Investigating the effects of chronic perinatal alcohol and combined nicotine and alcohol exposure on dopaminergic and non-dopaminergic neurons in the VTA.

ABSTRACT: The ventral tegmental area (VTA) is the origin of dopaminergic neurons and the dopamine (DA) reward pathway. This pathway has been widely studied in addiction and drug reinforcement studies and is believed to be the central processing component of the reward circuit. In this study, we used a well-established rat model to expose mother dams to alcohol, nicotine-alcohol, and saline perinatally. DA and non-DA neurons collected from the VTA of the rat pups were used to study expression profiles of miRNAs and mRNAs. miRNA pathway interactions, putative miRNA-mRNA target pairs, and downstream modulated biological pathways were analyzed. In the DA neurons, 4607 genes were differentially upregulated and 4682 were differentially downregulated following nicotine-alcohol exposure. However, in the non

SUBMITTER: Kazemi T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8062589 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature