Facilitating mGluR4 activity reverses the long-term deleterious consequences of chronic morphine exposure in male mice.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the neurobiological underpinnings of abstinence from drugs of abuse is critical to allow better recovery and ensure relapse prevention in addicted subjects. By comparing the long-term transcriptional consequences of morphine and cocaine exposure, we identified the metabotropic glutamate receptor subtype 4 (mGluR4) as a promising pharmacological target in morphine abstinence. We evaluated the behavioral and molecular effects of facilitating mGluR4 activity in abstinent mice. Transcriptional regulation of marker genes of medium spiny neurons (MSNs) allowed best discriminating between 4-week morphine and cocaine abstinence in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Among these markers, Grm4, encoding mGluR4, displayed down-regulated expression in the caudate putamen and NAc of morphine, bu

SUBMITTER: Becker JAJ 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8136479 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature