Université de Fribourg

Silencing urokinase in the ventral tegmental area in vivo induces changes in cocaine-induced hyperlocomotion

Bahi, Amine ; Boyer, Frederic ; Kafri, Tal ; Dreyer, Jean-Luc

In: Journal of Neurochemistry, 2006, vol. 98, no. 5, p. 1619–1631

Serine proteases in the nervous system have functional roles in neural plasticity. Among them, urokinase-type plasminogen activator (uPA) exerts a variety of functions during development, and is involved in learning and memory. Furthermore, psychostimulants strongly induce uPA expression in the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway. In this study, doxycycline-regulatable lentiviruses expressing either...

Université de Fribourg

CD81-induced behavioural changes during chronic cocaine administration: in vivo gene delivery with regulatable lentivirus

Bahi, Amine ; Boyer, Frederic ; Kafri, Tal ; Dreyer, Jean-Luc

In: European Journal of Neuroscience, 2004, vol. 19, p. 1621-1633

CD81, a tetraspanin transmembrane protein involved in cell adhesion, is up-regulated in the mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway 24 h following acute administration of high doses of cocaine [Brenz-Verca et al., (2001) Mol. Cell. Neurosci., 17, 303-316]. Further evidence consecutive with this observation and based on microarray analysis are presented here. In addition, a regulatable lentivirus was...