Gene expression changes in the medial prefrontal cortex and nucleus accumbens following abstinence from cocaine self-administration
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ABSTRACT:
ORGANISM(S): Rattus norvegicus
PROVIDER: GSE20885 | GEO | 2010/03/16
SECONDARY ACCESSION(S): PRJNA124729
REPOSITORIES: GEO
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Project description:Abstract Background Psychostimulant use disorder is a major public health issue, and despite the scope of the problem there are currently no FDA approved treatments. There would be tremendous utility in development of a treatment that could help patients both achieve and maintain abstinence. Previous work from our group has identified granulocyte-colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) as a neuroactive cytokine that alters behavioral response to cocaine, increases synaptic dopamine release, and enhances cognitive flexibility. Here, we investigate the role of G-CSF in affecting extinction and reinstatement of cocaine-seeking and perform detailed characterization of its proteomic effects in multiple limbic substructures. Methods Sprague-Dawley rats were injected with PBS or G-CSF during (1) extinction or (2) abstinence from cocaine self-administration, and drug seeking behavior was measured. Quantitative assessment of changes in the proteomic landscape in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) were performed via data-independent acquisition (DIA) mass spectrometry analysis. Results Administration of G-CSF during extinction accelerated the rate of extinction, and administration during abstinence attenuated cue-induced cocaine-seeking. Analysis of global protein expression demonstrated that G-CSF regulated proteins primarily in mPFC that are critical to glutamate signaling and synapse maintenance. Conclusion Taken together, these findings support G-CSF as a viable translational research target with the potential to reduce drug craving or seeking behaviors. Importantly, recombinant G-CSF exists as an FDA-approved medication which may facilitate rapid clinical translation. Additionally, using cutting-edge multi-region discovery proteomics analyses, these studies identify a novel mechanism underlying G-CSF effects on behavioral plasticity.
2021-01-28 | PXD019485 | Pride
Project description:Enduring patterns of epigenomic and transcriptional plasticity within the mesolimbic dopamine system contribute importantly to persistent behavioral adaptations that characterize substance use disorders (SUD). While drug addiction has long been thought of as a disorder of dopamine (DA) neurotransmission, therapeutic interventions targeting receptor mediated DA-signaling have not yet resulted in efficacious treatments. Our laboratory recently identified a non-canonical, neurotransmission-independent signaling moiety for DA in brain, termed dopaminylation, whereby DA itself acts as a donor source for the establishment of post-translational modifications (PTM) on substrate proteins (e.g., histone H3 at glutamine 5; H3Q5dop). In our previous studies, we demonstrated that H3Q5dop plays a critical role in the regulation of neuronal transcription and, when perturbed within monoaminergic neurons of the ventral tegmental area (VTA), critically contribute to pathological states, including relapse vulnerability to both psychostimulants (e.g., cocaine) and opiates (e.g., heroin). Importantly, H3Q5dop is also observed throughout the mesolimbic DA reward pathway (e.g., in nucleus accumbens/NAc and medial prefrontal cortex/mPFC, which receive DA input from VTA). As such, we investigated whether H3Q5dop may similarly be altered in its expression in response to drugs of abuse in these non-dopamine-producing regions. In rats undergoing extended abstinence from cocaine self-administration (SA), we observed both acute and prolonged accumulation of H3Q5dop in NAc, but not mPFC. Attenuation of H3Q5dop in NAc during drug abstinence reduced cocaine-seeking and affected cocaine-induced gene expression programs associated with altered dopamine signaling and neuronal function. These findings thus establish H3Q5dop in NAc, but not mPFC, as an important mediator of cocaine-induced behavioral and transcriptional plasticity during extended cocaine abstinence.
