Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT: Background
Protein kinase C epsilon (PKCε) is emerging as a potential target for the development of pharmacotherapies to treat alcohol use disorders, yet little is known regarding how a history of a highly prevalent form of drinking, binge alcohol intake, influences enzyme priming or the functional relevance of kinase activity for excessive alcohol intake.Methods
Immunoblotting was employed on tissue from subregions of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the amygdala to examine both idiopathic and binge drinking-induced changes in constitutive PKCε priming. The functional relevance of PKCε translocation for binge drinking and determination of potential upstream signaling pathways involved were investigated using neuropharmacologic approaches within the context of two distinct binge drinking procedures, drinking in the dark and scheduled high alcohol consumption.Results
Binge alcohol drinking elevated p(Ser729)-PKCε levels in both the NAc and the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA). Moreover, immunoblotting studies of selectively bred and transgenic mouse lines revealed a positive correlation between the propensity to binge drink alcohol and constitutive p(Ser729)-PKCε levels in the NAc and CeA. Finally, neuropharmacologic inhibition of PKCε translocation within both regions reduced binge alcohol consumption in a manner requiring intact group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptors, Homer2, phospholipase C, and/or phosphotidylinositide-3 kinase function.Conclusions
Taken together, these data indicate that PKCε signaling in both the NAc and CeA is a major contributor to binge alcohol drinking and to the genetic propensity to consume excessive amounts of alcohol.
SUBMITTER: Cozzoli DK
PROVIDER: S-EPMC4561036 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Mar
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Cozzoli Debra K DK Courson Justin J Rostock Charlotte C Campbell Rianne R RR Wroten Melissa G MG McGregor Hadley H Caruana Amanda L AL Miller Bailey W BW Hu Jia-Hua JH Wu Zhang Ping P Xiao Bo B Worley Paul F PF Crabbe John C JC Finn Deborah A DA Szumlinski Karen K KK
Biological psychiatry 20150305 6
<h4>Background</h4>Protein kinase C epsilon (PKCε) is emerging as a potential target for the development of pharmacotherapies to treat alcohol use disorders, yet little is known regarding how a history of a highly prevalent form of drinking, binge alcohol intake, influences enzyme priming or the functional relevance of kinase activity for excessive alcohol intake.<h4>Methods</h4>Immunoblotting was employed on tissue from subregions of the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the amygdala to examine both ...[more]