Alla Salmina

Abstract: Brain plasticity is a phenomenon of brain adaptation to the permanently changing environment. Physiological – developmental or adaptive - neuroplasticity is based on numerous mechanisms like synaptic turnover, synaptic transmission, neurogenesis, metabolic plasticity, cerebral angiogenesis, etc. Aberrant brain plasticity is linked to the development of central nervous system disorders and brain aging. The major manifestations of plasticity alterations are various neurological deficits, including learning and memory impairments.
Mitochondrial activity and dynamics underly plasticity of brain cells either in physiological or pathological conditions. Particularly, changes in the number and quality of mitochondria affect the ability of neurons, glia and cerebral endothelial cells to respond properly to stimuli inducing plastic events. Energy requirements of cells within the neurovascular unit are quite different and depend on the prevalence of glycolytic activity or mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. In general, neuroplasticity is associated with the metabolic reprogramming of brain cells, e.g. switch from mitochondrial energy production to excessive glycolysis in activated microglia, or lactate-supported enhancement of oxidative phosphorylation in neurons within the active neuronal circuits. In adult brain neurogenic niches, changes in the energy production correspond to the intensity of neurogenesis: quiescence of neural stem cells requires extensive glycolysis and fatty acids oxidation whereas recruitment, proliferation and differentiation of neural stem cells depend on the contribution of mitochondria to the energy production.
Sleep is known as a powerful regulator of brain plasticity. In general, sleep supports mitochondrial quality control, repair of dsDNA breaks caused by the neuronal activity in the day time, as well as enhanced neurogenesis and memory consolidation. Recent data suggest that all these events might be controlled by mitochondrial activity and dynamics in sleep-regulating neurons and result in the restoration of mitochondria mass and quality in brain cells for the next day activity. Thus, sleep deprivation associates with significant changes in mitochondrial respiration, electron leakage in the electron transport chain, mitochondrial dysfunction, and release of mitochondrial DAMPs into the extracellular space. As a result, brain plasticity is affected due to progression of cellular senescence, disruption of the blood-brain barrier, and development of neuroinflammation.
Deciphering the key mechanisms of aberrant metabolism and blood-brain barrier alterations in sleep deprivation conditions provide novel prospective targets for the pharmacological correction of altered brain plasticity in brain aging and neurodegeneration.

Speaker: Professor Alla B. Salmina, MD, PhD, Dr. Med. Sci., Assoc. Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Head of the Laboratory of Neurobiology and Tissue Engineering, Deputy Director of the Brain Science Institute, Russian Center of Neurology and Neurosciences, Professor of the Bauman Moscow State Technical University (Moscow, Russia). Graduated from the Krasnoyarsk State Medical University in 1992, completed Research Training on Molecular Neurobiology and Biophysics at Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine (Japan, 1993-1994), and Research Training on Biochemistry and Cell Biology at Torino University (Italy, 2000-2001). Area of expertise: Neurobiology, Neurochemistry, Biophysics, Pathophysiology, Molecular & Translational Medicine. Research interests are focused on brain plasticity, molecular mechanisms of neurodegeneration and neurodevelopmental disorders, regulation of neurogenesis and cerebral angiogenesis, blood-brain barrier and neurogenic niche in vitro modeling. Founder and leader of the Leading Scientific School of the Russian Federation in the area of Medicine supported within the President’s Program, Awarder of the Award and Gold Medal on Physiology for Young Scientists given by the Russian Academy of Sciences (1999), the Russian Federation State Government Award for Achievements in Science and Technology for young scientists (2011), the Scopus Award Russia (2016). Author of more than 600 papers published in Russian and international journals, incl. Nature, Nature Communications, Translational Neurodegeneration, Journal of Tissue Engineering, Communications Biology, Molecular Neurobiology, Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, etc.