2023-06-14 | GSE221177 | GEO
Project description:Substance use disorders (SUDs) are associated with disruptions in sleep and circadian rhythms that persist during abstinence and may contribute to relapse risk. Repeated use of substances such as psychostimulants and opioids may lead to significant alterations in molecular rhythms in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), a brain region central to reward and motivation. Previous studies have identified rhythm alterations in the transcriptome of the NAc and other brain regions following the administration of psychostimulants or opioids. However, little is known about the impact of substance use on the diurnal rhythms of the proteome in the NAc. We used liquid chromatography coupled to tandem mass spectrometry-based (LC-MS/MS) quantitative proteomics, along with a data-independent acquisition (DIA) analysis pipeline, to investigate the effects of cocaine or morphine administration on diurnal rhythms of proteome in the mouse NAc. Overall, our data reveals cocaine and morphine differentially alters diurnal rhythms of the proteome in the NAc, with largely independent differentially expressed proteins dependent on time-of-day. Pathways enriched from cocaine altered protein rhythms were primarily associated with glucocorticoid signaling and metabolism, whereas morphine was associated with neuroinflammation. Collectively, these findings are the first to characterize the diurnal regulation of the NAc proteome and demonstrate a novel relationship between phase-dependent regulation of protein expression and the differential effects of cocaine and morphine on the NAc proteome.
2023-07-20 | PXD042043 | Pride
Project description:Cocaine administration alters the microRNA (miRNA) landscape in the cortico-accumbal pathway. These changes in miRNA can play a major role in the posttranscriptional regulation of gene expression during withdrawal. This study aimed to investigate the changes in microRNA expression in the cortico-accumbal pathway during acute withdrawal and protracted abstinence following escalated cocaine intake. Small RNA sequencing (sRNA-seq) was used to profile miRNA transcriptomic changes in the cortico-accumbal pathway [infralimbic- and prelimbic-prefrontal cortex (IL and PL) and nucleus accumbens (NAc)] of rats with extended access to cocaine self-administration followed by an 18-h withdrawal or a 4-week abstinence. An 18-h withdrawal led to differential expression (fold-change > 1.5 and p < 0.05) of 21 miRNAs in the IL, 18 miRNAs in the PL, and two miRNAs in the NAc. The mRNAs potentially targeted by these miRNAs were enriched in the following pathways: gap junctions, neurotrophin signaling, MAPK signaling, and cocaine addiction. Moreover, a 4-week abstinence led to differential expression (fold-change > 1.5 and p < 0.05) of 23 miRNAs in the IL, seven in the PL, and five miRNAs in the NAc. The mRNAs potentially targeted by these miRNAs were enriched in pathways including gap junctions, cocaine addiction, MAPK signaling, glutamatergic synapse, morphine addiction, and amphetamine addiction. Additionally, the expression levels of several miRNAs differentially expressed in either the IL or the NAc were significantly correlated with addiction behaviors. Our findings highlight the impact of acute and protracted abstinence from escalated cocaine intake on miRNA expression in the cortico-accumbal pathway, a key circuit in addiction, and suggest developing novel biomarkers and therapeutic approaches to prevent relapse by targeting abstinence-associated miRNAs and their regulated mRNAs.
2023-08-30 | GSE212651 | GEO
Project description:Several studies have investigated changes induced by drug exposure, but few reports have described changes that persist following relapse. In the present study, genome-wide analysis of gene expression was conducted in rats that expressed behavioral incubation of heroin-seeking and goal-directed behavior. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is important in mediating goal-directed behavior and also was the target of this analysis. Rats were trained to self-administer heroin (0.06 mg/0.2 ml infusion) during 3 hour daily sessions for 14 days. Following the self-administration period, rats were reintroduced to the self-administration chambers for a 90-minute extinction session. The extinction session occurred either 1 day or 14 days following the final self-administration session. Behavioral data demonstrated incubation (increased expression) of heroin-seeking and goal-directed behavior after the 14 day abstinent period. Whole genome analysis was performed and selected results were confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). Microarrays identified 66 genes whose expression was identified as changed by at least 1.4 fold (p<0.02) following 14 days of abstinence and the 90-minute extinction session, and seven of the genes on which RT-qPCR was performed were confirmed (BDNF, Calb1, Dusp5, Dusp6, EGR1, NPY, RGS2). Ontological analysis indicates that several of the genes with changed expression in this study are important for behavior and learning. The importance of drug-seeking behavior and memory of previous sessions of drug-taking suggest that such genes may be important for relapse. The global gene expression analysis adds to the knowledge of heroin-induced changes and further highlights similarities between heroin and other drugs of abuse. Keywords: heroin self-administration cRNA from 6 rats that self-administered heroin was compared to cRNA from 5 rats that received yoked infusions of saline.
