Modulation of NMDA receptors by prion proteins
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Background: The precise physiological function of endogenous cellular prion protein (PrPC) remains unclear. It has been shown that PrP-null mice exhibit reduced LTP and greater susceptability to seizure mortality in several in vivo (e.g. kainic acid) models of epilepsy. In addition, PrP-null mice exhibit greater exctitotoxic cell death in response to kainic acid exposure. Methods: In our study we investigated the synaptic properties of WT and PrP-null mice. Results: Recordings in the CA1 layer of adult hippocampal slices showed that PrP-null mice exhibit a reduced threshold to evoked responses and no difference in paired-pulse facilitation relative to WT animals. In addition, greater excitability was observed in PrP-null slices in response to zero-Mg2+ induced seizure-like events. Recordings from mature hippocampal cultures showed slightly altered AMPA and GABAA miniature synaptic currents. NMDA mEPSCs were observed to be increased in amplitude and significantly prolonged in decay time. NMDA-evokved currents also exhibited markedly prolonged deactivation kinetics. This effect on evoked NMDA currents was reproduced in WT neurons by PrP-RNAi transfection, and eliminated by PrPC transfection into PrP-null neurons. Conclusions: These data suggest enhanced NMDA activity in PrP-null neurons. Consistent with this finding, in vitro and in vivo excitotoxicity assays demonstrated increased neuronal cell death in PrP-null cultures and animals upon transient exposure to NMDA. The prolonged deactivation kinetics were most consistent with functional activity/augmentation of NR2D NMDA receptor subunits, and PrP coimmunoprecipiated with NR2D NMDA receptor subunits. This enhanced NMDA receptor function was paralleleld by increased excitotoxicy in Prp-null mice. Our findings demonstrate a novel functional role for PrP as a modulator of synaptic NMDA currents and attributes a neuroprotective function to PrP.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".