Arnauld Belmer- PhD
- Senior Researcher at Queensland University of Technology
Arnauld Belmer
- PhD
- Senior Researcher at Queensland University of Technology
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71
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October 2008 - September 2012
Publications
Publications (71)
Alcohol addiction is a debilitating disorder producing maladaptive changes in the brain, leading drinkers to become more sensitive to stress and anxiety. These changes are key factors contributing to alcohol craving and maintaining a persistent vulnerability to relapse.
Serotonin (5-Hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) is a monoamine neurotransmitter widely ex...
Alcohol-use-disorders are chronic relapsing illnesses, often co-morbid with anxiety. We have previously shown using the “drinking-in-the-dark” model in mice that the stimulation of the serotonin receptor 1A (5-HT1A) reduces ethanol binge-drinking behaviour and withdrawal-induced anxiety. The 5-HT1A receptor is located either on Raphe neurons as aut...
Repeated episodes of binge-like alcohol consumption produce anxiety, depression and various deleterious effects including alterations in neurogenesis. While the involvement of the serotonin receptor 1 A (5-HT1A) in the regulation of anxiety-like behavior and neurogenesis is well documented, its contribution to alcohol withdrawal-induced anxiety and...
A subpopulation of raphe 5-HT neurons expresses the vesicular glutamate transporter VGLUT3 with the co-release of glutamate and serotonin proposed to play a pivotal role in encoding reward- and anxiety-related behaviors. Serotonin axons are identifiable by immunolabelling of either serotonin (5-HT) or the plasma membrane 5-HT transporter (SERT), wi...
The rise in obesity prevalence has been linked to overconsumption of high-sugar containing food and beverages. Recent evidence suggests that chronic sucrose consumption leads to changes in serotonergic neuroplasticity within the neural circuits involved in feeding control. Although there is a relationship between serotonin signalling in the brain a...
The brain forms robust associations between odors and emotionally salient memories, making odors especially effective at triggering fearful or traumatic memories. Using Pavlovian olfactory fear conditioning (OFC), a variant of the traditional tone-shock paradigm, this study explored the changes involved in its processing. We assessed the expression...
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating and chronic fear-based disorder. Pavlovian fear conditioning protocols have long been utilised to manipulate and study these fear-based disorders. Contextual fear conditioning (CFC) is a particular Pavlovian conditioning procedure that pairs fear with a particular context. Studies on the neura...
Sugar has become embedded in modern food and beverages. This has led to overconsumption of sugar in children, adolescents, and adults, with more than 60 countries consuming more than four times (>100 g/person/day) the WHO recommendations (25 g/person/day). Recent evidence suggests that obesity and impulsivity from poor dietary habits leads to furth...
The overconsumption of sugar-sweetened food and beverages underpins the current rise in obesity rates. Sugar overconsumption induces maladaptive neuroplasticity to decrease dietary control. Although serotonin and glutamate co-localisation has been implicated in reward processing, it is still unknown how chronic sucrose consumption changes this tran...
While the dire cardiometabolic consequences of the hypercaloric modern ‘Western’ diet are well known, there is not much information on the health impact of a high sucrose diet not inducing weight gain. Here, we tested the hypothesis that rats reared with intermittent binge access to sucrose in addition to normal chow would develop an inflammatory r...
In this chapter, we will review the current literature underlying the essential role played by the 5-HT2B receptor in the regulation of serotonin and dopamine neurotransmission, by first focusing on its involvement in the psychostimulant effects of the club-drug Ecstasy, then by further describing its contribution to the psychostimulant effects of...
Mutations in the human CSF1R gene have been associated with dominant and recessive forms of neurodegenerative disease. Here we describe the impacts of Csf1r mutation in the rat on development of the brain. Diffusion imaging indicated small reductions in major fiber tracts that may be associated in part with ventricular enlargement. RNA-seq profilin...
Alcohol use disorder is a pervasive and detrimental condition that involves changes in neuroplasticity and neurogenesis. Alcohol activates the neuroimmune system and alters the inflammatory status of the brain. Tumour necrosis factor (TNF) is a well characterised neuroimmune signal but its involvement in alcohol use disorder is unknown. In this rev...
Long-term binge alcohol consumption alters the signaling of numerous neurotransmitters in the brain including noradrenaline (NE) and serotonin (5-HT). Alterations in the signaling of these neuronal pathways result in dysfunctional emotional states like anxiety and depression which are typically seen during alcohol withdrawal. Interestingly, studies...
Odors have proven to be the most resilient trigger for memories of high emotional saliency. Fear associated olfactory memories pose a detrimental threat of potentially transforming into severe mental illness such as fear and anxiety related disorders. Many studies have deliberated on auditory, visual and general contextual fear memory processes; ho...
