DREADDs News and Research

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"Designer Receptors Activated Only by Designer Drugs" (DREADDs) belong to a class of proteins called chemogenetic proteins. These engineered proteins allow scientists to control nerve cell activity in ambulatory animals.

Structure of DREADD designer receptor could pave the way for creating next generation tools

In order to more fully understand how diseases arise in the brain, scientists must unravel the intricate way neurons relay messages (either chemical or electrical) along a complex web of nerve cells.

20 Feb 2023

Study reveals key details of how DREADD technology highjacks neuronal activity

Understanding of how neuronal activity modulates brain function is a key first step towards creating more effective drugs to treat a variety of neuropsychiatric illnesses, including depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, substance abuse, epilepsy, and others.

30 Nov 2022

Researchers engineer artificial replicas of G protein-coupled receptors

How do signals from outside the cell cause a response inside it? Such outside signals could be hormones or neurotransmitters. To notice them, the cell's surface possesses receptors. One of the key classes of such receptors are so-called G protein-coupled receptors, or in short GPCRs.

15 Aug 2022

Researchers identify neurons and signaling pathways that make sexually receptive females more active

Scientists have known for a century that female animals become more active just as they are about to ovulate, a behavior that evolved to enhance their chances of mating when they are fertile.

15 Oct 2021

New technique identifies specific neural pathways involved in executive functions of the brain

The human brain is a wonderfully enigmatic organ, helping to juggle multiple tasks efficiently to help us get through a long day! This feature, called executive function, seats primates like us at the pinnacle of evolution.

2 Jul 2021

Research may lead to improved treatments for mental health

The National Institutes of Health awarded Penn State researchers a $1.85 million grant to develop a new way to test if dysfunctions in certain areas of the brain lead to mental health complications and brain disorders. If proven, the research would lead to better mental health treatments.

25 Jul 2020

Novel research determines the prevalence of chronic kidney disease

A new study looking at nearly three decades of data from some 54,000 people has determined that the overall prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) for several racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups in the United States has stabilized in recent years, except Mexican Americans.

24 Jul 2020

Developing the Next Generation of Water-soluble DREADDs

An interview with James Flanaghan, discussing the uses of DREADDs in neurobiological research and the advantages of water-soluble ligands.

From Hello Bio 19 Dec 2018

Texas A&M study identifies new brain region involved in inhibiting fear

A study conducted at Texas A&M University has identified a new area in the brain involved in inhibiting fear, a discovery that holds potential for clinical interventions in patients with psychiatric diseases such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

31 Oct 2018

Researchers develop new technique to capture neuron activity

Many cognitive processes, such as decision-making, take place within seconds or minutes. Neuroscientists have longed to capture neuron activity during such tasks, but that dream has remained elusive -- until now.

27 Jun 2017

New technology allows researchers to temporarily shut down brain area to better understand function

Capitalizing on experimental genetic techniques, researchers at the California National Primate Research Center, or CNPRC, at the University of California, Davis, have demonstrated that temporarily turning off an area of the brain changes patterns of activity across much of the remaining brain.

22 Jul 2016

Short-term use of opioids implicated in protracted pain, new study finds

Painkillers such as morphine, oxycodone and methadone could actually prolong and increase pain even after only a few days’ use, according to research conducted on rats by scientists at the University of Colorado Boulder in the US.

31 May 2016

Brief opioid exposure can cause increase in chronic pain

The dark side of painkillers - their dramatic increase in use and ability to trigger abuse, addiction and thousands of fatal overdoses annually in the United States is in the news virtually every day.

31 May 2016

Scientists identify underlying cause of immune suppression in people with high level spinal cord injuries

Scientists report in Nature Neuroscience they have identified an underlying cause of dangerous immune suppression in people with high level spinal cord injuries and they propose a possible treatment.

19 Apr 2016

Boosting intrinsic growth programs can enhance axon regeneration of injured neurons

Damage to axons in the central nervous system (CNS) typically results in permanent functional deficits. Boosting intrinsic growth programs can dramatically augment the axon regeneration of injured neurons. If injured neurons can regenerate sufficient number of axons, the CNS may recover and overcome such functional deficits.

11 Feb 2016

Dartmouth researchers reveal involvement of designer brain receptors in cravings

Dartmouth researchers studying rats have discovered that activation of designer neural receptors can suppress cravings in a brain region involved in triggering those cravings.

12 Nov 2015

Three studies point to mGluR2 as new molecular target for addiction treatment

The latest issue of Biological Psychiatry presents the results of three studies implicating metabotropic glutamate receptor 2 (mGluR2) as a new molecular target for the treatment of addiction.

15 Sep 2015

Mice genetically deficient in serotonin are more vulnerable to social stressors

Mice genetically deficient in serotonin -- a crucial brain chemical implicated in clinical depression -- are more vulnerable than their normal littermates to social stressors, according to a Duke study appearing this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

10 Feb 2015

New study provides important understanding of what drives appetite

While the function of eating is to nourish the body, this is not what actually compels us to seek out food. Instead, it is hunger, with its stomach-growling sensations and gnawing pangs that propels us to the refrigerator - or the deli or the vending machine. Although hunger is essential for survival, abnormal hunger can lead to obesity and eating disorders, widespread problems now reaching near-epidemic proportions around the world.

9 Feb 2014

Researchers translate new technology to better study behaviors and cellular function to fruit flies

A team of researchers led by Charles D. Nichols, PhD, Associate Professor of Pharmacology at LSU Health Sciences Center New Orleans, has successfully translated a new technology to better study behaviors and cellular function to fruit flies.

6 Sep 2013