The relevance of the glucagon-like peptide 1 on alcohol-related and anxiety-like behaviors

• Grant number: 23/18470-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Master's degree
• Start date: May 14, 2024
• End date: November 13, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Pharmacology - Neuropsychopharmacology
• Principal Investigator: Karina Possa Abrahão
• Grantee: Thaynnam Arcebispo Emous
• Supervisor: Elisabet Jerhag
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: University of Gothenburg, Sweden
• Associated to the scholarship: 23/02004-5 - The effects of puerarin on anxiety-like behavior and its relationship to ethanol consumption, BP.MS

Abstract

Pathological anxiety includes a class of diseases that affects millions of people, being one of the most prevalent mental disorders around the world, in addition to be a symptom in several other problems such as alcohol use disorder. Several factors modulate anxiety levels, including food and its components. In Brazil my project is investigating the effects of puerarin, an isoflavone subtype implicated in several physiological changes important for several types of diseases, on anxiety levels and alcohol drinking in rodents. Interestingly, it is still not well defined whether puerarin crosses the blood-brain barrier because it is a large molecule, which opens the discussion about how puerarin could indirectly affect the brain to change anxiety levels. This effect may occur through different mechanisms by modulating, for example, the glucagon-Like peptide 1 (GLP-1) and its receptor. It is known that the system has implications on both inflammatory process and gut-brain signaling, which may explain the indirect effect on anxiety behavior, but this is still not totally understood by scientists. This work aims to study the contribution of the GLP-1 signaling alcohol-related behaviors and anxiety-like behaviors in rodents by investigating the impact of the tirzepatide (a GLP-1 receptor agonist) on alcohol drinking and anxiety tests.