Oral 2 - 2.5
1,2Feng Cao, 1,2Jia Liu, 1,2Zhengping Jia
1 Dept. of Physiology, University of Toronto; 2 Neurosciences & Mental Health, Hospital for Sick Children
Epilepsy is one of the most common neurological disorders. At the cellular level, epileptic seizures are caused by abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal electrical activity in the brain. However, the exact mechanisms of epilepsy remain largely unknown. Neuroligin 2 is a postsynaptic cell adhesion protein, which is exclusively located at inhibitory synapses and serves a role in regulating the balance between brain excitation and inhibition. Importantly, the imbalance between excitation and inhibition tends to cause the disruption of neuronal activities, which may lead to epileptic seizures. By using electroencephalogram and electrophysiological recordings, we found that mice lacking Neuroligin 2 display abnormal seizure-like brain activities and an impaired inhibitory neuronal function in an epilepsy-related thalamic circuitry. Importantly, the abnormal brain activity can be rescued by the administration of a drug directed at enhancing the inhibitory synaptic transmission. These results suggest that Neuroligin 2 regulates normal brain function through modulating inhibition. Our findings provide crucial insight into the mechanisms underlying epilepsy generation and to facilitate the understanding and treatment of related brain disorders.