Post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness that begins with a traumatic experience and the inability to cope with the experience. This leads to changes in behavior such as negative thoughts or feelings, avoidance, aggression, and being easily startled. Often individuals with PTSD have intrusive memories of the events that manifest themselves as nightmares, flashbacks, or extreme reactions to certain stimuli.

Little is known about what differentiates an individual who will develop PTSD from one who will not under similar circumstances. An area of research that is being explored is stress response and how memories are made based on the stressor.

The region of the brain associated with stress response is the hippocampus which also is influential in consolidating memories. The function of memory consolidation is heightened by glucocorticoids which are stress-induced hormones. Therefore, glucocorticoids are required for consolidation of memories with a stressor. To understand the pathway of how these memories are coupled with the stressor, researchers did a series of experiments, the results or summaries of which are below.

1. Forced swim test: rats placed in a Morris water maze desperately struggle for a time and then become immobile to preserve energy. When placed in maze at a later date, rats become immobile much more quickly. This is an adaptive response.
2. Pharmacological testing: Glucocorticoid receptors in the brain were inhibited to determine which specific receptor leads to the adaptive response. Certain areas of the brain were targeted with the inhibitor to determine which region was responsible for the consolidation of memories for the adaptive response. The glucocorticoid receptors in the dentate gyrus (region of hippocampus) did not elicit the adaptive response of quickly immobilizing when inhibited. Therefore, glucocorticoid receptors in the dentate gyrus are involved in stress response.

3. Dual Histone: an altered histone (protein that wraps up DNA) was found to be in high quantities in the dentate gyrus neurons. These histones increase the expression of the genes, c-Fos (long term changes in brain for adaptive behaviors) and Egr-1 (important for memory formation and learning). The pathway from glucocorticoid receptors to the marked histone was discovered as well.
4. Role of GABA: GABA modulates the effects of stress by reducing anxiety. Exercise increases GABA which reduces the stress response in rats.
5. SMA and the Amygdala: The supra-mammillary area (SMA) stimulates the dentate gyrus via glutamate which is an excitatory neurotransmitter and may add to stress response by inhibiting GABAergic neurons. Processes in the amygdala affect the expression of c-Fos and Egr-1, though the connection isn’t completely understood. In summary, the SMA and amygdala are important in connecting the emotion of anxiety with the environmental information that comes through the dentate gyrus.

What do these findings mean for PTSD? Currently there are no pharmaceuticals that specifically treat PTSD. The primary treatments are different types of psychotherapy with medications commonly prescribed for anxiety. Researching the biochemical pathways of the stress response and strong memory formation processes could eventually advance the treatment of PTSD specifically. However, there is still much research to be done as the mechanism these pathways are incredibly complex and interconnected making it difficult to study. The intricate details must be worked out for each pathway individually but also in the context of the system as a whole.

Type 2 diabetes has been a growing health concern in the United States for a while now and often is caused by diet and lifestyle choices. This disease is marked by insulin resistance. You may be wondering what is insulin and what does it actually do? Well, insulin is a hormone that tells cells to take in the glucose, a sugar, from the blood and use it for energy to run other cellular processes. When the receptors on the cell membrane are resistant to insulin, the blood sugar stays high and causes the other symptoms that accompany diabetes.

Recently, researchers have found that type 2 diabetes patients also have double the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. They are related! How can that be? Alzheimer’s disease is a form of dementia and has nothing to do with metabolism. Actually, the connection stems from insulin signaling. Insulin in the brain acts to protect neurons and help the growth and survival of neurons along with glucose metabolism. Insulin is also important in learning because it is a regulator for GABA and AMPA receptors which are important in synaptic signaling. In Alzheimer’s disease, insulin resistance leaves neurons vulnerable.

Understanding that insulin resistance plays a part in both diseases is significant but, insulin signaling is incredibly complex in its functions. This makes it difficult to knowing what is actually leading to the impairment. Some of the mechanisms that are involved in insulin resistance are inflammation, ganglioside activity (sugars anchored in the cell membrane by lipids), regulation of mTOR signaling (pathway instrumental in cell growth and survival), and PTP1B regulation (moderates insulin signaling).

