Persistent increase of accumbens cocaine ensemble excitability induced by IRK downregulation after withdrawal mediates the incubation of cocaine craving.

ABSTRACT: The incubation phenomenon, cue-induced drug craving progressively increasing over prolonged withdrawal, accounts for persistent relapse, leading to a dilemma in the treatment of cocaine addiction. The role of neuronal ensembles activated by initial cocaine experience in the incubation phenomenon was unclear. In this study, with cocaine self-administration (SA) models, we found that neuronal ensembles in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcSh) showed increasing activation induced by cue-induced drug-seeking after 30-day withdrawal. Inhibition or activation of NAcSh cocaine-ensembles suppressed or promoted craving for cocaine, demonstrating a critical role of NAcSh cocaine-ensembles in incubation for cocaine craving. NAcSh cocaine-ensembles showed a specific increase of membrane excitability and

SUBMITTER: He G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9812793 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature