Talk by Prof. Antonio Roque (CSN Virtual Seminar)

We hereby announce the next talk in 'CSN Virtual Seminar' series

Dopamine facilitates glutamatergic input response in astrocyte cell models

Speaker: Prof. Antonio Roque, Departamento de Fisica, FFCLRP, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil

Astrocytes are active cells that respond to neurotransmitters with intracellular calcium signals. In a tripartite synapse involving two neurons and one astrocyte, glutamate release by the presynaptic neuron can induce astrocytic calcium signals, triggering gliotransmitter release that modulates synaptic transmission. Additionally, dopamine released by distant sites also can evoke astrocytic calcium signals, but little is known about dopamine's modulatory effects on glutamatergic-evoked astrocyte activity. To address this question from a computational neuroscience point of view, we created compartmental astrocyte models with linear, branched, and bifurcated morphologies. Dopaminergic stimulation, alongside glutamatergic input, facilitated glutamatergic-evoked calcium signals in the different scenarios studied. Our findings indicate dopamine's role in facilitating glutamatergic-evoked calcium signals and suggest a potential control mechanism for calcium signal distribution in astrocyte extensions.