• Inflammation in both type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease is mediated by a cytokine, small protein that functions in cellular communication, called TNF-α. This particular cytokine induces inflammation and insulin resistance because it usually acts in the immune system.
• Gangliosides disrupt the insulin receptor which acts to prevent insulin from binding increasing insulin resistance.
• mTOR at increased levels leads to insulin resistance by uncoupling IR-1 and 2 which are proteins that trigger the beginning of the insulin signaling pathway in the cell. This shuts the pathway off, preventing insulin from causing a response in the cell.
• PTP1B, a protein tyrosine phosphatase, deregulates the insulin signaling pathway by deactivating IR-1 and 2. PTP1B also down regulates leptin and BDNF signaling which are important for synaptic plasticity.

Another connection to insulin resistance and the two diseases is the buildup of amyloid. In type 2 diabetes islet amyloid polypeptides (IAPP), which function as regulators for insulin and glucagon release, aggregate in the islets of Langerhans (area of pancreas that produces hormones). In Alzheimer’s, amyloid beta subunits of amyloid precursor protein aggregate into Aβ oligomers (ABO) that form Aβ plaques.

In the brain, Aβ’s cause GM3 to build up in the cell membrane which inhibits the insulin receptor. Aβ’s also act in the mTOR pathway and in inflammation, both decreasing insulin signaling.

So, why is the link between type 2 diabetes and Alzheimer’s important? The answer is treatment. Some of the diabetes treatments have shown positive results in Alzheimer’s and suggest that the mechanisms involved in these pathways may be key for future treatment.

The Neurochemistry students are back, writing about all sorts of interesting data and social issues that come with the discussion of the brain!

Enjoy reading….

I cannot thank Concordia enough for the opportunities it has provided me during my four years of enrollment. Not everybody has the privilege of obtaining a liberal arts degree that promotes interdependence and exploration of other fields. While other courses have been a major influence in my growth and development in college, neurochemistry has given me a chance to implement all that I have learned thus far. As my capstone experience, the class was structured to give students an opportunity to become responsibly engaged in the world (BREW) while still receiving support from Concordia’s faculty and services.

The class required the planning, implementation, and analysis of a community action project focused on Autism in our society. We first had to figure out the needs of our community and what type of project could aid in the public’s knowledge, understanding, and acceptance of the disorder. In a group of nine students, we researched and collaborated what options would be most beneficial to the Fargo Moorhead area. We finally decided to hold an interactive workshop for the education majors at Concordia College since they will become the next generation educators who interact with autistic students on a daily basis. After reaching out to many experts, we focused our project content on three simple aspects that can be overlooked by teachers in their classrooms. The first main point we discussed was how to appropriately start a parent-teacher relationship without being condescending or accusing. The next was to emphasize the importance of early intervention and screening for all children because it only can benefit the development of our students and future children. Lastly, we made sure to incorporate some teaching strategies and techniques that are beneficial for all students, but extremely crucial for those with autism.

Our project went exceptionally well and we had great feedback from those who attended. However, the project did not come without a lot of hard work, intensive communication, especially between our nine-membered group, and many challenges. The entire project was aimed towards education majors at Concordia and we only had 3 or 4 show up to our event with the majority being students from other majors. Again I think this information is really beneficial to anyone but extremely necessary for those going into teaching jobs in the near future. Another challenge we faced was contacting people outside of Concordia to possibly talk at our event. It was a major learning experience to understand how hard it is to organize events and coordinate public functions. Even if you have the most valuable information in the world, if you can’t organize efficiently, advertise thoroughly, and effectively present your information, then none of it matters.

It was also beneficial for us to work with another discipline, like social work, to complete this project. It taught us how to be professional but assertive during group meetings and also expanded our field of view about the topic. The neuroscience majors were able to bring in the science behind Autism while the social work students were able to talk about family life, school system, and other aspects of the disorder to give our audience a holistic understanding of the disorder. Also as future doctors, dentists, and scientists, this was a crucial opportunity for us to practice talking to the general public about complicated issues. In our near futures, we are going to be expected to explain diagnosis, procedures, treatments, and medicine to any individual. Another valuable outcome of this project was the realization of my own personal biases and perceptions I had about Autism. Before talking to people personally affected by Autism, I had no idea how much of a financial and emotional toll it has on a family. Lastly, this class as a whole has fueled my love for lifelong learning. Without as many assignments or deadlines, it gave us the freedom to explore the topics as we pleased. Some people would take advantage of this freedom and put in minimal effort, but I feel like our class did a great job of wanting to deep deeper and learn more for our own personal benefit. It was such a fun atmosphere that not only pushed me as a student but as an active member of my community.

