Pharmacology and Neuroscience
Dr. Peter J. Syapin
Professor of Pharmacology
Ph.D., 1977, University of California at Irvine
Drug-induced Alterations in Neuroinflammatory Responses: Relevance to Substance Use Disorders.
The overall focus of this laboratory is to understand how the process of neuroinflammation impacts brain function as it relates to substance use disorders; e.g., chronic drug use, alcoholism, and drug addictions. Neuroinflammation is a response involving mainly the microglia and astrocytes. It occurs most readily after brain injury, but is also prominent in neurological and psychiatric diseases. As we learn more about neuroinflammation it is becoming clearer that the mediators of neuroinflammation signaling, cytokines, chemokines and trophic factors, are also involved in normal brain functions. The Syapin Lab uses several approaches to understand how drugs of abuse affect neuroinflammatory signaling by glial cells. Studies are conducted under both in vivo and in vitro conditions. Current projects include: 1) Neuroinflammation and in vivo alcohol brain damage; (2) Glial response to adolescent binge alcohol exposure; (3) Regulation of motility signaling and responding in glial cells;and (4) Expression and function of the StAR protein in brain cells. The Syapin Lab has expertise in numerous molecular experimental techniques, including transfection of rodent and human cells with promoter-luciferase reporter gene constructs to measure transcription, electrophoretic mobility shift assays to study transcription factors, transfection with siRNA to knock-down gene expression, quantitative real-time PCR to measure mRNA expression and stability, and Western blotting for gene product determinations. Cellular approaches used include glial and neuronal primary cell cultures, immunocytochemistry, and transmembrane cell migration assays. Whole animal studies use behavioral assays, analysis of blood and cerebrospinal fluid, and brain immunohistochemistry.
The Syapin Lab is also a component laboratory of the South Plains Alcohol and Addiction Research consortium (see link below).
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| Alcohol and NO |
Link to: Syapin Lab Home Page
Link to: SPAARC
Representative Recent Publications
Sanchez, A.C., Davis, R.L., and Syapin, P.J., Identification of cis-regulatory regions necessary for robust NOS2 promoter activity in glial cells: Indirect role of NF-kB. J. Neurochem. 86: 1379-1390, 2003
Davis, R.L. And Syapin, P.J., Acute ethanol exposure modulates expression of inducible nitric-oxide synthase in human astroglia: Evidence for a transcriptional mechanism. Alcohol, 32: 195-202, 2004
Davis, R.L. and Syapin, P.J., Chronic ethanol inhibits CXC chemokine ligand 10 production in human A172 astroglia and astroglial-mediated leukocyte chemotaxis. Neurosci. Lett. 362: 220-225, 2004
Davis, R.L. and Syapin, P.J., Ethanol increases nuclear factor-?B activity in human astroglial cells. Neurosci. Lett. 371: 128-132, 2004
Davis, R.L., Sanchez, A.C., Lindley, D.J., Williams, S.C. and Syapin, P.J., Effects of mechanistically distinct NF-kB inhibitors on glial inducible nitric-oxide synthase expression. Nitric Oxide,12: 200-209, 2005
Syapin, P.J., Hickey, W.F. and Kane, C.J.M., Alcohol brain damage and neuroinflammation: Is there a connection? Alcoholism: Clin. Exp. Res. 29, 1080-1089,2005
Davis, R.L. and Syapin, P.J., Interactions of alcohol and nitric-oxide synthase in the brain, Brain Res. Rev. 49: 494-504, 2005
Karri, SriTulasi, Dertien, J.S., Stocco, D.M., and Syapin, P.J., StAR protein expression and pregnenolone synthesis in rat astrocytes, J. Neuroendocrinol. 19: 860-869, 2007
Sanchez, A.C., Davis, R.L., and Syapin, P.J. The Oct DNA motif participates in the alcohol inhibition of the inducible nitric oxide synthase gene promoter in rat C6 glioma cells. Brain Res. 1179: 16-27, 2007For further information contact Dr. Peter J. Syapin