Circuits of Affective Neuroscience (CAN) group

How does the immune-system influence our mood? Why are people with inflammatory conditions or neurodegenerative diseases much more prone to develop depression? These are some of the questions we are trying to answer in the CAN-group, in the hope to uncover better treatments and tools for early diagnosis of affective disorders and neurodegenerative disease.

Our research evolves around deciphering the neural circuits and immune-to-brain signalling mechanisms involved in regulating affective state during disease. For this we are exploring the function of several brain circuits and neural populations (such as microglia); and are specialized in striato-nigral and mesolimbic connectivity. We are particularly focused on exploring the mechanisms underlying major depressive disorder and Parkinson's Disease, using state-of-the-art neurocircuitry techniques.

Our lab is technically specialized in: in vivo neurocircuitry techniques such as Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs (DREADDS) and Optogenetics in combination with various affective, motivational and motoric behaviours; Viral tracing strategies; methods for identifying active neuronal ensembles during specific behaviors; fluorescent immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy.

We are a young and dynamic team that works hard to find new ways for improving the diagnosis and treatment of affective diseases - We believe we CAN solve the problems of affective neuroscience

Dr. Anna M. Klawonn,

Research leader

The CAN-group is a part of the Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology at University of Copenhagen, Denmark

For further information please visit the University of Copenhagen Web-page

• Klawonn AM, Fritz M, Pignatelli M, Similä F, Levinsson J, Jaarola M, Hidalgo J, Jakobsson J, Heilig M, Bonci A, Engblom D. Microglial activation elicits a negative affective state through prostaglandin-mediated modulation of striatal neurons. 2021. Immunity.

• Klawonn AM and Fritz M. Immune-to-brain signaling effects on the neural substrate for reward - Behavioral models of aversion, anhedonia and despair. Book-chapter in “The brain reward system - Neuromethods Book”. 2020. Springer Nature.

• Fritz M, Klawonn AM, Zhao Q, Sullivan EV, Zahr NM, Pfefferbaum A. Structural and biochemical imaging reveals systemic LPS-induced changes in the rat brain. 2020. Journal of Neuroimmunology.

• Klawonn AM and Malenka RC. Nucleus accumbens modulation in reward and aversion. 2019. Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology: Brains and Behavior: Orders and Disorder in the Nervous System, Volume 83.

• Fritz M, Klawonn AM, Zahr NM. Neuroimaging in alcohol use disorder: From mouse to man. 2019. Journal of Neuroscience Research.
  

• Klawonn AM, Fritz M, Nilsson A, Shionoya K, Mirrasekhian E, Karlsson U, Jaarola M, Granseth B, Blomqvist A, Michaelides M, Engblom D. Motivational valence is determined by striatal melanocortin 4 receptors. 2018. The Journal of Clinical Investigation.
  

• Fritz M*, Klawonn AM*, Jaarola M, Engblom D. Interferon-ɣ mediated signaling in the brain endothelium is critical for inflammation-induced aversion. 2018. Brain Behavior and Immunity 67: 54-58. *The authors contributed equally to the manuscrip

• Klawonn AM, Björk-Wilhelms D, Lindström SH, Singh AK, Jaarola M, Wess J, Fritz M, Engblom D. Muscarinic M4 receptors on Cholinergic and dopamine D1R-expressing neurons have opposing functionality for positive reinforcement and influence impulsivity. 2018. Frontiers in Molecular Neuroscience. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnmol.2018.00139.

• Klawonn AM, Nilsson A, Rådberg CF, Lindström SH, Ericson M, Granseth B, Engblom D, Fritz M. The sigma-2 receptor selective agonist siramesine (Lu 28-179) decreases cocaine-reinforced pavlovian learning and alters glutamatergic and dopaminergic input to the striatum. 2017. Frontiers in Pharmacology 8(714): 1-11.

• Singh AK, Zajdel J, Mirrasekhian E, Almoosawi N, Frisch I, Klawonn AM, Jaarola M, Fritz M, Engblom D. Prostaglandin-mediated inhibition of serotonin signaling controls the affective component of inflammatory pain. 2017. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, April; 127(4): 1370-1374.

• Fritz M*, Klawonn AM*, Nilsson A, Singh A, Zajdel J, Wilhelms DB, Lazarus M., Löfberg A, Jaarola M, Kugelberg UÖ, Billiar TR, Hackam DJ, Sodhi CP, Breyer MD, Jakobsson J, Schwaninger M, Schütz G, Parkitna JR, Saper CB, Blomqvist A & Engblom D. Prostaglandin-dependent modulation of dopaminergic neurotransmission elicits inflammation-induced aversion in mice. 2016. The Journal of Clinical Investigation. *These authors contributed equally to the manuscrip

• Skytt D*, Klawonn AM*, Stridh MH, Pajecka K, Patruss Y, Quintana-Cabrera R, Bolanos JP, Schousboe A, Waagepetersen HS.
  

  siRNA knock down of glutamate dehydrogenase in astrocytes affects glutamate metabolism leading to extensive accumulation of the neuroactive amino acids glutamate and aspartate. 2012. Neurochemistry International. *These authors contributed equally to the manuscrip