Out of all the science courses I have taken at Concordia College, Neurochemistry was the only one that truly encapsulated the meaning of BREW, or Becoming Responsibly Engaged in the World. In this class, we were meant to make a difference in the community in some fashion, pertaining to a neurodegenerative disease or disorder. I am fairly confident we all were able to accomplish this. In my case, my group and I were able to educate others on autism and some guides on how to effectively teach a child with autism in the classroom. In our group, we had several people, many of whom had varying degrees of experience with autism. Some had grown up with friends that had autism, worked with autistic children at their job, or even had a family member with autism. Together with our different specialties in school, we had a diverse perspective on the disorder and the information we would like to share. We were never going to be able to give a comprehensive “how-to” that works for every child, but I believe the tips from us and our guest expert, Cailin, could be a useful aid. Even though the message wasn’t as widespread as we would have liked, the few educators we were able to connect with highly valued the information.

Coming into this course, I knew very little about the brain, especially when it comes to all the neurological disorders we discussed (except for maybe concussions). I didn’t anticipate to, but I enjoyed reading the scientific papers; they just added so much to my knowledge base on these real world problems we come in contact with or discuss on a regular basis. Even more so, once we were able to dig to the root of these papers, much of it just made sense, and you could see connections to other courses (for me, namely biochemistry and genetics). They also were able to change some of the common misconceptions or stigmas I had on some diseases (especially when it came to addiction and schizophrenia).

There is also something to be said for the value we gained in constantly speaking in scientific terms, and then transferring it into more simpler terms when we get the chance to discuss what we’ve learned to others. It’s helpful not only for being able to inform others on the awesome research that’s being done today, but even help ourselves with understanding it more thoroughly.

I’m unbelievably grateful for having the opportunity to take this course; I think every person should learn the information we did in this class. Neurochemistry really did culminate into a top academic experience where the students could grow in our skills as communicators, researchers, and difference-makers. I anticipate the things I have learned here to translate into my future graduate research (or research goals at least!).

3.5 years of struggling at this point with many hours of studying, pain, tears, joy, hope, dedication, and perseverance. At points the entire college thing completely sucked, and sometime still sucks, *cough* *cough* finals. One specific example that comes to mind is receiving a truly failing grade on an exam in a required course and yet leaving the course with a B and testing within the top 10% of the nation. The years were hard and at times but I would not trade it for the world. I have made many friends, learned astronomical amounts of information that sometimes felt insignificant, paved the way for the future students, became responsibly engaged in my community, and ultimately grew as a person. I am proud to be where I am today because of Concordia, and this class did a great job of highlighting that. So I say thank you Concordia, thank you to all the faculty who have taught me not only textbook materials but life skills. Thank you to all the people that supported me, to all the friends I have made and to those who have been essential in shaping who I am today. Thank you for your liberal learning practices and allowing me to grow, not only as a student but within the world, for my critical thinking and reasoning skills, and for making me a better and more informed person. There is nothing left to say but thank you. As of now, the light at the end of the tunnel is visible and though I do not know what is on the other side, I walk to it gladly, awaiting the new adventures to be found. When I walk across that stage this May I will be forever proud to call Concordia my alma mater.

Neurochemistry was a capstone course, my capstone course. It was the course that was to be part of the final over-encompassing conclusion of my 4 years at Concordia. While I didn’t truly have a choice in my course, due to my specific major, it was a course I would have gladly chosen. I originally heard about Neurochem my junior year from some of the seniors of that year. While it was described as a lot of work, it was also described as one of the most rewarding experiences. I remember the first day of classes, seeing faces I hadn’t seen since before the disciplines split off into their respective fields, Dr. Mach simply walked in casually saying “hey, class” before proceeding to ask us about our summer vacations. There was no rush to get to the material, no rush to go through the syllabus or anything else the first day usually requires. There was simply this relaxed feeling one would get around friends in conversation as we began to get to know each other better. Don’t get me wrong, some of us were still nervous because it was a class and you never truly know what to expect but it allowed us to live in the present moment with each other. I had no idea what to expect of this class but I can say I didn’t expect to get as much out of it as I did. I walked away from this class with new friends and understanding of people that I’ve known (but haven’t truly known) since freshman year, I truly made an impact in my community, and I learned so much about the world around me in a very interdisciplinary lens.

