Bioluminescence imaging for monitoring the expression of BDNF gene; Toward drug development for neural and psychiatric disorders

Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) plays an important role in expressing long-lasting changes in neural functions such as learning and memory, and is associated with neural and psychiatric disorders. We recently generated a novel transgenic mouse strain, termed BDNF-Luc mouse, to visualize change in BDNF expression in living cells and in mice using bioluminescence imaging. In this study, I successfully detected bioluminescence signal and monitored time-dependent changes in the expression of BDNF gene in vitro and in vivo. Furthermore, I constructed a novel screening system to identify compounds and drugs that induce the expression of BDNF gene in neurons. Because BDNF inducers are candidate drugs for psychiatric disorders like depression, these results obtained by this study would contribute to drug development for neural and psychiatric disorders in future.