Center for Brain Research (Division of Neurophysiology)
Position: Research Associate (Postdoc)
ORCID: 0000-0002-3216-5243
T +43 1 40160 34113
mira.kronschlaeger@meduniwien.ac.at
Keywords
Astrocytes; Long-Term Potentiation; Neuronal Plasticity; Nociception; Spinal Cord; Synaptic Transmission
Research interests
Amplification of synaptic transmission at the very first synapse in a nociceptive pathway is a cellular model for enhanced pain sensitivity at the spinal cord level. The underlying mechanisms though still need to be clarified. Although glial cells have emerged as key modulators of synaptic plasticity, so far it has not been shown whether their activation alone is sufficient to amplify synaptic strength. I focus on a way to specifically activate glial cells to study their influcence on nociceptive pathways.
Techniques, methods & infrastructure
- Spinal cord slice preparation
- In vitro whole-cell patch-clamp recordings
- Two-photon excitation microscopy/Confocal microscopy
Selected publications
- Kronschlager, M.T. et al., 2016. Gliogenic LTP spreads widely in nociceptive pathways. Science, 354(6316), pp.1144-1148. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aah5715.
- Ray, S. et al., 2018. The paracetamol metabolite NAPQI reduces excitability in first and second order neurons of the pain pathway through actions on KV7 channels. PAIN, p.1. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001474.