Dr. Cheryl Frye - Principal Investigator (Curriculum Vitae)
Dr. Frye's research program focuses on determining how steroid hormones work in the brain to influence behavior. Her research primarily has focused on non-traditional actions of steroid hormones, in particular mechanisms of steroids that are independent of cognate intracellular steroid receptors. She is an expert on the effects and mechanisms of neurosteroids, which are steroids that are produced in, and have rapid, paracrine neurotransmitter-like actions in the brain. Because hormones are essential for mating, her research has used reproductive behavior as a bioassay to reveal non-steroid receptor mediated actions and the role and mechanisms by which neurosteroids mediate reproductive behavior and associated neuroendocrine processes.
Research in Dr. Frye's laboratory is presently focused on elucidating mechanisms that underlie neurosteroid formation. One possible mechanism is via actions of the pregnane xenobiotic receptor (PXR) in the ventral tegmental are (VTA), which promotes transcription of cytochrome P450 enzymes (rate-limiting steps in the formation of neurosteroids). The VTA is an important site for the anti-anxiety and social effects of neurosteroids. How these novel actions in the VTA, hippocampus, and/or prefrontal cortex may mediate approach, affect, and/or anxiety behavior to mitigate complex, ethologically-relevant behavior is of ongoing interest. As steroids' mechanisms become better understood using this approach, the relevance of these mechanisms for affective behavior, cognitive performance, and protection of the brain from neurodegenerative processes is investigated. How changes over the lifespan in novel actions of steroid hormones, including estrogens, progestins, and androgens contribute to sex and/or developmental differences in affect, learning, and neuronal excitability is also currently being investigated.
As such, Dr. Frye's research on "novel" mechanisms of steroids has significance for their role in the etiology and/or treatment of several neuropsychiatric (anxiety disorders, depression, schizophrenia) and neurodegenerative (epilepsy, Alzheimer's Disease) disorders as well as the capacity for steroids to influence various age-related functions. Her research has been funded by The National Science Foundation, The National Institutes of Health, The Donaghue Foundation, The Whitehall Foundation, The Epilepsy Foundation, and Eli Lilly Centre for Women's Health Research, and The Department of Defense Breast Cancer Research Program.
