NPAS4 controls cell type-specific circuit adaptations underlying drug-seeking behavior
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
PROVIDER: PRJNA867708 | ENA |
REPOSITORIES: ENA
Dataset's files
| Action | DRS | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SRR20993771_1.fastq.gz | Fastqsanger.gz | |||
| SRR20993771_2.fastq.gz | Fastqsanger.gz | |||
| SRR20993772_1.fastq.gz | Fastqsanger.gz | |||
| SRR20993772_2.fastq.gz | Fastqsanger.gz | |||
| SRR20993773_1.fastq.gz | Fastqsanger.gz |
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Project description:Use of addictive substances often creates powerful and enduring associations with external cues that act as relapse triggers in individuals recovering from a substance use disorder (SUD). In the reward-associated brain region, the nucleus accumbens (NAc), drug use or drug-associated cue exposure activates a subset of D1 dopamine receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons (D1-MSNs), which typically promotes drug seeking, and a smaller subset of D2 dopamine receptor-expressing MSNs (D2-MSNs), which typically opposes drug seeking. The activity-regulated transcription factor, Neuronal PAS Domain Protein 4 (NPAS4), is activated in a small subset of NAc neurons during cocaine conditioning, and NAc NPAS4 is required for drug-context memories. Using a new Npas4-TRAP mouse combined with chemogenetics, we found that the during cocaine conditioning, the NPAS4-positive ensemble is required for drug-context associations. Single-cell transcriptomic analyses and in situ hybridization of NAc tissues from drug-conditioned mice revealed that NPAS4 is expressed predominantly in MSNs, and using cell type-specific molecular genetic approaches, we found that NPAS4 in D2-MSNs, but not D1-MSNs, was required for both drug-context associations and cue-reinstated cocaine seeking. Similarly, NPAS4 in NAc D2-MSNs, but not D1-MSNs, blocked cocaine experience-dependent strengthening of glutamatergic prefrontal cortical (PFC) inputs onto D2-MSNs. Analysis of differential gene expression in D2-MSNs revealed that NPAS4 and cocaine conditioning influence a gene expression program associated with synapses, dendrites, neuronal projections, dopamine, and cocaine. Together, our data reveal that NPAS4 functions during active cocaine use to maintain the imbalance of D1-MSN:D2-MSN activation and cue-induced drug seeking by suppressing excitatory drive onto relapse-opposing NAc D2-MSN circuits.
2023-08-31 | GSE210850 | GEO
Project description:Considering the distinct physiologies of men and women, it stands to reason that they would react differently to solar exposure, but such a study was never conducted before. Here we show that solar exposure induces food-seeking behavior, food intake and weight gain in males, but not in females, by epidemiological analysis, blood-serum proteomics, UVB-exposed mouse behavioral models and human cohort questionnaires . The underlying mechanism entails increased ghrelin secretion from skin adipocytes into the circulation. UVB irradiation led to p53 transcriptional activation of ghrelin in skin adipocytes, with mouse conditional p53-knockout abolishing UVB-induced ghrelin expression and food-seeking behavior. In females, estrogen interferes with the p53–chromatin interaction on the ghrelin promotor, thus blocking ghrelin and, consequently, food-seeking behavior in response to UVB exposure. These results identify the skin as a major mediator of human physiology in furless animals and may lead to therapeutic opportunities for sex-based treatment of endocrine-related diseases.
2022-06-23 | PXD033203 | Pride
Project description:Chronic social defeat stress induces anhedonia-like behavior deficits. We demonstrated that mPFC NPAS is requred for chronic social defeat stress-induced deficits in the sucrose preference and effort-based reward seeking behavior. We conducted the RNA-seq analysis for differential expression genes in the mouse mPFC samples of AAV-mediated Npas4 shRNA expression tissue.
