterogeneity of epileptogenic foci, while continuous somatodendritic waves of activity develop. An unexpected, yet important propagation route is the propagation of activity from CA3 into the hilus and dentate gyrus. This pathway may cause reverberating activation of both regions, supporting sustained pathological network events and altered information processing in hippocampal networks.

Mutations in pre-mRNA processing factors (PRPFs) cause autosomal-dominant retinitis pigmentosa (RP), but it is unclear why mutations in ubiquitously expressed genes cause non-syndromic retinal disease. Here, we generate transcriptome profiles from RP11 (PRPF31-mutated) patient-derived retinal organoids and retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), as well as Prpf31^+/− mouse tissues, which revealed that disrupted alternative splicing occurred for specific splicing programmes. Mis-splicing of genes encoding pre-mRNA splicing proteins was limited to patient-specific retinal cells and Prpf31^+/− mouse retinae and RPE. Mis-splicing of genes implicated in ciliogenesis and cellular adhesion was associated with severe RPE defects that include disrupted apical – basal polarity, reduced trans-epithelial resistance and phagocytic capacity, and decreased cilia length and incidence. Disrupted cilia morphology also occurred in patient-derived photoreceptors, associated with progressive degeneration and cellular stress. In situ gene editing of a pathogenic mutation rescued protein expression and key cellular phenotypes in RPE and photoreceptors, providing proof of concept for future therapeutic strategies.

Functional-effective connectivity and network topology are nowadays key issues for studying brain physiological functions and pathologies. Inferring neuronal connectivity from electrophysiological recordings presents open challenges and unsolved problems. In this work, we present a cross-correlation based method for reliably estimating not only excitatory but also inhibitory links, by analyzing multi-unit spike activity from large-scale neuronal networks. The method is validated by means of realistic simulations of large-scale neuronal populations. New results related to functional connectivity estimation and network topology identification obtained by experimental electrophysiological recordings from high-density and large-scale (i.e., 4096 electrodes) microtransducer arrays coupled to in vitro neural populations are presented. Specifically, we show that: (i) functional inhibitory connections are accurately identified in in vitro cortical networks, providing that a reasonable firing rate and recording length are achieved; (ii) small-world topology, with scale-free and rich-club features are reliably obtained, on condition that a minimum number of active recording sites are available. The method and procedure can be directly extended and applied to in vivo multi-units brain activity recordings.

The ability to monitor electrogenic cells accurately plays a pivotal role in neuroscience, cardiology and cell biology. Despite pioneering research and long-lasting efforts, the existing methods for intracellular recording of action potentials on the large network scale suffer limitations that prevent their widespread use. Here, we introduce the concept of a meta-electrode, a planar porous electrode that mimics the optical and biological behaviour of three-dimensional plasmonic antennas but also preserves the ability to work as an electrode. Its synergistic combination with plasmonic optoacoustic poration allows commercial complementary metal–oxide semiconductor multi-electrode arrays to record intracellular action potentials in large cellular networks. We apply this approach to measure signals from human-induced pluripotent stem cell-derived cardiac cells, rodent primary cardiomyocytes and immortalized cell types and demonstrate the possibility of non-invasively testing a variety of relevant drugs. Due to its robustness and easiness of use, we expect the method will be rapidly adopted by the scientific community and by pharmaceutical companies.

Microelectrode array (MEA) systems with up to several thousands of recording electrodes and electrical or optical stimulation capabilities are commercially available or described in the literature. By exploiting their submillisecond and micrometric temporal and spatial resolutions to record bioelectrical signals, such emerging MEA systems are increasingly used in neuroscience to study the complex dynamics of neuronal networks and brain circuits. However, they typically lack the capability of implementing real-time feedback between the detection of neuronal spiking events and stimulation, thus restricting large-scale neural interfacing to open-loop conditions. In order to exploit the potential of such large-scale recording systems and stimulation, we designed and validated a fully reconfigurable FPGA-based processing system for closed-loop multichannel control. By adopting a Xilinx Zynq-all-programmable system on chip that integrates reconfigurable logic and a dual-core ARM-based processor on the same device, the proposed platform permits low-latency preprocessing (filtering and detection) of spikes acquired simultaneously from several thousands of electrode sites. To demonstrate the proposed platform, we tested its performances through ex vivo experiments on the mice retina using a state-of-the-art planar high-density MEA that samples 4096 electrodes at 18 kHz and record light-evoked spikes from several thousands of retinal ganglion cells simultaneously. Results demonstrate that the platform is able to provide a total latency from whole-array data acquisition to stimulus generation below 2 ms. This opens the opportunity to design closed-loop experiments on neural systems and biomedical applications using emerging generations of planar or implantable large-scale MEA systems.

