| First Author | Gallo I | Year | 2014 |
| Journal | PLoS One | Volume | 9 |
| Issue | 12 | Pages | e114626 |
| PubMed ID | 25517119 | Mgi Jnum | J:225390 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:5693212 | Doi | 10.1371/journal.pone.0114626 |
| Citation | Gallo I, et al. (2014) Formyl peptide receptor as a novel therapeutic target for anxiety-related disorders. PLoS One 9(12):e114626 |
| abstractText | Formyl peptide receptors (FPR) belong to a family of sensors of the immune system that detect microbe-associated molecules and inform various cellular and sensorial mechanisms to the presence of pathogens in the host. Here we demonstrate that Fpr2/3-deficient mice show a distinct profile of behaviour characterised by reduced anxiety in the marble burying and light-dark box paradigms, increased exploratory behaviour in an open-field, together with superior performance on a novel object recognition test. Pharmacological blockade with a formyl peptide receptor antagonist, Boc2, in wild type mice reproduced most of the behavioural changes observed in the Fpr2/3(-/-) mice, including a significant improvement in novel object discrimination and reduced anxiety in a light/dark shuttle test. These effects were associated with reduced FPR signalling in the gut as shown by the significant reduction in the levels of p-p38. Collectively, these findings suggest that homeostatic FPR signalling exerts a modulatory effect on anxiety-like behaviours. These findings thus suggest that therapies targeting FPRs may be a novel approach to ameliorate behavioural abnormalities present in neuropsychiatric disorders at the cognitive-emotional interface. |
