noninvasive-high-throughput-determination-of-sleep-duration-in-rodents

Noninvasive, High-throughput Determination of Sleep Duration in Rodents

Traditionally, sleep is monitored by an electroencephalogram (EEG). EEG studies in rodents require surgical implantation of the electrodes followed by a ...

chronic-sleep-deprivation-in-mouse-pups-by-means-of-gentle-handling

Chronic Sleep Deprivation in Mouse Pups by Means of Gentle Handling

Sleep is critical for proper development and neural plasticity. Moreover, abnormal sleep patterns are characteristic of many neurodevelopmental disorders. ...

National Institutes of Health

Fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common form of inherited intellectual disability, is also highly associated with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It is caused by expansion of a CGG repeat sequence on the X chromosome resulting in silencing of the  gene. This is modeled in the mouse by deletion of  ( KO).  KO mice recapitulate many of the behavioral features of the disorder including seizure susceptibility, hyperactivity, impaired social behavior, sleep problems, and learning and memory deficits. The mammalian target of rapamycin pathway (mTORC1) is upregulated in  KO mice and is thought to be important for the pathogenesis of this disorder. We treated  KO mice chronically with an mTORC1 inhibitor, rapamycin, to determine if rapamycin treatment could reverse behavioral phenotypes. We performed open field, zero maze, social behavior, sleep, passive avoidance, and audiogenic seizure testing. We found that pS6 was upregulated in  KO mice and normalized by rapamycin treatment, but, except for an anxiogenic effect, it did not reverse any of the behavioral phenotypes examined. In fact, rapamycin treatment had an adverse effect on sleep and social behavior in both control and  KO mice. These results suggest that targeting the mTOR pathway in FXS is not a good treatment strategy and that other pathways should be considered.

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Publication title Cited by 10	2018
Publication title Cited by 22	2018

Abigail Lemons

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