Silencing synapses with DREADDs

Hu Zhu; Bryan L Roth

doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2014.05.002

Silencing synapses with DREADDs

Neuron. 2014 May 21;82(4):723-5. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.05.002.

Authors

Hu Zhu¹, Bryan L Roth²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacology, 4072 Genetic Medicine Building, UNC Chapel Hill Medical School, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA.
² Department of Pharmacology, 4072 Genetic Medicine Building, UNC Chapel Hill Medical School, Chapel Hill, NC 27514, USA. Electronic address: bryan_roth@med.unc.edu.

Abstract

In this issue of Neuron, Stachniak et al. (2014) determine that the chemogenetic silencer hM4Di-DREADD suppresses presynaptic glutamate release, and by generating an axon-targeted hM4Di variant they demonstrate that it can be used to locally silence synaptic transmission in neural circuits.

Publication types

Comment

MeSH terms

Animals
Feeding Behavior / physiology*
Humans
Hypothalamus / cytology*
Mesencephalon / physiology*
Nerve Net / physiology*
Neurons / metabolism*

Grants and funding

U19 MH082441/MH/NIMH NIH HHS/United States