Turner KL, Brockway DF, Hossain MdS, Griffith KR, Greenwalt DI, Zhang Q, gheres KW, Crowley NA, Drew PJ (2025) type-I nNOS neurons orchestrate cortical neural activity and vasomotion. bioRxiv doi: 10.1101/2025.01.21.634042
Objective: To uncover the role of a sparse but unusual population of genetically-distinct interneurons known as type-I nNOS neurons, using a novel pharmacological strategic to unilaterally ablate these neurons from the somatosensory cortex of mice.
Summary: Region-specific ablation produced changes in both neural activity and vascular dynamics, decreased power in the delta-band of the local field potential, reduced sustained vascular responses to prolonged sensory stimulation, and abolished the post-stimulus undershoot in cerebral blood volume. Coherence between the left and right somatosensory cortex gamma-band power envelope and blood volume at ultra-low frequencies was decreased, suggesting type-1 nNOS neurons integrate long-range coordination of brain signals. Authors also observed decreases in the amplitude of resting-state blood volume oscillations and decreased vasomotion following the ablation of type-I nNOS neurons.
Usage: Type-I nNOS neurons were selectively ablated with saporin conjugated to a substance P analog (SP-SAP, IT-07). Intracortical injection with 4 ng of either SAP conjugate or Blank-SAP (IT-21).
Related Products: SP-SAP (Cat. #IT-07), Blank-SAP (Cat. #IT-21)