Linking Mitochondria to Synapses: New Insights for Stress-Related Neuropsychiatric Disorders

Figure 2

Neurotrophic priming of glucocorticoid signaling. (a) The coincidence of BDNF and glucocorticoid signaling triggers rapid and slow effects different from the sum of genes regulated by individual pathways. Pathway-1: glucocorticoids impact the expression of GR-regulated genes. Pathway-2: BDNF-induced GR phosphorylation could foster the recruitment of cofactors that change transcriptional output. Pathway-3: BDNF/TrkB-responding genes plus epigenetic priming at locus previously unexposed to the activated GR. (b) In the center are listed the most represented genomic DNA ligands bound to GR upon stimulation of cortical neurons with BDNF and dexamethasone. The interplay of BDNF and glucocorticoid signaling uses the mechanisms of epigenetic priming as well as GR phosphorylation to specify the range of targets. Image adapted from [124].

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