Chemogenetic inhibition of central amygdala CRF-expressing neurons decreases alcohol intake but not trauma-related behaviors in a rat model of post-traumatic stress and alcohol use disorder.

Autor: Cruz B; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92073, USA., Vozella V; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92073, USA., Borgonetti V; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92073, USA., Bullard R; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92073, USA., Bianchi PC; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92073, USA., Kirson D; Department of Pharmacology, Addiction Science, and Toxicology, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Memphis, TN, 38163, USA., Bertotto LB; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92073, USA., Bajo M; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92073, USA., Vlkolinsky R; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92073, USA., Messing RO; Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, Department of Neuroscience, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, 78712, USA., Zorrilla EP; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92073, USA., Roberto M; Department of Molecular Medicine, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA, 92073, USA. mroberto@scripps.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Molecular psychiatry [Mol Psychiatry] 2024 Sep; Vol. 29 (9), pp. 2611-2621. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Mar 21.
DOI: 10.1038/s41380-024-02514-8
Abstrakt: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorder (AUD) are often comorbid. Few treatments exist to reduce comorbid PTSD/AUD. Elucidating the mechanisms underlying their comorbidity could reveal new avenues for therapy. Here, we employed a model of comorbid PTSD/AUD, in which rats were subjected to a stressful shock in a familiar context followed by alcohol drinking. We then examined fear overgeneralization and irritability in these rats. Familiar context stress elevated drinking, increased fear overgeneralization, increased alcohol-related aggressive signs, and elevated peripheral stress hormones. We then examined transcripts of stress- and fear-relevant genes in the central amygdala (CeA), a locus that regulates stress-mediated alcohol drinking. Compared with unstressed rats, stressed rats exhibited increases in CeA transcripts for Crh and Fkbp5 and decreases in transcripts for Bdnf and Il18. Levels of Nr3c1 mRNA, which encodes the glucocorticoid receptor, increased in stressed males but decreased in stressed females. Transcripts of Il18 binding protein (Il18bp), Glp-1r, and genes associated with calcitonin gene-related peptide signaling (Calca, Ramp1, Crlr-1, and Iapp) were unaltered. Crh, but not Crhr1, mRNA was increased by stress; thus, we tested whether inhibiting CeA neurons that express corticotropin-releasing factor (CRF) suppress PTSD/AUD-like behaviors. We used Crh-Cre rats that had received a Cre-dependent vector encoding hM4D(Gi), an inhibitory Designer Receptors Exclusively Activated by Designer Drugs. Chemogenetic inhibition of CeA CRF neurons reduced alcohol intake but not fear overgeneralization or irritability-like behaviors. Our findings suggest that CeA CRF modulates PTSD/AUD comorbidity, and inhibiting CRF neural activity is primarily associated with reducing alcohol drinking but not trauma-related behaviors that are associated with PTSD/AUD.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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