2023-02-10 | GSE165586 | GEO
Project description:After exposure to drugs of abuse, the reward circuit can experience persistent changes that are thought to underlie relapse behavior. These changes can be epigenetic in nature, and here we identify an epigenetic regulator of memory processes, nuclear orphan receptor subfamily4 groupA member2 (NR4A2 aka NURR1), as necessary for relapse to cocaine-seeking behavior. Nr4a2 is an epigenetically regulated immediate early gene and transcription factor that is highly expressed in the medial habenula (MHb). Despite the well-studied contributions of the MHb to nicotine-associated behaviors, the MHb is not classically included in reward circuits. Therefore, the role of MHb NR4A2 in cocaine-seeking and relapse behavior remains largely unknown. This is a key open question as NR4A2 is a powerful regulator of memory processes dependent on epigenetic mechanisms. In this study, we examined the role of MHb NR4A2 in cued reinstatement of cocaine self-administration in mice, and found that over-expressing a dominant negative form of Nr4a2 (Nurr2c) in the MHb results in a near complete block of relapse-like behavior. We used single-nucleus transcriptomics to characterize the molecular cascade following the manipulation of Nr4a2, revealing changes in transcriptional networks related to addiction, neuroplasticity, and glutamatergic signaling. Together, these results place the MHb in the reward circuit as a pivotal regulator of relapse behavior and demonstrate the importance of NR4A2 as a key mechanism driving relapse behavior in the MHb.
2024-03-01 | GSE208081 | GEO
Project description:MicroRNAs are “master regulators” of gene expression. To investigate microRNAs involved in the incentive motivation for cocaine elicited by exposure to cocaine-associated cues, we conducted NanoString nCounter analyses of microRNA expression in the nucleus accumbens shell of male rats that had been tested for cue reactivity in a previous study. These rats had been trained to self-administer cocaine while living in isolate housing, then during a subsequent 21-day forced abstinence period they either stayed under isolate housing or switched to environmental enrichment (EE), as this EE intervention is known to decrease cocaine seeking. This allowed us to create groups of “high” and “low” cocaine seekers using a median split of cocaine-seeking behavior. We conducted a differential expression analysis across these two groups that identified 33 miRNAs that were differentially altered in the nucleus accumbens shell. Predicted mRNA targets of these microRNAs are implicated in synaptic plasticity and neuronal signaling. Some of these microRNAs have previously been implicated in substance use disorders, while others are predicted to target large numbers of cocaine-related genes. Of the 33 differentially expressed microRNAs, 8 were specifically downregulated in the low-seeking group and another set of 8 had expression levels that were significantly correlated with cocaine-seeking. These findings suggest that processes involved in cocaine-seeking behavior may alter, or be altered by, multiple microRNAs. Further research examining the mechanisms involved in these microRNA changes and their effects on signaling may reveal novel therapeutic targets for attenuating drug craving.
2020-12-25 | GSE153524 | GEO
Project description:Background Repeated cocaine use produces neuroadaptations that support drug craving and relapse in substance use disorders (SUDs). Powerful associations formed with drug-use environments can promote a return to active drug use in SUD patients, but the molecular mechanisms that control the formation of these prepotent drug-context associations remain unclear. Methods In the rat intravenous cocaine self-administration (SA) model, we examined the role and regulation of histone deacetylase 5 (HDAC5) in the prelimbic (PrL) and infralimbic (IL) cortices in context-associated drug seeking. To this end, we employed viral molecular tools, chemogenetics, RNA-sequencing, electrophysiology, and immunohistochemistry. Results In the PrL, reduction of endogenous HDAC5 enhanced context-associated, but not cue- or drug prime-reinstated cocaine seeking; whereas, overexpression of HDAC5 in PrL, but not IL, reduced context-associated cocaine seeking, but it had no effects on sucrose seeking. In contrast, PrL HDAC5 overexpression following acquisition of cocaine SA had no effects on future cocaine seeking. We found that HDAC5 and cocaine SA altered the expression of hundreds of PrL genes, including many synapse-associated genes. HDAC5 significantly increased inhibitory synaptic transmission onto PrL deep-layer pyramidal neurons, and it reduced the induction of FOS-positive neurons in the cocaine SA environment. Conclusions Our findings reveal an essential and selective role for PrL HDAC5 to limit associations formed in cocaine, but not sucrose, SA environments, and that it alters the PrL excitatory/inhibitory balance, possibly through epigenetic regulation of synaptic genes. These results further position HDAC5 as a key factor regulating reward-circuit neuroadaptations that underlie common relapse triggers in SUD.
2025-06-20 | GSE277932 | GEO
Project description:Neuronal activity is critical for adaptive circuit remodeling but poses an inherent risk to the stability of the genome across the long lifespan of post-mitotic neurons1-5. Whether neurons have acquired specialized genome protection mechanisms that enable them to withstand decades of potentially damaging stimuli during periods of heightened activity is not known. Here we identify an activity-dependent DNA repair mechanism via a new form of the NuA4/TIP60 chromatin modifier that assembles in activated neurons around the inducible, neuronal-specific transcription factor NPAS4. We purify this complex directly from the brain and demonstrate its functions in eliciting activity-dependent changes to neuronal transcriptomes and circuitry. By identifying the landscape of activity-induced DNA double-strand breaks in the brain, we show that the NPAS4:NuA4 complex binds to recurrently damaged regulatory elements and recruits additional DNA repair machinery to stimulate their repair. Gene regulatory elements bound by the NPAS4:NuA4 complex are partially protected from age-dependent accumulation of somatic mutations. Impaired NPAS4:NuA4 signaling leads to a cascade of cellular defects including dysregulated transcriptional responses to activity, loss of control over neuronal inhibition, and genome instability, culminating in reduced organismal lifespan. In addition, mutations in several components of the NuA4 complex are reported to lead to neurodevelopmental disorders and autism. Together, these findings identify a neuronal-specific complex that couples neuronal activity directly to genome preservation and whose disruption may contribute to developmental disorders, neurodegeneration and aging.
2023-02-15 | PXD038718 | Pride
Project description:The function of the central nervous system to regulate food intake can be disrupted by sustained metabolic challenges such as high-fat diet (HFD), which may contribute to the development of various metabolic disorders. In the present study, we found that HFD specifically enhanced food-seeking behavior in fruit flies without altering flies’ baseline metabolism and food consumption. Mechanistically, HFD increased the excitability of a small group of octopaminergic (OA) neurons to a hunger hormone named adipokinetic hormone (AKH), via increasing the accumulation of AKH receptor (AKHR) in these neurons. Upon HFD, excess dietary lipids are transported by a lipoprotein LTP to enter these OA+AKHR+ neurons via the cognate receptor LpR1, which in turn activated AMPK-TOR signaling and suppressed autophagy-dependent degradation of AKHR. Taken together, we uncovered a mechanism that linked HFD, AMPK-TOR signaling, neuronal autophagy, and food-seeking behavior, providing insight in the reshaping of neural circuitry under metabolic challenges and the progression of metabolic diseases.
2019-04-11 | GSE129601 | GEO
Project description:The function of the central nervous system to regulate food intake can be disrupted by sustained metabolic challenges such as high-fat diet (HFD), which may contribute to the development of various metabolic disorders. In the present study, we found that HFD specifically enhanced food-seeking behavior in fruit flies without altering flies’ baseline metabolism and food consumption. Mechanistically, HFD increased the excitability of a small group of octopaminergic (OA) neurons to a hunger hormone named adipokinetic hormone (AKH), via increasing the accumulation of AKH receptor (AKHR) in these neurons. Upon HFD, excess dietary lipids are transported by a lipoprotein LTP to enter these OA+AKHR+ neurons via the cognate receptor LpR1, which in turn activated AMPK-TOR signaling and suppressed autophagy-dependent degradation of AKHR. Taken together, we uncovered a mechanism that linked HFD, AMPK-TOR signaling, neuronal autophagy, and food-seeking behavior, providing insight in the reshaping of neural circuitry under metabolic challenges and the progression of metabolic diseases.
2019-04-11 | GSE129602 | GEO
Project description:Noncoding RNAs, especially microRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in the regulation of neuronal functions, such as learning, cognition and memory formation. However, the particular miRNAs involved in drug-induced behavioral plasticity are largely unknown. Here we report a novel regulator, miR-218, that inhibits heroin-induced behavioral plasticity. Network propagation-based method revealed several miRNAs that play key roles in drug-addiction, among which, miR-218 was decreased in nucleus accumbens (NAc) after chronic exposure to heroin. Lentiviral overexpression of miR-218 in NAc could inhibit heroin-induced reinforcement in both conditioning place preference (CPP) test and heroin self-administration (SA) experiment. Luciferase activity assay indicated miR-218 could regulate neuroplasticity related genes and directly target Mecp2 3’UTR. Consistently, Mecp2-/y mice exhibited reduced heroin seeking behavior in CPP test. These data reveal a functional role of miR-218 and its target, Mecp2, in the regulation of heroin-induced behavioral plasticity.
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