Source: http://www.ceams-carsm.ca/en/researchers/mongrain
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 08:23:50+00:00

Document:
The molecular regulation of sleep and biological rhythms. Links between sleep homeostasis and synaptic plasticity. Involvement of synaptic adhesion proteins in regulating sleep. Pathophysiology of sleep disorders and associations between sleep disorders and psychiatric diseases.
Electrophysiology (EEG and EMG), EEG spectral analysis, telemetry, molecular biology (e.g., quantification of messenger RNA and protein expression, and of protein-protein and protein-DNA interactions by immunoprecipitation).
Areal CC, Warby SC, Mongrain V. Sleep loss and structural plasticity. Curr Opin Neurobiol 2017, 44, 1-7.
O'Callaghan EK, Ballester Roig MN, Mongrain V. Cell adhesion molecules and sleep. Neurosci Res 2016, in press.
Freyburger M, Pierre A, Paquette G, Bélanger-Nelson E, Bedont J, Gaudreault PO, Drolet G, Laforest S, Blackshaw S, Cermakian N, Doucet G, Mongrain V. EphA4 is involved in sleep regulation but not in the electrophysiological response to sleep deprivation. Sleep 2016, 39(3), 613-624.
Massart R, Freyburger M, Suderman M, Paquet J, El Helou J, Bélanger-Nelson E, Rachalski A, Koumar OC, Carrier J, Szyf M, Mongrain V. The genome-wide landscape of DNA methylation and hydroxymethylation in response to sleep deprivation impacts on synaptic plasticity genes. Transl Psychiatry 2014, 4, e347.
El Helou J, Bélanger-Nelson E, Freyburger M, Dorsaz S, Curie T, La Spada F, Gaudreault PO, Beaumont É, Pouliot P, Lesage F Frank MG, Franken P, Mongrain V. Neuroligin-1 links neuronal activity to sleep-wake regulation. PNAS USA 2013, 110(24), 9974-9979.
In modern societies, there is a drastic rise of chronic sleep loss, as exemplified by reduced sleep duration in children and adolescents, and increasing prevalence of insomnia and night work. However, the mechanisms underlying its adverse effects on mental health, vigilance, learning, and mood are poorly understood.
Recent work supports the involvement of synapses, the functional unit of communication between neuronal cells, in this process. Adhesion proteins are elements that bind to other adhesion molecules and are involved in holding the two sides of the synapse together. Importantly, these proteins controls the type of excitatory synapses that predominates in the brain, which type is also linked to both deleterious effects of sleep loss and sleep intensity regulation.
Our program, currently financed by CIHR and NSERC, investigates the contribution of synaptic adhesion molecules to sleep regulation. Firstly, markers of sleep intensity (i.e., brain electrical activity and gene expression) are evaluate in mice where specific adhesion molecules are absent or decreased. Secondly, the effect of the duration of time awake on specific adhesion molecules is examined by measuring gene and protein expression in the mouse brain after sleep deprivation (i.e., preventing sleep for different durations). Lastly, because we observed that the expression of specific adhesion molecules could be modulated by precise factors driving transcription (i.e., the reading of a gene expressed as a transcript), we identify the functional DNA sequences within their gene by in vivo (in mice) and in vitro (assays with cells in culture) methodologies.
The results of our program will advance our understanding of neuronal functions, and assist in the prevention and in the development of interventions for people suffering from sleep debt accumulation, including age-related disturbances and insomnia.
Bélanger-Nelson E, Freyburger M, Pouliot P, Beaumont E, Lesage F, Mongrain V. Brain hemodynamic response to somatosensory stimulation in Neuroligin-1 knockout mice. Neuroscience 2015, 289, 242-250.
Sabir M, Gaudreault PO, Freyburger M, Massart R, Blanchet-Cohen A, Jaber M, Gosselin N, Mongrain V. Impact of traumatic brain injury on sleep structure, electrocorticographic activity and transcriptome in mice. Brain Behav Immun 2015, 47, 118-130.
Rachalski A, Authier S, Bassett L, Pouliot M, Tremblay G, Mongrain V. Sleep electroencephalographic characteristics of the Cynomolgus monkey measured by telemetry. J Sleep Res 2014, 23(6), 619-627.
Rachalski A, Freyburger M, Mongrain V. Contribution of transcriptional and translational mechanisms to the recovery aspect of sleep regulation. Ann Med 2014, 46(2), 62-72.
Westfall S, Aguilar-Valles A, Mongrain V, Luheshi GN, Cermakian N. Time-dependant effects of localized inflammation on peripheral clock gene expression in rats. PLoS ONE 2013, 8(3), e59808.
Curie T, Mongrain V, Dorsaz S, Mang G, Emmenegger Y, Franken P. Homeostatic and circadian contributions to EEG and molecular state variables of sleep regulation. Sleep 2013, 36(3), 311-323.
Hasan S, Dauvilliers Y, Mongrain V, Franken P, Tafti M. Age-related changes in sleep in inbred mice are genotype dependent. Neurobiol Aging 2012, 33(1), 195.e13-26.
Mongrain V, La Spada F, Curie T, Franken P. Sleep loss reduces the DNA-binding activity of BMAL1, CLOCK and NPAS2 to specific clock genes in the mouse cerebral cortex. PLoS ONE 2011, 6(10), e26622.

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