Astrocytic CREB regulates transcriptional, neuronal, and behavioral responses to cocaine.

ABSTRACT: Drug addiction is characterized by neuronal adaptations that support a shift from goal-directed behaviors to habitual, compulsive drug-seeking with persistent effects on cognition and decision-making. Emerging evidence increasingly indicates that astrocytes are also involved in nervous system disorders, including addiction, but the cocaine-induced astrocyte-specific transcriptome has not yet been investigated. We utilized whole cell sorting of astrocytes, RNA-sequencing, and bioinformatic approaches to characterize the astrocyte transcriptome in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key brain region involved in reward-processing, following cocaine self-administration, prolonged abstinence, and "relapse" in male mice. We found that astrocytes exhibit robust and contextually-specific transcriptiona

SUBMITTER: Holt LM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12258941 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature