scholarly journals Interruption of Continuous Opioid Exposure Exacerbates Drug-Evoked Adaptations in the Mesolimbic Dopamine System

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emilia M. Lefevre ◽  
Marc T. Pisansky ◽  
Carlee Toddes ◽  
Federico Baruffaldi ◽  
Marco Pravetoni ◽  
...  

ABSTRACTDrug-evoked adaptations in the mesolimbic dopamine system are postulated to drive opioid abuse and addiction. These adaptations vary in magnitude and direction following different patterns of opioid exposure, but few studies have systematically manipulated the pattern of opioid administration while measuring neurobiological and behavioral impact. We exposed male and female mice to morphine for one week, with administration patterns that were either intermittent (daily injections) or continuous (osmotic minipump infusion). We then interrupted continuous morphine exposure with either naloxone-precipitated or spontaneous withdrawal. Continuous morphine exposure caused tolerance to the psychomotor-activating effects of morphine, whereas both intermittent and interrupted morphine exposure caused long-lasting psychomotor sensitization. Given links between locomotor sensitization and mesolimbic dopamine signaling, we used fiber photometry and a genetically encoded dopamine sensor to conduct longitudinal measurements of dopamine dynamics in the nucleus accumbens. Locomotor sensitization caused by interrupted morphine exposure was accompanied by enhanced dopamine signaling in the nucleus accumbens. To further assess downstream consequences on striatal gene expression, we used next-generation RNA sequencing to perform genome-wide transcriptional profiling in the nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum. The interruption of continuous morphine exposure exacerbated drug-evoked transcriptional changes in both nucleus accumbens and dorsal striatum, dramatically increasing differential gene expression and engaging unique signaling pathways. Our study indicates that opioid-evoked adaptations in brain function and behavior are critically dependent on the pattern of drug administration, and exacerbated by interruption of continuous exposure. Maintaining continuity of chronic opioid administration may therefore represent a strategy to minimize iatrogenic effects on brain reward circuits.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Liu ◽  
Philip Jean-Richard-dit-Bressel ◽  
Joanna Oi-Yue Yau ◽  
Alexandra Willing ◽  
Asheeta A. Prasad ◽  
...  

AbstractThe mesolimbic dopamine system comprises distinct compartments supporting different functions in learning and motivation. Less well understood is how complex addiction-related behaviors emerge from activity patterns across these compartments. Here we show how different forms of relapse to alcohol-seeking are assembled from activity across the ventral tegmental area and the nucleus accumbens. Using gCaMP and dLight fibre photometry, we show that self-administration and two forms of relapse (renewal/context-induced reinstatement and reacquisition) are associated with recruitment across the mesolimbic dopamine system. Using a variety of interventions, we show that this activity is causal to both forms of relapse. Finally, we use dissimilarity matrices to identify mesolimbic dopamine signatures of self-administration, extinction, and relapse. We show that signatures of relapse can be identified from heterogeneous activity profiles across the mesolimbic dopamine system and that these signatures differ for different forms of relapse.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire E. Stelly ◽  
Sean C. Tritley ◽  
Yousef Rafati ◽  
Matthew J. Wanat

AbstractAcute stress transiently increases vigilance, whereby enhancing the detection of salient stimuli. This increased perceptual sensitivity is thought to promote associating rewarding outcomes with relevant cues. The mesolimbic dopamine system is critical for learning cue-reward associations. Dopamine levels in the ventral striatum are elevated following exposure to stress. Together, this suggests the mesolimbic dopamine system could mediate the influence of acute stress on cue-reward learning. To address this possibility, we examined how a single stressful experience influenced learning in an appetitive Pavlovian conditioning task. Male rats underwent an episode of restraint prior to the first conditioning session. This acute stress treatment augmented conditioned responding in subsequent sessions. Voltammetry recordings of mesolimbic dopamine levels demonstrated that acute stress selectively increased reward-evoked dopamine release in the ventral lateral striatum (VLS), but not in the ventral medial striatum (VMS). Antagonizing dopamine receptors in the VLS blocked the stress-induced enhancement of conditioned responding. Collectively, these findings illustrate that stress engages dopamine signaling in the VLS to facilitate appetitive learning.


2021 ◽  
Vol 144 ◽  
pp. 104962
Author(s):  
Arvie Abiero ◽  
Raly James Perez Custodio ◽  
Chrislean Jun Botanas ◽  
Darlene Mae Ortiz ◽  
Leandro Val Sayson ◽  
...  

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document