Main description:

This volume provides current methods to analyze the properties of designer receptors exclusively activated by designer drugs (DREADDs) in vitro and to measure the biological responses of DREADD activation in different neuronal populations in vivo. Chapters focus on the utility of DREADD technology to selectively stimulate or inhibit neuronal activity in selected brain areas of transgenic mice. In addition, the successful use of DREADD expression in rats and Drosophila is described. Together, the DREADD technology represents a non-invasive, chemical-genetic tool for investigating neuronal signaling and the resulting behavioural responses in vivo. Written in the popular Neuromethods series style, chapters include the kind of detail and key advice from the specialists needed to get successful results in your own laboratory. Concise and easy-to-use, Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs aims to ensure successful results in the further study of this vital field.

Contents:

1. Defining the Functional Equivalence of Wild Type and Chemically Engineered G Protein-Coupled Receptors

Elisa Alvarez-Curto and Graeme Milligan

2. Design and Analysis of an Arrestin-biased DREADD

Ken-ichiro Nakajima, Luis E. Diaz Gimenez, Vsevolod V. Gurevich, and Jurgen Wess

3. Regulation of Gene Transcription Following Stimulation of Gaq-coupled Designer Receptors

Oliver G. Roessler and Gerald Thiel

4. Chemogenetic Deconstruction of Feeding Circuits

Michael Krashes

5. Dissecting Neuronal Circuits Involved in Olfactory Mediated Behaviors

Alexia Nunez-Parra, Krista Krahe, Wilson Chan, and Ricardo C. Araneda

6. The use of DREADDs (Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Receptors) in Transgenic Mouse Behavioral Models

Daniela Cassataro and Lucas Sjulson

7. Pharmacogenetic Dissection of Neural Mechanisms Underlying the Regulation of Sleep/Wakefulness using DREADDs

Michihiro Mieda and Takeshi Sakurai

8. DREADD'ed addiction: Using Designer Receptors to Delineate Neural Circuits Underlying Drug-Seeking Behaviors

Sunila G. Nair, Denis Smirnov, and John F. Neumaier

9. DREADDs in Drosophila melanogaster

Charles D. Nichols and Jaime Becnel