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Anesthetic and Sedative Actions on Nervous System Development

A special issue of International Journal of Molecular Sciences (ISSN 1422-0067). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Neurobiology".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (29 February 2024) | Viewed by 700

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA
Interests: anesthesia; brain development; neurology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Studies from animal models including rodents and nonhuman primates have demonstrated that early developmental exposure to general anesthetic and sedative agents alters the development of the nervous system, and that these changes may have lasting, harmful effects. Investigators have demonstrated deficits in learning and memory as well as in affective behaviors, and a wide array of pathologic consequences including cell death, impaired neurogenesis, disruptions in axon and dendrite formation, loss of synapses, and aberrations in glial cell development, has been documented. The clinical significance of these findings in human pediatric patients remains unclear and thus an area of concern that requires further research in order to ensure that anesthesiologists and critical care physicians can provide the highest level of safety to vulnerable patients.

In this Special Edition, we are soliciting manuscripts ranging from original research to review articles that provide novel and timely insights into how anesthetics and sedatives act on nervous system development. Investigations that range from basic science to translation or clinical topics will be considered, with particular interest in newly discovered targets, novel phenotypes, and risk factors for vulnerability.

Since IJMS is a journal of molecular science, thus pure clinical studies will not be suitable for our journal. But clinical submissions with biomolecular experiments are welcomed.

Dr. Cyrus David Mintz
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. International Journal of Molecular Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. There is an Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal. For details about the APC please see here. Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

18 pages, 2525 KiB  
Article
Early Postnatal Exposure to Midazolam Causes Lasting Histological and Neurobehavioral Deficits via Activation of the mTOR Pathway
by Jing Xu, Jieqiong Wen, Reilley Paige Mathena, Shreya Singh, Sri Harsha Boppana, Olivia Insun Yoon, Jun Choi, Qun Li, Pengbo Zhang and Cyrus David Mintz
Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2024, 25(12), 6743; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms25126743 - 19 Jun 2024
Viewed by 514
Abstract
Exposure to general anesthetics can adversely affect brain development, but there is little study of sedative agents used in intensive care that act via similar pharmacologic mechanisms. Using quantitative immunohistochemistry and neurobehavioral testing and an established protocol for murine sedation, we tested the [...] Read more.
Exposure to general anesthetics can adversely affect brain development, but there is little study of sedative agents used in intensive care that act via similar pharmacologic mechanisms. Using quantitative immunohistochemistry and neurobehavioral testing and an established protocol for murine sedation, we tested the hypothesis that lengthy, repetitive exposure to midazolam, a commonly used sedative in pediatric intensive care, interferes with neuronal development and subsequent cognitive function via actions on the mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway. We found that mice in the midazolam sedation group exhibited a chronic, significant increase in the expression of mTOR activity pathway markers in comparison to controls. Furthermore, both neurobehavioral outcomes, deficits in Y-maze and fear-conditioning performance, and neuropathologic effects of midazolam sedation exposure, including disrupted dendritic arborization and synaptogenesis, were ameliorated via treatment with rapamycin, a pharmacologic mTOR pathway inhibitor. We conclude that prolonged, repetitive exposure to midazolam sedation interferes with the development of neural circuitry via a pathologic increase in mTOR pathway signaling during brain development that has lasting consequences for both brain structure and function. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Anesthetic and Sedative Actions on Nervous System Development)
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