Vanja Duric, Ph.D.

Additional Roles
Professor, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine Program
Professor, Master of Science in Biomedical Sciences Program
Professor, Ph.D. in Biomedical Sciences Program

Areas of Expertise

Chronic Pain, Chronic Stress and Behavior, Molecular Biology, Mood Disorders, Neurologic Diseases, Neuropharmacology, Neurophysiology, Neuroscience

About

Dr. Duric received a Ph.D. in Pharmacology from the University of Kansas Medical Center in Kansas City under the mentorship of Dr. Kenneth McCarson in the field of Pain Neurobiology (2000-05). His predoctoral work focused on characterization of brain events that link chronic pain state and development of comorbid mood disorders such as the major depression. In 2006, Dr. Duric completed a one year postdoctoral fellowship in Neurophysiology with Dr. Randy Nudo at the KUMC studying brain stroke in squirrel monkeys. From 2007 through 2012, Dr. Duric completed a second postdoctoral fellowship in Molecular Psychiatry with Dr. Ronald Duman at the Yale University School of Medicine focusing on neurobiology of stress and mood disorders, including genetic analysis of human depressed brains. In 2012, Dr. Duric joined the faculty in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology at Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences, where he currently utilizes a variety of biochemical, pharmacological and preclinical behavioral approaches to study neural mechanisms that underlie the development and treatment of depression as well as its comorbidity with other neurological and physical illnesses.

Education:
Postdoctoral training: Molecular Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, 2007-12
Postdoctoral training: Neurophysiology, University of Kansas Medical Center, 2006
Ph.D., Pharmacology, University of Kansas Medical Center, 2005
B.A., Biochemistry and Chemistry, Gustavus Adolphus College, 2000

Research

Chronic stress can significantly diminish the ability of the central nervous system (CNS) to regulate both neurological and systemic stress responses required to maintain normal body homeostasis. Clinical depression, anxiety and other psychiatric symptoms are commonly present in patients with different chronic systemic diseases such as chronic pain or kidney disease. We are interested in studying neural mechanisms underlying stress-induced interruption of brain’s ability to communicate with and regulate the function of peripheral organ systems, especially the brain-kidney crosstalk. Through utilization of a variety of biochemical and pharmacological approaches in combination with stress animal models, the overall goal of this interdisciplinary research is to aid the development of more effective treatment, diagnostic and prevention strategies for management of not only depression, but also mental health comorbidities associated with different systemic illnesses such as chronic pain and kidney disease.