2009-01-29 | E-GEOD-13166 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Drug overdose deaths involving cocaine have skyrocketed, an outcome attributable in part to the lack of FDA-approved medications for the treatment of cocaine use disorder (CUD), highlighting the need to identify new pharmacotherapeutic targets. Vulnerability to cocaine-associated environmental contexts and stimuli serves as a risk factor for relapse in CUD recovery, with individual differences evident in the motivational aspects of these cues. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) provides top-down control of striatal circuitry to regulate the incentive-motivational properties of cocaine-associated stimuli. Clinical and preclinical studies have identified genetic variations that impact the degree of executive restraint over drug-motivated behaviors, and we designed the present study to employ next-generation sequencing to identify specific genes associated with heightened cue-evoked cocaine-seeking in the mPFC of male, outbred rats. Rats were trained to stably self-administer cocaine, and baseline cue-reinforced cocaine-seeking was established. Rats were phenotyped as either high cue (HC) or low cue (LC) responders based upon lever pressing for previously associated cocaine cues and allowed 10 days of abstinence in their home cages prior to mPFC collection for RNA-sequencing. The expression of 309 genes in the mPFC was significantly different in HC vs. LC rats. Functional gene enrichment analyses identified ten biological processes that were overrepresented in the mPFC of HC vs. LC rats. The present study identifies distinctions in mPFC mRNA transcripts that characterizes individual differences in relapse-like behavior and provides prioritized candidates (i.e., Htr2c, Adora2a, Drd2) for future pharmacotherapeutics aimed to help maintain abstinence in CUD.
2022-12-09 | GSE196374 | GEO
Project description:Substance use disorder (SUD) is a chronic neuropsychiatric condition characterized by long-lasting alterations in the neural circuitry regulating reward and motivation. Substantial work has focused on characterizing the molecular substrates which underlie these persistent changes in neural function and behavior; however, this work has overwhelmingly focused on male subjects, despite mounting clinical and preclinical evidence that females demonstrate dissimilar progression to SUD and responsivity to drugs of abuse, such as cocaine. Here, we show that sex is a critical biological variable that defines drug-induced plasticity in the NAc. Using quantitative mass spectrometry, we assessed the protein expression patterns altered by cocaine self-administration and demonstrate unique molecular profiles between males and females. We show that 1. Cocaine self-administration induces non-overlapping protein expression patterns in males and females and 2. Cocaine specifically acts on baseline sexual dimorphisms to exert these effects. Critically, we find that cocaine administration blunts not only basal sex-differences in the accumbens proteome, but also the pre-existing sex differences in behavior for natural rewards. Together, these data suggest that chronic cocaine is capable of rewriting baseline proteomic function to maintain cocaine-specific behaviors.
