Dr. Veasey’s laboratory focuses on metabolic injury to wake-active neurons and neural injury incurred by hypoxia/reoxygenation events of obstructive sleep apnea. The lab uses a diverse array of molecular and imaging techniques to answer clinically relevant questions in Sleep Medicine: How are wake neurons injured with aging and other metabolic challenges? How does sleep apnea injure neurons? The overreaching goal is towards developing therapies to prevent neural injury.
Wake-active neurons in the brain are essential for optimal wakefulness and cognitive performance.
Although there are many groups of these neurons, each playing unique roles in wake responses, the catecholaminergic wake neurons in the locus coeruleus and dorsal midbrain are particularly sensitive to diverse injuries, including aging and neurodegenerative processes. We have recently identified SIRT1 as a key regulator of wake-active neuron function and integritys, one that is lost with aging. A key focus for the lab now is to identify why this is lost and why wake neurons rely so heavily on this protectant.
The second focus for the lab is neural injury in sleep apnea. Dr. Veasey's lab identified the specific wake active neuronal populations injured by hypoxia/reoxygenation, the two catecholaminergic groups the noradrenergic locus coeruleus and dopmainergic periacqueductal grey wake neurons. By comparing phenotypes and responses in these vulnerable to resistant wake neuronal populations, her group identified NADPH oxidase as a major contributor to the oxidative injury. Dr. Veasey is now comparing and contrasting these responses with other groups of neurons known to be injured in obstructive sleep apnea. The goal is to find major mechanisms of injury in hippocampal, hypothalamic and cortical neurons and then begin translational studies to identify the optimal overall pharmacotherapeutic approach to prevent or minimize neural injury in sleep apnea.
Selected Publications
Li, Y., Veasey, S.C.: Neurobiology and neuropathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea. Neuromolecular Medicine 14(3): 168-179, Sep 2012.
Panossian, L.A., Veasey, S.C.: Daytime sleepiness in obesity: mechanisms beyond obstructive sleep apnea--a review. Sleep 35(5): 605-615, May 2012.
Chou, Y., Zhan, G., Zhu, Y., Fenik, P. Panossian, L., Li, Y., Zhang, J., Veasey, S.: C/EBP homologous binding protein (CHOP) underlies neural injury in sleep Apnea Model
Sleep in press, 2012.
Krymskaya, V.P., Snow, J., Cesarone, G., Khavin, I., Goncharov, D.A., Lim, P.N., Veasey, S.C., Ihida-Stansbury, K., Jones, P.L., Goncharova, E.A.: mTOR is required for pulmonary arterial vascular smooth muscle cell proliferation under chronic hypoxia. FASEB Journal 25(6): 1922-1933, Jun 2011.
Panossian, L., Fenik, P., Zhu, Y., Zhan, G., McBurney, M.W., Veasey, S.
: SIRT1 regulation of wakefulness and senescence-like
phenotype in wake neurons Journal of Neuroscience 31(11): 4025-4036, 2011.
Naidoo, N., Zhu, J., Zhu, Y., Fenik, P., Lian, J., Galante, R., Veasey, S.: Endoplasmic reticulum stress in wake active neurons progresses with aging. Aging Cell 10(4): 640-649, 2011.
Veasey, S.: Treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea. Indian Journal of Medical Research 131: 236-244, Feb 2010.
Dempsey, J.A., Veasey, S.C., Morgan, B.J., O'Donnell, C.P.: Pathophysiology of sleep apnea. Physiological Reviews 90(1): 47-112, Jan 2010.
Lim. D, Veasey S.C.: Neural injury in sleep apnea. Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports 10(1): 47-52, Jan 2010.
Veasey, S.C.: Peptide amidation: a push me, don't pull you for the morbidities in sleep apnea. Journal of Applied Physiology 106(1): 3-4, Jan 2009.
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Last updated: 10/04/2012
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