Publications and Presentations

Langreck C, Wauson E, Nerland D, Lamb B, Folkerts T, Winter L, Lu E, Tague S, McCarson KE, Ploski JE, Banasr M, Babich V, Di Sole F, Duric V. Hippocampal MKP-1 Regulates Behavioral and Systemic Effects of Chronic Stress (2021). Biochemical Pharmacology 190:114617.
Points L, Pope B, Zobel-Mask A, Winter L, Wauson E, Duric V, Yuan L. Corticosterone as a potential confounding factor in delineating mechanisms underlying ketamine’s rapid antidepressant actions (2020). Frontiers in Pharmacology 11:590221.
Jeanneteau F, Barrere C, Vos M, De Vries CJM, Rouillard C, Levesque D, Dromard Y, Duric V, Franklin TC, Duman RS, Lewis DA, Ginsberg SD, Arango-Lievano M. Stress-driven adaptation of pyramidal neurons via the nuclear receptor NR4A1 pathway leads to mitochondrial uncoupling and dendritic spine loss (2018). Journal of Neuroscience 7;38(6):1335-1350.
Banasr M, Lepack A, Fee C, Duric V, Maldonado-Aviles JG, DiLeone R, Sibille E, Duman RS, Sanacora GS. Characterization of GABAergic marker expression in the chronic unpredictable stress model of depression (2017). Chronic Stress [Epub Aug 2017].
Duric V, Banasr M, Franklin T, Lepack A, Adham N, Kiss B, Gyertyan I, Duman RS. Cariprazine exhibits anxiolytic and dopamine D3 receptor-dependent antidepressant effects in the chronic stress model (2017). International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology 20(10):788-796.
Yuan LL, Wauson E, Duric V. Kinase-mediated signaling cascades in mood disorders and antidepressant treatment (2016). Journal of Neurogenetics 30(3-4): 178-184.
Duric V, Clayton S, Leong ML, Yuan LL. Comorbidity factors and brain mechanisms linking chronic stress and systemic illness (2016). Neural Plasticity 2016:5460732 [Epub Feb 2016].
Iwata M, Ota KT, Li XY, Sakaue F, Li N, Dutheil S, Banasr M, Duric V, Yamanashi T, Kaneko K, Rasmussen K, Glasebrook A, Koester A, Song D, Jones KA, Zorn S, Smagin G, Duman RS. Psychological Stress Activates the Inflammasome via Release of Adenosine Triphosphate and Stimulation of the Purinergic Type 2X7 Receptor (2016). Biological Psychiatry 80(1): 12-22.
Licznerski P, Duric V, Banasr M, Alavian KN, Ota KT, Kang HJ, Jonas EA, Ursano R, Traumatic Stress Brain Study Group, Krystal JH, Duman RS. Decreased SGK1 expression and function contributes to behavioral deficits induced by traumatic stress (2015). PLOS Biology 13(10): e1002282.
Ota KT, Liu R-J, Voleti B, Maldonado-Aviles JG, Duric V, Iwata M, Dutheil S, Duman C, Boikess S, Lewis DA, Stockmeier CA, DiLeone RJ, Rex C, Aghajanian GK, Duman RS. REDD1 is essential for stress-induced synaptic loss and depressive behavior (2014). Nature Medicine 20(5): 531-5.
Duric V and Duman RS. Depression and treatment response: dynamic interplay of signaling pathways and altered neural processes (2013). Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences 70(1): 39-53.
Duric V, Banasr M, Stockmeier CA, Simen AA, Newton SS, Overholser JC, Jurjus GJ, Dieter L, Duman RS. Altered expression of synapse and glutamate related genes in post-mortem hippocampus of depressed subjects (2013). International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology 16(1): 69-82.
Elsayed M, Banasr M, Duric V, Fournier NM, Licznerski P, Duman RS. Antidepressant effects of fibroblast growth factor-2 in behavioral and cellular models of depression (2012). Biological Psychiatry 72(4): 258-65.
Duman RS, Li N, Liu RJ, Duric V, Aghajanian G. Signaling pathways underlying the rapid antidepressant actions of ketamine (2011). Neuropharmacology 62(1): 35-41.
Duric V, Banasr M, Licznerski P, Schmidt HD, Newton SS, Stockmeier CA, Simen AA, Duman RS. A negative regulator of MAP kinase causes depressive behavior (2010). Nature Medicine 16(11): 1328-32.
Okamoto H, Voleti B, Banasr M, Sarhan M, Duric V, Girgenti MJ, DiLeone R, Newton SS, Duman RS. Wnt2 expression and signaling is increased by different classes of antidepressant treatments (2010). Biological Psychiatry 68(6): 521-527.
Dancause N, Duric V, Barbay SH, Frost SB, Stylianous A, Nudo RJ. An additional motor-related field in the lateral frontal cortex of monkeys (2008). Cerebral Cortex 18(12): 2719-28.
Duric V and McCarson KE. Hippocampal mechanisms linking chronic pain and depression (2008). Journal of Neuropathic Pain & Symptom Palliation 2(4): 15-32.
Duric V, McCarson KE. Neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene expression is differentially modulated in the rat nociceptive sensory and affective systems during inflammatory pain (2007). Molecular Pain 3 (32): 1-9.
Duric V and McCarson KE. Effects of analgesic or antidepressant drugs on pain- or stress-evoked hippocampal and spinal neurokinin-1 (NK-1) receptor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) gene expression in the rat (2006). Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 319 (3): 1235-43.
Duric V and McCarson KE. Persistent pain produces stress-like alterations in hippocampal neurogenesis and gene expression (2006). Journal of Pain 7 (8): 544-55.
McCarson KE, Duric V, Reisman SA, Winter M, Enna SJ. GABA_B receptor function and subunit expression in the rat spinal cord as indicators of stress and the antinociceptive response to antidepressants (2006). Brain Research 1068 (1): 109-17.
Duric V and McCarson KE. Hippocampal neurokinin-1 receptor and brain-derived neurotrophic factor gene expression is decreased in rat models of pain and stress (2005). Neuroscience 133 (4): 999-1006.

Vanja Duric, Ph.D.

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