The availability of in vitro models of the human retina in which to perform pharmacological and toxicological studies is an urgent and unmet need. An essential step for developing in vitro models of human retina is the ability to generate laminated, physiologically functional, and light-responsive retinal organoids from renewable and patient specific sources. We investigated five different human-induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) lines and showed a significant variability in their efficiency to generate retinal organoids. Despite this variability, by month 5 of differentiation, all iPSC-derived retinal organoids were able to generate light responses, albeit immature, comparable to the earliest light responses recorded from the neonatal mouse retina, close to the period of eye opening. All iPSC-derived retinal organoids exhibited at this time a well-formed outer nuclear like layer containing photoreceptors with inner segments, connecting cilium, and outer like segments. The differentiation process was highly dependent on seeding cell density and nutrient availability determined by factorial experimental design. We adopted the differentiation protocol to a multiwell plate format, which enhanced generation of retinal organoids with retinal-pigmented epithelium (RPE) and improved ganglion cell development and the response to physiological stimuli. We tested the response of iPSC-derived retinal organoids to Moxifloxacin and showed that similarly to in vivo adult mouse retina, the primary affected cell types were photoreceptors. Together our data indicate that light responsive retinal organoids derived from carefully selected and differentiation efficient iPSC lines can be generated at the scale needed for pharmacology and drug screening purposes.

Spike train synchrony estimation of neuronal cultures provides valuable insights into firing patterns of neurons in terms of degree of similarity or dissimilarity. These estimations have proven to be a useful tool in neuroscience since synchrony in neuronal networks is thought to be related to cognitive processes, sensory awareness, learning and neurological disorders. Many mathematical measures have been developed to quantify the degree of synchrony. These synchrony metrics are generally used for smaller sets of spike trains and not been explored for larger High Density Multi Electrode Arrays (HD-MEA) datasets with thousands of channels. Here, bivariate and multivariate ISI-distance and SPIKE-distance metrics are utilized on both synthetic and experimental HD-MEA datasets to quantify spike train synchrony. It is demonstrated that, despite the significant size of the datasets, the approaches are effective in identifying and quantifying interesting bursting or change in spike train behaviours which are not always obvious from the raster plot.

Neuronal responses to external stimuli vary from trial to trial partly because they depend on continuous spontaneous variations of the state of neural circuits, reflected in variations of ongoing activity prior to stimulus presentation. Understanding how post-stimulus responses relate to the pre-stimulus spontaneous activity is thus important to understand how state dependence affects information processing and neural coding, and how state variations can be discounted to better decode single-trial neural responses. Here we exploited high-resolution CMOS electrode arrays to record simultaneously from thousands of electrodes in in-vitro cultures stimulated at specific sites. We used information-theoretic analyses to study how ongoing activity affects the information that neuronal responses carry about the location of the stimuli. We found that responses exhibited state dependence on the time between the last spontaneous burst and the stimulus presentation and that the dependence could be described with a linear model. Importantly, we found that a small number of selected neurons carry most of the stimulus information and contribute to the state-dependent information gain. This suggests that a major value of large-scale recording is that it individuates the small subset of neurons that carry most information and that benefit the most from knowledge of its state dependence.

