iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Wesley R. Evans @scred62.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Overall, we think that understanding how neuronal circuits work requires understanding how glia respond to neuromodulators like dopamine and acetylcholine. We also think that astrocytes represent an exciting new treatment possibility in PD as a way to restore motor functions without L-DOPA.

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Wesley R. Evans @scred62.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Between these two papers, we have identified that striatal astrocytes are potentially important players in Parkinson's disease pathology, with evidence that motor behavior can be improved by restoring their function. We've also identified two mediators of their function which are dysfunctional in PD

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Wesley R. Evans @scred62.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Taken together with our prior results that chemogenetic approaches to increasing astrocyte calcium in the lesion can increase bilateral paw usage, we have now identified acetylcholine and dopamine as critical drivers of astrocyte calcium in the DLS.

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Wesley R. Evans @scred62.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

Given that CINs are preserved in Parkinson's disease, we recorded ACh release alongside astrocyte activity from the lesioned and contralateral striatums of 6-OHDA model animals. We found drastically reduced ACh release during locomotion, accompanied by reduced astrocyte activity.

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Wesley R. Evans @scred62.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

We then used a closed-loop optogenetic approach to inhibit the activity of local striatal cholinergic interneurons (CIN) while recording astrocyte activity, finding that acute CIN inhibition lowered astrocyte calcium levels

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Wesley R. Evans @scred62.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

When all three are recorded simultaneously we we found that higher dopamine and acetylcholine activity selected for more astrocyte activity!

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Wesley R. Evans @scred62.bsky.social · 15/07/2026

We used in vivo photometry to record acetylcholine and dopamine release with GRAB sensors alongside astrocyte calcium dynamics, finding tonic shifts associated with locomotor behavior in the dorsolateral striatum

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Reposted by Wesley R. Evans

Leanne Holt @holtlm90.bsky.social · 18/12/2025

Thrilled to wrap up the year and my postdoc work in the Nester lab with this publication 🥳! We show that astrocytic CREB regulates astrocyte calcium and D1-MSN activity to drive behavioral response to cocaine. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41406210/

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Reposted by Wesley R. Evans

Rafiq Huda @brainsonmymind.bsky.social · 19/11/2025

At #SfN? Check out super talented graduate student Esther's poster on how acute alcohol modulates cell specific in vivo cortical activity. You can also congratulate her on recently defending her Masters thesis!!

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Reposted by Wesley R. Evans

Ashley Holloway @ashleyholloway.bsky.social · 31/10/2025

Some sparsely-labeled VTA astrocytes for #fluorescenceFriday Green=GCaMP, red=jRGECO

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Reposted by Wesley R. Evans

Amy Gleichman @amygleichman.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Thrilled to share this work from my postdoc with Tom Carmichael, available online @ Neuron! Long story short: we find even more evidence that all reactive astrocytes are not equal, and we can take advantage of those differences to improve repair after stroke. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.com

Regionally mapped astrocytic responses to cortical and white matter stroke show differential roles in astrocyte-induced vascular remodeling

Stroke is a major cause of disability. Astrocytes respond to stroke in a gradated manner, but details of that response and its consequences for tissue…

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Wesley R. Evans @scred62.bsky.social · 05/09/2025

Here's a look at a field of striatal astrocytes expressing GCaMP6f-cyto from the Huda Lab for #FluorescenceFriday !

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