2021-09-09 | PXD022832 | Pride
Project description:Several studies have investigated changes induced by drug exposure, but few reports have described changes that persist following relapse. In the present study, genome-wide analysis of gene expression was conducted in rats that expressed behavioral incubation of heroin-seeking and goal-directed behavior. The medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) is important in mediating goal-directed behavior and also was the target of this analysis. Rats were trained to self-administer heroin (0.06 mg/0.2 ml infusion) during 3 hour daily sessions for 14 days. Following the self-administration period, rats were reintroduced to the self-administration chambers for a 90-minute extinction session. The extinction session occurred either 1 day or 14 days following the final self-administration session. Behavioral data demonstrated incubation (increased expression) of heroin-seeking and goal-directed behavior after the 14 day abstinent period. Whole genome analysis was performed and selected results were confirmed by quantitative real-time PCR (RT-qPCR). Microarrays identified 66 genes whose expression was identified as changed by at least 1.4 fold (p<0.02) following 14 days of abstinence and the 90-minute extinction session, and seven of the genes on which RT-qPCR was performed were confirmed (BDNF, Calb1, Dusp5, Dusp6, EGR1, NPY, RGS2). Ontological analysis indicates that several of the genes with changed expression in this study are important for behavior and learning. The importance of drug-seeking behavior and memory of previous sessions of drug-taking suggest that such genes may be important for relapse. The global gene expression analysis adds to the knowledge of heroin-induced changes and further highlights similarities between heroin and other drugs of abuse. Keywords: heroin self-administration
2009-01-30 | GSE13166 | GEO
Project description:Many of the long-term effects of cocaine on the brain's reward circuitry have been shown to be mediated by alterations in gene expression. Several chromatin modifications, including histone acetylation and methylation, have been implicated in this regulation, but the effect of other histone modifications remains poorly understood. Poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase-1 (PARP-1), a ubiquitous and abundant nuclear protein, catalyzes the synthesis of a negatively charged polymer called poly(ADP-ribose) or PAR on histones and other substrate proteins and forms transcriptional regulatory complexes with several other chromatin proteins. Here, we identify an essential role for PARP-1 in cocaine-induced molecular, neural, and behavioral plasticity. Repeated cocaine administration, including self-administration, increased global levels of PARP-1 and its mark PAR in mouse nucleus accumbens (NAc), a key brain reward region. Using PARP-1 inhibitors and viral-mediated gene transfer, we established that PARP-1induction in NAc mediates enhanced behavioral responses to cocaine, including increased self-administration of the drug. Using chromatin immunoprecipitation sequencing, we demonstrated a global, genome-wide enrichment of PARP-1 in NAc of cocaine-exposed mice and identified several PARP-1 target genes that could contribute to the lasting effects of cocaine. Specifically, we identified sidekick-1-important for synaptic connections during development-as a critical PARP-1 target gene involved in cocaine's behavioral effects as well as in its ability to induce dendritic spines on NAc neurons. These findings establish the involvement of PARP-1 and PARylation in the long-term actions of cocaine. c57bl/6 mice were given IP injections of chronic cocaine 20mg/kg once per day for 7 days and sacrificed 30 minutes after the final dose of cocaine. Control animals were given saline for 7 days and sacrificed 30 minutes after the final dose of saline. Nucleus accumbens (NAc) tissue was collected and then PARP-1 ChIP-seq was performed. Three sequencing replicates were performed on each group.
2014-02-20 | E-GEOD-55136 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:Environmental enrichment (EE) is a robust intervention for reducing cocaine-seeking behaviors in animals when given during abstinence. However, the mechanisms that underlie these effects have not been well-established. We investigated the adult male rat transcriptome using RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) following differential housing during abstinence from cocaine self-administration for either 1 or 21 days. Rats housed for 21 days of abstinence in EE displayed a significant reduction in cocaine-seeking behavior compared to rats housed in isolation. RNA-seq of the nucleus accumbens shell revealed hundreds of differentially regulated transcripts between rats of different abstinence length and housing environment, as well as within specific contrasts such as enrichment (isolated 21 days vs. enriched 21 days) or incubation (isolated 1 day vs. isolated 21 days). Ingenuity Pathway Analysis affirmed several pathways as differentially enriched based on housing condition and abstinence length including RELN, the Eif2 signaling pathway, synaptogenesis and neurogenesis pathways. Additionally, multiple pathways reversed their directionality between enrichment and incubation contrasts, potentially indicating oppositional roles across housing and abstinence length. Together, these findings reveal novel mechanisms potentially involved in the protective effects of EE against cocaine seeking, which may inform efforts to develop new pharmacological and gene therapies for treating cocaine use disorders.
2020-07-15 | GSE144606 | GEO