In the mammalian retina, horizontal cells receive glutamatergic inputs from many rod and cone photoreceptors and return feedback signals to them, thereby changing photoreceptor glutamate release in a light-dependent manner. Horizontal cells also provide feedforward signals to bipolar cells. It is unclear, however, how horizontal cell signals also affect the temporal, spatial, and contrast tuning in retinal output neurons, the ganglion cells. To study this, we generated a genetically modified mouse line in which we eliminated the light dependency of feedback by deleting glutamate receptors from mouse horizontal cells. This genetic modification allowed us to investigate the impact of horizontal cells on ganglion cell signaling independent of the actual mode of feedback in the outer retina and without pharmacological manipulation of signal transmission. In control and genetically modified mice (both sexes), we recorded the light responses of transient OFF-α retinal ganglion cells in the intact retina. Excitatory postsynaptic currents (EPSCs) were reduced and the cells were tuned to lower temporal frequencies and higher contrasts, presumably because photoreceptor output was attenuated. Moreover, receptive fields of recorded cells showed a significantly altered surround structure. Our data thus suggest that horizontal cells are responsible for adjusting the dynamic range of retinal ganglion cells and, together with amacrine cells, contribute to the center/surround organization of ganglion cell receptive fields in the mouse.

Substrate-integrated multielectrode arrays (MEAs) enable multisite, long-term, and label-free sensing and actuation of neuronal electrical signals in reduced cell culture models for network electrophysiology. Conventional, thin-film fabricated passive MEAs typically provide a few tens of electrode sites. New generations of active CMOS-based high-resolution arrays provide the capabilities of simultaneous recordings from thousands of neurons over fields of view of several square millimeters, yet allowing extracellular electrical imaging to be achieved down to the subcellular scale. In turn, such advancement in chip-based electrical readouts can significantly complement recently developed biotechnological and bimolecular techniques for neurobiology applications. Here, we describe (1) a simple method to fabricate passive MEAs and (2) protocols for preparing and growing primary rat hippocampal neuronal cultures and human iPS-derived neurons on MEAs. The aim is to provide reliable protocols for initiating the reader to this technology and for stimulating their further development and experimental use in neurobiology.

Individuals with 22q11.2 microdeletion syndrome (22q11.2 DS) show cognitive and behavioral dysfunctions, developmental delays in childhood and risk of developing schizophrenia and autism. Despite extensive previous studies in adult animal models, a possible embryonic root of this syndrome has not been determined. Here, in neurons from a 22q11.2 DS mouse model (Lgdel^+/−), we found embryonic-premature alterations in the neuronal chloride cotransporters indicated by dysregulated NKCC1 and KCC2 protein expression levels. We demonstrate with large-scale spiking activity recordings a concurrent deregulation of the spontaneous network activity and homeostatic network plasticity. Additionally, Lgdel^+/− networks at early development show abnormal neuritogenesis and void of synchronized spontaneous activity. Furthermore, parallel experiments on Dgcr8^+/− mouse cultures reveal a significant, yet not exclusive contribution of the dgcr8 gene to our phenotypes of Lgdel^+/− networks. Finally, we show that application of bumetanide, an inhibitor of NKCC1, significantly decreases the hyper-excitable action of GABA_A receptor signaling and restores network homeostatic plasticity in Lgdel^+/− networks. Overall, by exploiting an on-a-chip 22q11.2 DS model, our results suggest a delayed GABA-switch in Lgdel^+/− neurons, which may contribute to a delayed embryonic development. Prospectively, acting on the GABA-polarity switch offers a potential target for 22q11.2 DS therapeutic intervention.

We implemented an automated and efficient open-source software for the analysis of multi-site neuronal spike signals. The software package, named SpiCoDyn, has been developed as a standalone windows GUI application, using C# programming language with Microsoft Visual Studio based on .NET framework 4.5 development environment. Accepted input data formats are HDF5, level 5 MAT and text files, containing recorded or generated time series spike signals data. SpiCoDyn processes such electrophysiological signals focusing on: spiking and bursting dynamics and functional-effective connectivity analysis. In particular, for inferring network connectivity, a new implementation of the transfer entropy method is presented dealing with multiple time delays (temporal extension) and with multiple binary patterns (high order extension). SpiCoDyn is specifically tailored to process data coming from different Multi-Electrode Arrays setups, guarantying, in those specific cases, automated processing. The optimized implementation of the Delayed Transfer Entropy and the High-Order Transfer Entropy algorithms, allows performing accurate and rapid analysis on multiple spike trains from thousands of electrodes.

