In: European Journal of Neuroscience, 2007, vol. 26, no. 10, p. 2764-2776
The mesolimbic dopaminergic system is widely recognized to be critical to the neurobiology of cocaine reward and addiction. The neuronal protein, α-synuclein, is an important regulator in dopaminergic transmission. It interacts with the dopamine transporter, and regulates dopaminergic content, neurotransmission and synaptic strength of dopaminergic neurons. Alpha-synuclein levels are elevated in...
|
In: Behavioural Brain Research, 2008, vol. 191, no. 1, p. 17-25
Cocaine and many other psychostimulants strongly induce urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) expression in the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway, which plays a major role in drug-mediated behavioral plasticity [Bahi A, Boyer F, Gumy C, Kafri T, Dreyer JL. In vivo gene delivery of urokinase-type plasminogen activator with regulatable lentivirus induces behavioral changes in chronic cocaine...
|
In: Psychopharmacology, 2012, p. -
Rationale: Dopamine D1 receptor (D1R) signaling has been associated to ethanol consumption and reward in laboratory animals.Objectives: Here, we hypothesize that this receptor, which is located within the nucleus accumbens (NAc) neurons, modulates alcohol reward mechanisms.Methods: To test this hypothesis, we measured alcohol consumption and ethanol-induced psychomotor sensitization and...
|
In: Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research, 2014, vol. 38, no. 9, p. 2369–2376
Background: It has been reported that dopamine D3 receptor (D3R) knockout mice display similar ethanol (EtOH) consumption compared to wild types. In addition, studies with D3R pharmacological targeting were inconclusive.Methods: In the current study, we used both gain- and loss-of-function approaches to test the effects of central D3R manipulation on voluntary alcohol intake and EtOH-induced...
|
In: Genes, Brain and Behavior, 2008, vol. 7, no. 2, p. 244 - 256
Urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) and tissue-type plasminogen activator (tPA) are extracellular proteases that play a role in synaptic plasticity and remodeling. Psychostimulants induce both tPA and uPA in acute and chronic drug delivery, but cocaine induces preferentially uPA, whereas morphine and amphetamine induce preferentially tPA. Specific doxycline-regulatable lentiviruses...
|
In: Psychopharmacology, 2008, vol. 199, no. 2, p. 169-182
|
In: Psychopharmacology, 2008, vol. 199, no. 2, p. 169-182
Background Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is involved in the survival and function of midbrain DA neurons. BDNF action is mediated by the TrkB receptor–tyrosine kinase, and both BDNF and TrkB transcripts are widely expressed in the rat mesolimbic pathway, including the nucleus accumbens (NAc) and the ventral tegmentum area (VTA). Objective BDNF was previously shown to be involved in...
|
In: European Journal of Neuroscience, 2008, vol. 27, no. 11, p. 2938 - 2951
The aim of this study was to investigate the role of γ-synuclein in the rewarding effects of chronic cocaine administration and its putative interaction with the dopamine transporter (DAT). For this purpose, regulatable lentiviruses driving overexpression of the rat γ-synuclein or DAT have been prepared, as well as lentiviruses expressing siRNAs, aimed at silencing either DAT or γ-synuclein...
|
In: European Journal of Neuroscience, 2013, p. -
Alcohol abuse is a major health, economic and social concern in modern societies, but the exact molecular mechanisms underlying ethanol addiction remain elusive. Recent findings show that small non-coding microRNA (miRNA) signaling contributes to complex behavioral disorders including drug addiction. However, the role of miRNAs in ethanol-induced conditioned-place preference (CPP) and voluntary...
|
In: Plant Molecular Biology, 2007, vol. 64, no. 5, p. 549-557
|