CRF2 Receptor Deficiency Eliminates the Long-Lasting Vulnerability of Motivational States Induced by Opiate Withdrawal.

ABSTRACT: Vulnerability to stressful life events is a hallmark of drug dependence that may persist long after cessation of drug intake and dramatically fuel key clinical features, such as deregulated up-shifted motivational states and craving. However, to date, no effective therapy is available for reducing vulnerability to stressful events in former drug users and drug-dependent patients, mostly because of poor knowledge of the mechanisms underlying it. In this study, we report that genetic inactivation of the stress-responsive corticotropin-releasing factor receptor-2 (CRF2-/-) completely eliminates the reemergence of increased nonrewarded nose-pokes, reflecting up-shifted motivational states, triggered by ethological environmental stressors long after cessation of morphine administration in mice.

SUBMITTER: Morisot N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4839523 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature