Hanchate Naresh K
Genetics & Genomic Medicine Department, UCL Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health, University College London, London, UK.
J Neuroendocrinol. 2025 May;37(5):e70005. doi: 10.1111/jne.70005. Epub 2025 Feb 16.
Responses to external and internal dangers is essential for survival and homeostatic regulation. Hypothalamic corticotropin-releasing hormone neurons (CRHNs) play a pivotal role in regulating neuroendocrine responses to fear and stress. In recent years, the application of neurogenetic tools, such as fiber photometry, chemogenetics and optogenetics, have provided new insights into the dynamic neuronal responses of CRHNs during stressful events, offering new perspectives into their functional significance in mediating neurobehavioural responses to stress. Transsynaptic viral tracers have facilitated the comprehensive mapping of neuronal inputs to CRHNs. Furthermore, the development and application of innovative single-cell genomic tools combined with viral tracing have begun to pave the way for a deeper understanding of the transcriptional profiles of neural circuit components, enabling molecular-anatomical circuit mapping. Here, I will discuss how these systems neuroscience approaches and novel single-cell genomic methods are advancing the molecular and functional mapping of stress neurocircuits, their associated challenges and future directions.
对外部和内部危险做出反应对于生存和体内平衡调节至关重要。下丘脑促肾上腺皮质激素释放激素神经元（CRHNs）在调节对恐惧和压力的神经内分泌反应中起关键作用。近年来，纤维光度法、化学遗传学和光遗传学等神经遗传学工具的应用，为应激事件期间CRHNs的动态神经元反应提供了新的见解，为它们在介导对应激的神经行为反应中的功能意义提供了新的视角。跨突触病毒示踪剂有助于全面绘制到CRHNs的神经元输入图谱。此外，创新的单细胞基因组工具与病毒示踪相结合的开发和应用，已开始为更深入了解神经回路成分的转录谱铺平道路，实现分子解剖回路图谱绘制。在此，我将讨论这些系统神经科学方法和新颖的单细胞基因组方法如何推进应激神经回路的分子和功能图谱绘制、它们相关的挑战以及未来方向。
