Abstract!!!

Anxiety is characterized by cognitive, somatic, emotional, and behavioral components, which combine to evoke fear, apprehension, or worry. Neural circuitry involving the amygdala and hippocampus is thought to underlie anxiety. Pharmacological agents to treat anxiety disorders include Benzodiazepines and Non- Benzodiazepines drugs. The first group of drugs is extremely addictive and the later requires long periods of time to function. The latest pharmacological trend to treat anxiety disorders is the use of neurologically active peptides. For anxiety, Neuropeptide-Y has risen as a potential target. NPY is a 36 amino acid peptide neurotransmitter found in the brain and Autonomic Nervous System (ANS), has been associated with the regulation of energy balance, memory and learning, and epilepsy. Using C. elegans as a model organism we hypothesize that NPY will activate a signal pathway which ultimately leads to a loss of anxiety. The main goal of the project is to test the use of NPY as a future pharmacologically available anxiolytic drug. We have deduced a signal transduction pathway which includes Phospholipase C activation and ultimately CREB-mediated gene expression. We have concluded that E.coli strain OP50 successfully grew on Nematode Growth Agar (NGA). C.elegans successfully grew with the OP50 strain in NGA. In addition, Solid-Liquid Nematode growth promoted C.elegans growth and the multiplication of fungal contaminants. A solution of 10% Sodium Hypochlorite did not remove the fungal contaminants. After the usage of 1/1000 Antifungal, large liquid cultures were maintained and whole organismal proteins were isolated and quantified via Bradford Assay. These samples were later run on an SDS PAGE for quality analysis.