Title: A central neural circuit for itch sensation

Speaker: YanGang Sun

Time: December 20 2016 (Tue) 13:00-15:00

Venue: Rm1113, Wang Kezhen Building, PKU

Uncontrollable itch-scratching cycles lead to serious skin and deep tissue damage in patients with chronic itch. The molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying itch processing have been studied extensively at the spinal cord level. However, how itch information is transmitted to the brain and what central circuits underlie the itch-induced scratching behavior remains largely unknown. We found the spinoparabrachial pathway was activated during itch processing, and that optogenetic suppression of this pathway impaired itch-induced scratching behaviors. Itch-mediating spinal neurons, which express the gastrin-releasing peptide receptor (GRPR), are mostly di-synaptically connected to parabrachial nucleus via glutamatergic spinal projection neurons. Inhibition of glutamatergic neurons in parabrachial nucleus suppressed the scratching behavior induced by multiple pruritogens. Thus, our studies reveal a central neural circuit that is critical for itch-induced scratching behaviors.

Host: Yulong Li