Conférence CRNL Giovanni Marsicano "A cannabinoid way to understanding brain complexity"

Abstract

The brain is the most complex and interconnected organ of the body. My laboratory uses the study of type-1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1) as a tool to try better understanding brain complexity. For instance, the impact of the balance between neuronal excitation and inhibition, of astrocyte activity, of sensory perception and, more recently, of mitochondrial and bioenergetic processes on brain functions and behavior were investigate through the CB1 receptors' lens. In this talk, I will summarize the most recent results of the lab in this quest.

Biosketch

Dr. Giovanni Marsicano is a tenured researcher at Inserm. He leads the group “Endocannabinoids and Neuroadaptation” at the NeuroCentre Magendie, an INSERM and University of Bordeaux Research Center devoted to neuroscience. Dr. Marsicano is a Veterinary Medicine Doctor as formation. After his diploma, he worked on research related to Embryonic Stem Cells from farm animals and to xenotransplantation models in Italy for 4 years. He then moved to the Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich for a PhD student position with Beat Lutz, where he initiated the work on the role of type-1 cannabinoid receptors (CB1) and of the endocannabinoid system (ECS) in brain physiology, which has been his main research interest since. The subject of his PhD thesis was the generation of conditional mutants for CB1 and anatomical and functional studies on the mechanisms of action of the ECS. After PhD graduation in 2001, he made two post-doctoral periods in Germany and moved to Bordeaux in 2006 (recruited as Inserm senior scientist in 2007) to lead his independent research group. He is member of the SfN, the French Society of Neuroscience, the International Cannabinoid Research Society (ICRS), and he has been recently elected at EMBO and at FRM (Fondation de la Recherche Medicale). He received, among others, the IACM Young Investigator Award (2007), the Bettencourt-Schuller Price (2008), the Grand Prix Robert Debré (2015), and the prestigious Grand Prix Lamonica for Neurobiology (2021).

Olfactory bulb astrocytes link social transmission of stress to cognitive adaptation in male mice. 

Gómez-Sotres P, Skupio U, Dalla Tor T, Julio-Kalajzic F, Cannich A, Gisquet D, Bonilla-Del Rio I, Drago F, Puente N, Grandes P, Bellocchio L, Busquets-Garcia A, Bains JS, Marsicano G. Nat Commun. 2024 Aug 18;15(1):7103. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-51416-4.

A cannabinoid link between mitochondria and memory. 

Hebert-Chatelain E, Desprez T, Serrat R, Bellocchio L, Soria-Gomez E, Busquets-Garcia A, Pagano Zottola AC, Delamarre A, Cannich A, Vincent P, Varilh M, Robin LM, Terral G, García-Fernández MD, Colavita M, Mazier W, Drago F, Puente N, Reguero L, Elezgarai I, Dupuy JW, Cota D, Lopez-Rodriguez ML, Barreda-Gómez G, Massa F, Grandes P, Bénard G, Marsicano G. Nature. 2016 Nov 24;539(7630):555-559. doi: 10.1038/nature20127. Epub 2016 Nov 9. PMID: 27828947 

Glucose metabolism links astroglial mitochondria to cannabinoid effects. 

Jimenez-Blasco D, Busquets-Garcia A, Hebert-Chatelain E, Serrat R, Vicente-Gutierrez C, Ioannidou C, Gómez-Sotres P, Lopez-Fabuel I, Resch-Beusher M, Resel E, Arnouil D, Saraswat D, Varilh M, Cannich A, Julio-Kalajzic F, Bonilla-Del Río I, Almeida A, Puente N, Achicallende S, Lopez-Rodriguez ML, Jollé C, Déglon N, Pellerin L, Josephine C, Bonvento G, Panatier A, Lutz B, Piazza PV, Guzmán M, Bellocchio L, Bouzier-Sore AK, Grandes P, Bolaños JP, Marsicano G. Nature. 2020 Jul;583(7817):603-608. doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2470-y

A lactate-dependent shift of glycolysis mediates synaptic and cognitive processes in male mice. 

Fernández-Moncada I, Lavanco G, Fundazuri UB, Bollmohr N, Mountadem S, Dalla Tor T, Hachaguer P, Julio-Kalajzic F, Gisquet D, Serrat R, Bellocchio L, Cannich A, Fortunato-Marsol B, Nasu Y, Campbell RE, Drago F, Cannizzaro C, Ferreira G, Bouzier-Sore AK, Pellerin L, Bolaños JP, Bonvento G, Barros LF, Oliet SHR, Panatier A, Marsicano G. Nat Commun. 2024 Aug 9;15(1):6842. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-51008-2.