Investigation of synaptic plasticity in therapeutic sleep deprivation for major depression

Staying awake for a night improves the mood for a lot of patients with depression very quickly. A recent model of depression proposes that the connection between neurons (synapse) is strengthened during sleep deprivation which restores a deficit in the depressive brain. Positron emission tomography (PET) imaging of the synaptic vesicle protein 2A (SV2A) allows to monitor the amount of synapses in the living brain of humans and animals which suffer from depression. Rats with and without depression undergo total sleep deprivation and are scanned before and after it. During the internship, immhunohistochemical staining and autoradiography of brain slices of the experimental animals should be performed to verify PET results. We expect a lower synaptic density in Flinder sensitive rats (FSR; depression model) compared to control rats before sleep deprivation. We expect an increase in synaptic density after sleep deprivations in depression rats, but no difference in control rats.

Faculty Supervisor:

Pedro Rosa-Neto

Student:

Partner:

Forschungszentrum Jülich

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology

University:

McGill University

Program: