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Research Assistant Professor

Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies

Departments of Psychiatry and Pharmacology

Office: 3005 Thurston-Bowles Bldg CB #7178

Email: rvetreno@email.unc.edu

Biographical Sketch: Vetreno Biosketch

Research Interests

My research interests involve investigation of proinflammatory neuroimmune and epigenetic mechanisms in animal models of developmental neurobiology and neurodegeneration, including (1) alcohol pharmacology, (2) adolescent neurodevelopment, (3) cholinergic system and neurocircuitry, and (4) Alzheimer’s disease. A major focus of the laboratory is elucidation of neuroimmune and epigenetic mechanisms underlying adolescent binge alcohol-induced disruption of basal forebrain cholinergic neurocircuitry in adulthood. A second focus of the laboratory is investigation of lasting adolescent binge drinking-induced neuroimmune priming as a novel etiological factor contributing to the onset and progression of basal forebrain neuropathology in Alzheimer’s disease. Our laboratory combines ex vivo and in vivo rodent models of alcohol abuse and Alzheimer’s disease with innovative molecular techniques.

 

Publications

A full list of publications can be found here: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/ryan.vetreno.1/bibliography/public/

 

  1. Macht V, Vetreno RP, Elchert N, Fisher R, Crews FT. Indomethacin restores loss of hippocampal neurogenesis and cholinergic innervation, and reduces innate immune expression and reversal learning deficits in adult male and female rats following adolescent ethanol exposure. ACER. 2023 Feb; doi: 10.1111/acer.15019, PMID: 36799290
  2. Crews FT, Coleman Jr, LG, Macht VA, Vetreno RP. Targeting persistent changes in neuroimmune and epigenetic signaling in adolescent drinking to treat alcohol use disorder in adulthood. Pharmacol Rev. 2023 Mar; 75:380-396, PMID: 36781218.
  3. Qin L, Vetreno RP, Crews FT. NADPH oxidase and endoplasmic reticulum stress is associated with neuronal degeneration in the orbitofrontal cortex of individuals with alcohol use disorder. Addict Biol. 2023 Jan; 28(1):e13262, PMID: 36577732.
  4. Crews FT, Vetreno RP. Cholinergic REST-G9a gene repression through HMGB1-TLR4 neuroimmune signaling regulates basal forebrain cholinergic neuron phenotype. Front Mol Neurosci. 2022 August; 15:992627, eCollection, PMID: 36072299.