Effects of Pharmacologic and Genetic Inhibition of Alk on Cognitive Impairments in NF1 Mutant Mice
Abstract
We studied the expression of Alk and the effects of Alk mutations on learning and memory in mice. Concordant with studies in flies, we found enhanced retention of spatial memory in Alk mutant mice. Retention of spatial memory is a hippocampal dependent function. We also demonstrated expression of Alk throughout the adult murine hippocampus. The behavioral phenotype of Alk mutant mice is the opposite of the behavioral phenotype of Nf1 mutant mice. We hypothesize that the genetic interaction between Alk and Nf1 in mice is similar to the behavioral phenotypes of Alk and Nf1 mutations in flies and that pharmacologic or genetic inhibition of Alk in Nf1 mutant mice will attenuate or even rescue learning impairments in mice. We describe the breeding data for the genetic study and the behavioral data so far for the genetic study and pharmacological study. The behavioral data are very encouraging and support our hypothesis. While slower due to the breeding effort involved, this project is going extremely well.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2015
- Accession Number
- ADA621182
Entities
People
- Jacob Raber
- Tessa Marzulla
Organizations
- Oregon Health & Science University