Contextual fear conditioning is a Pavlovian conditioning paradigm capable of rapidly creating fear memories to contexts, such as rooms or chambers. Contextual fear conditioning protocols have long been utilized to evaluate how fear memories are consolidated, maintained, expressed, recalled, and extinguished within the brain. These studies have iden...
In 2016 the World Health Organization reported 39% of the world's adult population (over 18 y) was overweight, with western countries such as Australia and the United States of America at 64.5% and 67.9% respectively. Overconsumption of high fat/sugar containing food and beverages contribute to the development of obesity. Neural plasticity that occ...
Debilitating and persistent fear memories can rapidly form in humans following exposure to traumatic events. Fear memories can also be generated and studied in animals via Pavlovian fear conditioning. The current study was designed to evaluate basolateral amygdala complex (BLC) involvement following the formation of different fear memories (two con...
Rationale The precise neural circuitry that encodes fear memory and its extinction within the brain are not yet fully understood. Fearful memories can be persistent, resistant to extinction, and associated with psychiatric disorders, especially post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here, we investigated the microtopography of neurons activated dur...
Rationale The precise neural circuitry that encodes fear memory and its extinction within the brain are not yet fully understood.
Fearful memories can be persistent, resistant to extinction, and associated with psychiatric disorders, especially post-traumatic
stress disorder (PTSD). Here, we investigated the microtopography of neurons activated dur...
Several lines of evidence implicate serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT)in regulating personality traits and mood control. Serotonergic neurons are classically thought to be tonic regular-firing, “clock-like” neurons. Neurotransmission by serotonin is tightly regulated by the serotonin transporter (SERT) and by autoreceptors (serotonin receptors e...
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter involved in many psychiatric diseases. In humans, a lack of 5-HT2B receptors is associated with serotonin-dependent phenotypes, including impulsivity and suicidality. A lack of 5-HT2B receptors in mice eliminates the effects of molecules that directly target serotonergic neurons including amphetamine derivative serot...
Repeated cycles of binge-like alcohol consumption and abstinence change the activity of several neurotransmitter systems. Some of these changes are consolidated following prolonged alcohol use and are thought to play an important role in the development of dependence. We have previously shown that systemic administration of the dual beta-adrenergic...
Serotonin is a neurotransmitter involved in many psychiatric diseases. In humans, a lack of 5-HT2B receptors is associated with serotonin-dependent phenotypes, including impulsivity and suicidality. A lack of 5-HT2B receptors in mice eliminates the effects of molecules that directly target serotonergic neurons including amphetamine derivative serot...
Alcohol and nicotine are two of the most frequently abused drugs, with their comorbidity well described. Previous data show that chronic exposure to nicotine upregulates high-affinity nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) in several brain areas. Effects of ethanol on specific brain nAChR subtypes within the mesolimbic dopaminergic (DA) pathway...
Addiction is a maladaptive pattern of behavior following repeated use of reinforcing drugs in predisposed individuals, and leading to lifelong changes. A common substrate of these changes lies in alterations of neurons releasing dopamine in the ventral and dorsal territories of the striatum. The serotonin 5-HT2B receptor has been involved in variou...
A compelling body of evidence suggests that the worldwide obesity epidemic is underpinned by excessive sugar consumption, typified by the modern western diet. Furthermore, evidence is beginning to emerge of maladaptive changes in the mesolimbic reward pathway of the brain in relation to excess sugar consumption that highlights the importance of exa...
Serotonin neurons arise from the brainstem raphe nuclei and send their projections throughout the brain to release 5-HT which acts as a modulator of several neuronal populations. Previous electron microscopy studies in rats have morphologically determined the distribution of 5-HT release sites (boutons) in certain brain regions and have shown that...
Serotonin neurons originate from the brainstem raphe nuclei and innervate the entire brain to regulate mood, emotion, sleep, appetite and aggression. Previous electron microscopy (EM) studies have revealed that 5-HT boutons directly contact several neuronal populations via asymmetrical (excitatory) or symmetrical (inhibitory) synapses. Additionally...
Long-term alcohol use causes a multitude of neurochemical changes in cortical regions that facilitate the transition to dependence. Therefore, we used a model of long-term, binge-like ethanol consumption in rats to determine the effects on morphology and synaptic physiology of medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) layer V pyramidal neurons. Following 10...
Background: Our laboratory has previously shown that the smoking-cessation agent varenicline, an agonist/partial agonist of α4β2*, α3β4*, α3β2*, α6β2* (* indicates the possibility of additional subunits) and α7 subunits of nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), reduces ethanol consumption in rats only after long-term exposure (12 weeks). As co...
