Université de Fribourg

Lentiviral vector-mediated dopamine D3 receptor modulation in the rat brain impairs alcohol intake and ethanol-induced conditioned place preference

Bahi, Amine ; Dreyer, Jean-Luc

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...

Université de Fribourg

Hippocampus-specific deletion of tissue plasminogen activator “tPA” in adult mice impairs depression- and anxiety-like behaviors

Bahi, Amine ; Dreyer, Jean-Luc

In: European Neuropsychopharmacology, 2012, p. -

Anxiety and depression are multifactorial disorders that have become prominent health problems all over the world. Neurotrophic factors have emerged underlying pathogenesis of these diseases. Although a number of studies indicate that the hippocampus-brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) may be involved in these psychiatric illnesses, little is known about the molecular mediators of these...

Université de Fribourg

Effects of urokinase-type plasminogen activator in the acquisition, expression and reinstatement of cocaine-induced conditioned-place preference

Bahi, Amine ; Kusnecov, Alexander W. ; Dreyer, Jean-Luc

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...