Neurochemistry is simply a course in which we tried to understand neurological problems and how they came to be, this ranged from autism to addiction to schizophrenia to obesity and so many more topics. In my opinion this course qualifies as an ideal capstone course as it truly embodies Concordia’s five goals of liberal learning. So unless you’re a Cobber yourself, you probably don’t understand this capstone idea. Well let me explain it a little and tell you how Neurochem fit into the picture…

According to Concordia’s course catalog (before they switched to PEAK) capstone courses “invite students to apply their liberal learning to significant problems of a global nature.” Ultimately they want us to BREW, or Become Responsibly Engaged in the World.

The 5 Goals of Liberal Learning:

1. Instill a love for learning: Science is not an easy topic to just straight forward love. However, it is easier when you are surrounded by people that share your passions and interests. This course didn’t have a standard lecture based teaching style, but an open discussion based teaching style where you were the teacher as much as you were the student. You needed to care about them, the topics discussed were not just those affecting other people in the world but affecting the people surrounding you either directly or indirectly. The use of relevant topics and open formatting allowed for learning to be geared towards interests of the class members rather than what was deemed required by a department.
2. Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities: The moment when you thought you knew how to do research and read scientific articles only to find out you’ve barely scratched the surface is one where you are just flabbergasted. Every Wednesday we would be required to have researched more into a sub-topic of the discussion topic of the week and it was your job become the expert and teach the class about your sub-topic. This not only meant that you needed to be able to read and dissect scientific articles but also be able to search beyond the present information and present all of this information in a clear and intelligent way that others can understand.
3. Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives and their connections: Apart from taking my other required core courses I believe this is one of the most diverse courses I have taken. There were students from all different walks of life, all different majors, all different understandings about neuroscience or chemistry or any other relevant topic. To understand the problem you needed the pieces from each discipline or you would not have a complete picture. This course brought together students of at least 5 or 6 different majors to sit down and talk about neurological issues facing the world. We had to figure out what was going on neurologically, chemically, biologically, psychologically and so on depending on the specific case. Without such our diverse group of students we would not have had half the understandings we did.
4. Cultivate an examined cultural, ethical, physical and spiritual self-understanding: Walking into this class I thought I knew what was going on with a lot of these diseases or disorders at least on the macro-scale… Boy was I wrong about that… Not only did it challenge the way I thought about neurological issues but also the social issues and the world surrounding them. I had to accept that my understanding was only partially correct and that I needed the greater scale of things and to look at things in diverse points of view to truly understand everything, and I still don’t understand everything.
5. Encourage responsible participation in the world: Oh where have I heard this before…? Oh yeah, BREW, that wonderful acronym you hear literally everywhere around Concordia. I swear if it is not said or heard at least once a day something is wrong. Concordia pushes so much for students to Become Responsibly Engaged in the World, and yet this was the first class I truly felt that I had. We BREW through our community action projects done together with a social work class. That was a big, big shock when we found out that we were to work with people who weren’t even in the sciences.

So the community action projects… I like to think of it as the CAP of CAPSTONE. Our project involved going out into the community and working with support professionals to aid in the understanding of anxiety and PTSD. This not only allowed us to become engaged but it truly opened our eyes to the world around us, more specifically the Fargo-Moorhead area in which we have lived for the past 4 years. Going into this project I had no idea some of these support systems were in place let alone this far in the middle of nowhere (it is truly like the middle of nowhere for anyone from the Twin Cities area). I was able to learn how to take my knowledge I’ve accumulated in the past 4 years and present it in a way that benefits everyone, not just fellow scientists. The most rewarding part of this though was not only that we helped a nonprofit in understanding but we indirectly helped the members of the community (their clients) as certain ideas we presented were actually implemented into their programs and are working to help improve the lives of their clients through managing and reducing their anxiety.

I can not say anymore how great this course was or how much I grew within it. The only thing I will say, again, is thank you. Thank you Concordia and thank you Dr. Mach for giving me this experience. 

– Samantha Beckman; Class of 2019