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9:00 - 10:00 17th October, 2022
Central Institute of Mental Health, University of Heidelberg, Germany
9:00 - 10:00 17th October, 2022
Prof. Dr. Valery Grinevich is the Chair of the Department of Neuropeptide Research in Psychiatry at the Central Institute of Mental Health of the Heidelberg University in Mannheim, Germany, where he also works with his team to advance the knowledge of novel mechanisms of neuropeptide signaling within the mammalian brain and their effects on stress, anxiety, acute and chronic pain, fear, maternal, and socio-sexual behaviors.
He obtained an MD in 1992 and a Ph.D. in 1996, and is currently a Full University Professor at Heidelberg University and Affiliate Professor at Georgia State University. In the meantime, he increased his expertise in various scientific institutions but did not change his interest in unraveling the veiled mysteries of peptidic signaling. To achieve that, his team at Heidelberg uses recognized and innovative technical tools.
Grinevich’s known and acclaimed for the discovery of the participation of the axonal release of neuropeptides in neuropeptide brain signaling. Furthermore, his team is responsible for finding that glial cells are a behaviorally relevant target of oxytocin. While studying the pathways of neuropeptide signaling, Grinevich’s team can control peptide release using unorthodox approaches to viral, opto- and chemogenetical, electrophysiological, behavioral, and fMRI methods.
With oxytocin being their primary interest, his team intends to unravel the functional anatomy of the central Oxytocin network. Their research is also invaluable and crucial in developing novel treatments for metabolic and mental disorders - to name an example, using animal models, they are investigating the differences that can be found in Oxytocin systems of patients with ASD, Prader-Willi Syndrome, Schaaf-Yang Syndrome.
So let us repeat after the Neuropeptide research in psychiatry head of department Prof. Dr. Valery Grinevich - Live, Love, Oxytocin!
Neuropeptides represent a new class of non-canonical neurotransmitters, which dramatically challenge a plethora behavioral and homeostatic functions. Among a hundred of identified neuropeptides, oxytocin remains the best studied molecule due to a great attention of the general public, basic neuroscience researchers, psychologists and psychiatrists based on its profound pro-social and anxiolytic effects. During the last decade, a substantial progress has been achieved in understanding the complex neurobiology of the brain oxytocin system. However, the picture of oxytocin actions remains far from being complete, and the central question remains: “How does a single neuropeptide exert such pleiotropic actions?”. In this lecture, I will tackle this question, demonstrating the anatomical divergence of oxytocin neurons and their numerous central projections. In conjunction, I will describe unique composition of distinct oxytocin-sensitive neurons in different brain regions, modulating distinct forms of behaviors. At the end, I will emphasize advantages and great potencies of oxytocin – in comparison to other neuropeptides – for its use for treatment of human mental disorders.
Grinevich, V., Knobloch-Bollmann, H.S., Eliava, M., Busnelli, M., Chini, B., 2016. Assembling the Puzzle: Pathways of Oxytocin Signaling in the Brain. Biol. Psychiatry 79, 155–164.
Knobloch, H.S., Charlet, A., Hoffmann, L.C., Eliava, M., Khrulev, S., Cetin, A.H., Osten, P., Schwarz, M.K., Seeburg, P.H., Stoop, R., Grinevich, V., 2012. Evoked Axonal Oxytocin Release in the Central Amygdala Attenuates Fear Response. Neuron 73, 553–566.
Tang, Y., Benusiglio, D., Lefevre, A., Küppers, S., Lapies, O., Kerspern, D., Charlet, A., Grinevich, V., 2022. Viral vectors for opto-electrode recording and photometry-based imaging of oxytocin neurons in anesthetized and socially interacting rats. STAR Protoc. 3, 101032.
