Grant: Operating Grant

Anxiety disorders affect 20% of the population worldwide. The brain has its own version of the drug found in marijuana (cannabis) and uses these endogenous cannabinoids to regulate neural activity and anxiety. Several studies have shown that stress changes the endogenous cannabinoid signalling that leads to the development of anxiety. By chance, we discovered that mice that lack a small protein in certain neurons of the brain become very anxious. We found that this protein inhibits the activity of a phosphatase that is important in control of endogenous cannabinoid signalling. The present application will seek to understand how the activity of this phosphatase is regulated by stress. We will determine how this phosphatase regulates endogenous cannabinoid signalling. The goal of these studies is to develop a new therapeutic strategy to treat anxiety by restoring the disrupted endogenous cannabinoid signalling caused by stress.