Microglia and drugs of abuse

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The Glia-Neuron Interaction Lab is examining how rodent microglia respond to methamphetamine in both a chronic and acute exposure model. Ongoing work has identified dosing of methamphetamine that cuases unique activation of microglia in the striatum that can be used to examine how activated microglia can affect the surround neurons. A second ongoing project that has been conducted in collaboration with Dr. Jonathan Karn at Case Western University has show that methamphetamine can act directly on a human microglial cell line to activate NFkappaB signaling and increase the transcriptional activity of the HIV LTR promoter. Ongoing studies will examine the signaling by which methamphetamine can influence the NFkB signaling and HIV transcription in microglia. As part of this collaboration and in collaboration with Drs. Stephen Dewhurst and Harris Gelbard at University of Rochester, we are developing a transgenic rat model of HIV pathogenesis in microglia and astrocytes.