Alcohol use disorders (AUDs) constitute one of the 10 leading causes of preventable deaths worldwide. To date, there are only a few Food and Drug Administration (FDA)‐ approved medications for AUDs, all of which are only moderately effective. The development of improved and effective strategies for the management of AUDs is greatly needed. This rev...
Excess sugar consumption has been shown to contribute directly to weight gain, thus contributing to the growing worldwide obesity epidemic. Interestingly, increased sugar consumption has been shown to repeatedly elevate dopamine levels in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), in the mesolimbic reward pathway of the brain similar to many drugs of abuse. We r...
Standard-chow consumption on treatment with varenicline.
(DOCX)
The modern diet has become highly sweetened, resulting in unprecedented levels of sugar consumption, particularly among adolescents. While chronic long-term sugar intake is known to contribute to the development of metabolic disorders including obesity and type II diabetes, little is known regarding the direct consequences of long-term, binge-like...
Sucrose intake and preference from 4 and 12 week sucrose consuming rats. (A,B) show escalation in total sucrose intake (ml) over 4 and 12 weeks of exposure. (C,D) show high preference for sucrose over water during periods of sucrose presentation.
Alcohol dependence is a debilitating disorder with current therapies displaying limited efficacy and/or compliance. Consequently, there is a critical need for improved pharmacotherapeutic strategies to manage alcohol use disorders (AUDs). Previous studies have shown that the development of alcohol dependence involves repeated cycles of binge-like e...
Commentary: Chronic SSRI stimulation of astrocytic 5-HT2B receptors change multiple gene expressions/editings and metabolism of glutamate, glucose and glycogen: a potential paradigm shift
Sophie M. Banas, Silvina L. Diaz, Stéphane Doly, Arnauld Belmer and Luc Maroteaux *
• INSERM UMR S-839, Institut du Fer à Moulin, Université Pierre et Marie Curi...
The basolateral amygdala (BLA) is a complex brain region associated with processing emotional states, such as fear, anxiety and stress. Some aspects of these emotional states are driven by the network activity of synaptic connections, derived from both local circuitry and projections to the BLA from other regions. Although the synaptic physiology a...
Impulsivity and hyperactivity share common ground with numerous mental disorders, including schizophrenia. Recently, a population-specific serotonin 2B (5-HT2B) receptor stop-codon (i.e. HTR2B Q20*) was reported to segregate with severely impulsive individuals, while 5-HT2B mutant (Htr2B(-/-)) mice also showed high impulsivity. Interestingly, in th...
Putative role of the N-terminal region of rhodopsin-like seven transmembrane biogenic amine receptors in agonist-induced signaling has not yet been clarified despite recent advances in seven transmembrane receptor structural biology. Given the existence of N-terminal non-synonymous polymorphisms (R6G;E42G) within the HTR2B gene in a drug-abusing po...
Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease characterized by lung endothelial dysfunction and vascular remodeling. Recently, bone marrow progenitor cells have been localized to PAH lungs, raising the question of their role in disease progression. Independently, serotonin (5-HT) and its receptors have been identified as contributo...
The therapeutic effects induced by serotonin-selective reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants are initially triggered by blocking the serotonin transporter and rely on long-term adaptations of pre- and post-synaptic receptors. We show here that long-term behavioral and neurogenic SSRI effects are abolished after either genetic or pharmacological...
Impulsivity, describing action without foresight, is an important feature of several psychiatric diseases, suicidality and violent behaviour. The complex origins of impulsivity hinder identification of the genes influencing it and the diseases with which it is associated. Here we perform exon-focused sequencing of impulsive individuals in a founder...
The now-banned anorectic molecule, dexfenfluramine, promotes serotonin release through a serotonin transporter-dependent mechanism, and it has been widely prescribed for the treatment of obesity. Previous studies have identified that 5-HT(2B) receptors have important roles in dexfenfluramine side effects, that is, pulmonary hypertension, plasma ser...
The amphetamine derivative 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA, ecstasy) reverses dopamine and serotonin transporters to produce efflux of dopamine and serotonin, respectively, in regions of the brain that have been implicated in reward. However, the role of serotonin/dopamine interactions in the behavioral effects of MDMA remains unclear. We p...
Questions
Question (1)
Does someone know how 5,7-dihydroxytryptamine is transported into 5-HT neurons? Is it through the serotonin transporter SERT? Can SSRIs block 5,7-DHT lesions? Any paper suggesting this? I found only one paper saying that SERT-blockers don't prevent 5-HT depletion induced by 5,7 DHT (Brain Res. Choi S et al 2004), but since desipramine does prevent NE depletion, I'm a bit confused. What about the neurotoxic effect?
Thank you for your help.
