Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine

4 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

Behavior

Rodent Brain Microinjection to Study Molecular Substrates of Motivated Behavior

Ryan S. Poland¹, Cecilia Bull¹, Wahab A. Syed¹, M. Scott Bowers^1,2

¹Virginia Institute for Psychiatric and Behavioral Genetics, Department of Psychiatry, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, ²Institute for Drug and Alcohol Studies, Departments of Psychiatry, Pharmacology, and Neuroscience, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine

Rodents are an appropriate model to investigate the molecular substrates of behavior and complex psychiatric disorders. Brain microinjection in awake rodents can be used to elucidate disease substrates. An efficient and customizable brain microinjection method as well as the execution of an operant paradigm that quantifies motivation is presented.

Cancer Research

Preparation of Human Tissues Embedded in Optimal Cutting Temperature Compound for Mass Spectrometry Analysis

April E. Boyd¹, Jeremy Allegood², Santiago Lima^1,3

¹Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, ²VCU Lipidomics/Metabolomics Shared Resource, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, ³Massey Cancer Center

Sphingolipids are bioactive metabolites with well-established roles in human disease. Characterizing alterations in tissues with mass-spectrometry can reveal roles in disease etiology or identify therapeutic targets. However, the OCT-compound used for cryopreservation in biorepositories interferes with mass-spectrometry. We outline methods to analyze sphingolipids in human tissues embedded in OCT with LC-ESI-MS/MS.

Cancer Research

In Vivo Imaging to Measure Spontaneous Lung Metastasis of Orthotopically-injected Breast Tumor Cells

Saahil Sanon¹, Paula D. Bos^1,2

¹Department of Pathology, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, ²Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine

The manuscript describes a methodology for the establishment as well as longitudinal growth monitoring of spontaneous lung metastasis from orthotopically-injected breast tumors, amenable to intervention at all stages of the metastatic cascade.

Biochemistry

Detection and Quantification of Calcitonin Gene-Related Peptide (CGRP) in Human Plasma Using a Modified Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay

Pavan S. Krishnan^1,2, Fernando T. Zamuner^1,3, Carolyn M. Jenks¹, Johnny Y. Xie⁴, Lisa Zhang⁵, Mohammed Lehar¹, Neal S. Fedarko⁶, Mariana Brait^1,3, John P. Carey¹

¹Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, ²Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, ³Department of Oncology, The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, ⁴Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of Michigan Medical School, ⁵Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, ⁶ICTR Clinical Research Core Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine

Published data pertaining to calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) concentrations in human plasma are inconsistent. These inconsistencies may be due to the lack of a standardized, validated methodology to quantify this neuropeptide. Here, we describe a validated enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) protocol to purify and quantify CGRP in human plasma.