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Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine

4 ARTICLES PUBLISHED IN JoVE

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Behavior

Rodent Brain Microinjection to Study Molecular Substrates of Motivated Behavior
Ryan S. Poland 1, Cecilia Bull 1, Wahab A. Syed 1, 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.

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Cancer Research

Preparation of Human Tissues Embedded in Optimal Cutting Temperature Compound for Mass Spectrometry Analysis
April E. Boyd 1, Jeremy Allegood 2, 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.

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Cancer Research

In Vivo Imaging to Measure Spontaneous Lung Metastasis of Orthotopically-injected Breast Tumor Cells
Saahil Sanon 1, 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.

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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. Jenks 1, Johnny Y. Xie 4, Lisa Zhang 5, Mohammed Lehar 1, Neal S. Fedarko 6, Mariana Brait 1,3, John P. Carey 1
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.

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