Developing neuronal systems intrinsically generate coordinated spontaneous activity that propagates by involving a large number of synchronously firing neurons. In vivo, waves of spikes transiently characterize the activity of developing brain circuits and are fundamental for activity-dependent circuit formation. In vitro, coordinated spontaneous spiking activity, or network bursts (NBs), interleaved within periods of asynchronous spikes emerge during the development of 2D and 3D neuronal cultures. Several studies have investigated this type of activity and its dynamics, but how a neuronal system generates these coordinated events remains unclear. Here, we investigate at a cellular level the generation of network bursts in spontaneously active neuronal cultures by exploiting high-resolution multielectrode array recordings and computational network modelling. Our analysis reveals that NBs are generated in specialized regions of the network (functional neuronal communities) that feature neuronal links with high cross-correlation peak values, sub-millisecond lags and that share very similar structural connectivity motifs providing recurrent interactions. We show that the particular properties of these local structures enable locally amplifying spontaneous asynchronous spikes and that this mechanism can lead to the initiation of NBs. Through the analysis of simulated and experimental data, we also show that AMPA currents drive the coordinated activity, while NMDA and GABA currents are only involved in shaping the dynamics of NBs. Overall, our results suggest that the presence of functional neuronal communities with recurrent local connections allows a neuronal system to generate spontaneous coordinated spiking activity events. As suggested by the rules used for implementing our computational model, such functional communities might naturally emerge during network development by following simple constraints on distance-based connectivity.

Nanoparticles (NPs) are increasingly used in biomedical applications, but the factors that influence their interactions with living cells need to be elucidated. Here, we reveal the role of NP surface charge in determining their neuronal interactions and electrical responses. We discovered that negatively charged NPs administered at low concentration (10 nM) interact with the neuronal membrane and at the synaptic cleft, whereas positively and neutrally charged NPs never localize on neurons. This effect is shape and material independent. The presence of negatively charged NPs on neuronal cell membranes influences the excitability of neurons by causing an increase in the amplitude and frequency of spontaneous postsynaptic currents at the single cell level and an increase of both the spiking activity and synchronous firing at neural network level. The negatively charged NPs exclusively bind to excitable neuronal cells, and never to nonexcitable glial cells. This specific interaction was also confirmed by manipulating the electrophysiological activity of neuronal cells. Indeed, the interaction of negatively charged NPs with neurons is either promoted or hindered by pharmacological suppression or enhancement of the neuronal activity with tetrodotoxin or bicuculline, respectively. We further support our main experimental conclusions by using numerical simulations. This study demonstrates that negatively charged NPs modulate the excitability of neurons, revealing the potential use of NPs for controlling neuron activity.

Keywords

Inorganic nanoparticles, surface potential, membrane depolarization, neural networks, neural excitability

‍

Neurotoxicity and the accumulation of extracellular amyloid-beta_1–42 (Aβ) peptides are associated with the development of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and correlate with neuronal activity and network dysfunctions, ultimately leading to cellular death. However, research on neurodegenerative diseases is hampered by the paucity of reliable readouts and experimental models to study such functional decline from an early onset and to test rescue strategies within networks at cellular resolution. To overcome this important obstacle, we demonstrate a simple yet powerful in vitro AD model based on a rat hippocampal cell culture system that exploits large-scale neuronal recordings from 4096-electrodes on CMOS-chips for electrophysiological quantifications. This model allows us to monitor network activity changes at the cellular level and to uniquely uncover the early activity-dependent deterioration induced by Aβ-neurotoxicity. We also demonstrate the potential of this in vitro model to test a plausible hypothesis underlying the Aβ-neurotoxicity and to assay potential therapeutic approaches. Specifically, by quantifying N-methyl D-aspartate (NMDA) concentration-dependent effects in comparison with low-concentration allogenic-Aβ, we confirm the role of extrasynaptic-NMDA receptors activation that may contribute to Aβ-neurotoxicity. Finally, we assess the potential rescue of neural stem cells (NSCs) and of two pharmacotherapies, memantine and saffron, for reversing Aβ-neurotoxicity and rescuing network-wide firing.