Research Interests
My research interests focus on adaptive neural processes in brain as reflected in molecular and behavioral indices following chronic exposure to alcohol, stress, and/or cytokines and other select pharmacological agents. A primary current focus is to employ a repeated ethanol exposure and withdrawal paradigm in rodent models to examine the contribution of different neurotransmitter systems to the progressive worsening of alcohol withdrawal (e.g., sensitization or “kindling’ of anxiety-like behavior) that is unique to cycled, as opposed to continuous, ethanol exposure and withdrawal. We have found that selective repeated stress exposures interact with future chronic ethanol exposure to increase anxiety-like behavior and to render animals vulnerable to future stress or ethanol. We have also found that pharmacological agents for corticotrophin releasing factor, benzodiazepine, or 5-HT2C receptors can strongly influence this sensitization process as do select cytokines. Comparable studies with adolescent rats are examining the impact of cycled stress, withdrawal, and select pharmacological treatments on this sensitization process. Collaborative efforts with Dr. Todd Thiele in the Psychology Department are focused on the interactions of peptide systems, including NPY and the melanocortin system in alcohol preference and related behaviors.
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Recent Publications
Click here for a full list of publications from PubMed
Increasingly successful highly active antiretroviral therapy delays the emergence of new HLA class I-associated escape mutations in HIV-1. Knapp DJ, Brumme ZL, Huang SY, Wynhoven B, Dong WW, Mo T, Harrigan PR, Brumme CJ. Clin Infect Dis. 2012 Jun;54(11):1652-9. Epub 2012 Mar 28.
Models of chronic alcohol exposure and dependence. Knapp DJ, Breese GR. Methods Mol Biol. 2012;829:205-30.
Aldehyde dehydrogenase activity is a biomarker of primitive normal human mammary luminal cells. Eirew P, Kannan N, Knapp DJ, Vaillant F, Emerman JT, Lindeman GJ, Visvader JE, Eaves CJ. Stem Cells. 2012 Feb;30(2):344-8. doi: 10.1002/stem.1001.
Deep V3 sequencing for HIV type 1 tropism in treatment-naive patients: a reanalysis of the MERIT trial of maraviroc. Swenson LC, Mo T, Dong WW, Zhong X, Woods CK, Thielen A, Jensen MA, Knapp DJ, Chapman D, Portsmouth S, Lewis M, James I, Heera J, Valdez H, Harrigan PR. Clin Infect Dis. 2011 Oct;53(7):732-42.
Dates of HIV infection can be estimated for seroprevalent patients by coalescent analysis of serial next-generation sequencing data. Poon AF, McGovern RA, Mo T, Knapp DJ, Brenner B, Routy JP, Wainberg MA, Harrigan PR. AIDS. 2011 Oct 23;25(16):2019-26.
Neuropeptide Y signaling modulates the expression of ethanol-induced behavioral sensitization in mice. Hayes DM, Fee JR, McCown TJ, Knapp DJ, Breese GR, Cubero I, Carvajal F, Lerma-Cabrera JM, Navarro M, Thiele TE. Addict Biol. 2012 Mar;17(2):338-50. doi: 10.1111/j.1369-1600.2011.00336.x. Epub 2011 Jul 18.
Effects of a stressor and corticotrophin releasing factor on ethanol deprivation-induced ethanol intake and anxiety-like behavior in alcohol-preferring P rats. Knapp DJ, Overstreet DH, Huang M, Wills TA, Whitman BA, Angel RA, Sinnett SE, Breese GR. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2011 Nov;218(1):179-89. Epub 2011 Jun 4.
High-throughput analysis of single hematopoietic stem cell proliferation in microfluidic cell culture arrays. Lecault V, Vaninsberghe M, Sekulovic S, Knapp DJ, Wohrer S, Bowden W, Viel F, McLaughlin T, Jarandehei A, Miller M, Falconnet D, White AK, Kent DG, Copley MR, Taghipour F, Eaves CJ, Humphries RK, Piret JM, Hansen CL. Nat Methods. 2011 May 22;8(7):581-6. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.1614.
Cytokine involvement in stress may depend on corticotrophin releasing factor to sensitize ethanol withdrawal anxiety. Knapp DJ, Whitman BA, Wills TA, Angel RA, Overstreet DH, Criswell HE, Ming Z, Breese GR. Brain Behav Immun. 2011 Jun;25 Suppl 1:S146-54. Epub 2011 Mar 4.
In vitro selection of clinically relevant bevirimat resistance mutations revealed by "deep" sequencing of serially passaged, quasispecies-containing recombinant HIV-1. Knapp DJ, Harrigan PR, Poon AF, Brumme ZL, Brockman M, Cheung PK. J Clin Microbiol. 2011 Jan;49(1):201-8. Epub 2010 Nov 17.
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Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill