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Catherine Rivier

 

Catherine Rivier

Catherine Rivier

Professor
Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology

"Our research focuses on hormones, the chemical messengers that mediate interactions between the brain, the immune system, and the neuroendocrine systems. Specifically, we investigate how the brain perceives and responds to stressors, such as drugs and alcohol, and how that plays out all the way down to the level of neuroendocrine responses."

The health of mammals depends on their ability to maintain the internal environment of their bodies within narrow and clearly defined limits in the face of physiological or psychological threats. Challenges to the body's homeostasis–whether perceived or real–are handled by the hypothalamic-pituitaryadrenal (HPA) axis, which involves the interaction of the brain structure known as the hypothalamus, the pituitary gland (just below the hypothalamus), and the adrenal glands (at the top of the kidneys). Together these three glands control reactions to stress and regulate many body processes, including digestion, the immune system, mood and emotions, and sexuality, as well as energy storage and expenditure.

Alcohol is one of the stimuli that activate the HPA axis in rodents, but the mechanisms responsible for it are not yet fully understood. Rivier's laboratory had shown earlier that the peptide corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF), which is produced in the hypothalamus, was essential for an appropriate HPA axis response to acute alcohol. While the ultimate effect of alcohol is binding of CRF to specific receptors on pituitary cells, and the ensuing release of ACTH and adrenal steroids, recent experiments by Rivier and her team revealed a more complex picture of alcohol's action on the brain. They found that alcohol increases the activity of dopamine b-hydroxylase, the enzyme directly responsible for the synthesis of norepinephrine. The latter contributes to the HPA axis's response to alcohol, and this knowledge may help the development of specific therapies that counteract some of the deleterious effects of this drug.

Stress is thought to play a role in the ability of addicted individuals to maintain abstinence. Thus, a better understanding of the function of the HPA axis during the development of alcohol dependence, and how the activity of this axis differs between dependent and non-dependent animals, will be helpful in pursuing new therapies for the treatment of alcohol addiction.

Lab Photo

Left to right:
Marian Logrip, Thao Dang, Camryn Allen, Zackary Craddock, Catherine Rivier, Debbie Doan, Soon Lee, Calvin Lau, and Jonathan Tjong

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Catherine Rivier

Faculty

Catherine Rivier

Catherine Rivier

Professor
Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology

Catherine Rivier, a professor in The Clayton Foundation Laboratories for Peptide Biology, studies hormones that shuttle messages between the brain, immune system and the neuroendocrine systems. Specifically, she investigates how the brain perceives and responds to external stressors, such as exposure to drugs and alcohol.

For example, Rivier's team has shown that rodents exposed to alcohol during embryonic development release excessive levels of corticotropin-releasing factor, a brain hormone associated with stress, as well as elevated adrenal responses to stressors, when they reach adulthood. If similar changes take place in humans, they could trigger pathologies related to fetal alcohol syndrome, including anxiety, attention deficit disorder and increased infections. More recently, Rivier's team has identified a new pathway through which the brain controls the activity of the testes. This discovery, which may change the way we understand the control of male reproductive functions, may offer insights into some puzzling cases of low testosterone secretion connected to stressors or diseases.

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