The Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain allows health care providers, neuroscientists and educators try to answer enduring questions of how brains are shaped by their environments.
The Masonic Institute for the Developing Brain allows health care providers, neuroscientists and educators try to answer enduring questions of how brains are shaped by their environments.
In mammals, the relationship between the immune system and behavior is widely studied. In fish, however, the knowledge concerning the brain immune response and behavioral changes during brain viral infection is very limited. To further investigate this subject, we used the model of tilapia lake virus (TiLV) infection of zebrafish (Danio rerio), which was previously developed in our laboratory. We demonstrated that TiLV persists in the brain of adult zebrafish for at least 90 days, even when the virus is not detectable in other peripheral organs. The virions were found in the whole brain. During TiLV infection, zebrafish displayed a clear sickness behavior: decreased locomotor activity, reduced food intake, and primarily localizes near the bottom zone of aquaria. Moreover, during swimming individual fish exhibited also unusual spiral movement patterns. Gene expression study revealed that TiLV induces in the brain of adult fish strong anti-viral and inflammatory response and up-regulates
The University of Minnesota has received two grants totaling $26 million from the National Institutes of Health for research on the impact of substance exposure during pregnancy on child brain and behavioral development.