Accumulation of NMDA receptors in accumbal neuronal ensembles mediates increased conditioned place preference for cocaine after prolonged withdrawal.

Cue-induced cocaine craving gradually intensifies following abstinence, a phenomenon known as the incubation of drug craving. Neuronal ensembles activated by initial cocaine use, are critically involved in this process. However, the mechanisms by which neuronal changes occurring in the ensembles after withdrawal contribute to incubation remain largely unknown. Here we labeled neuronal ensembles in the shell of nucleus accumbens (NAcSh) activated by cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP) training. NAcSh ensembles showed an increasing activity induced by CPP test after 21-day withdrawal. Inhibiting synaptic transmission of NAcSh ensembles suppressed the preference for cocaine paired-side after 21-day withdrawal, demonstrating a critical role of NAcSh ensembles in increased preference for cocaine. The density of dendritic spines in dopamine D1 receptor expressing ensembles was increased after 21-day withdrawal. Moreover, the expression of Grin1, a subunit of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, specifically increased in the NAcSh ensembles after cocaine withdrawal in both CPP and self-administration (SA) mouse models. Targeted knockdown or dysfunction of Grin1 in NAcSh ensembles significantly suppressed craving for cocaine. Our results suggest that the accumulation of NMDA receptors in NAcSh ensembles mediates increased craving for cocaine after prolonged withdrawal, thereby providing potential molecular targets for treatment of drug addiction.

Persistent increase of accumbens cocaine ensemble excitability induced by IRK downregulation after withdrawal mediates the incubation of cocaine craving.

The incubation phenomenon, cue-induced drug craving progressively increasing over prolonged withdrawal, accounts for persistent relapse, leading to a dilemma in the treatment of cocaine addiction. The role of neuronal ensembles activated by initial cocaine experience in the incubation phenomenon was unclear. In this study, with cocaine self-administration (SA) models, we found that neuronal ensembles in the nucleus accumbens shell (NAcSh) showed increasing activation induced by cue-induced drug-seeking after 30-day withdrawal. Inhibition or activation of NAcSh cocaine-ensembles suppressed or promoted craving for cocaine, demonstrating a critical role of NAcSh cocaine-ensembles in incubation for cocaine craving. NAcSh cocaine-ensembles showed a specific increase of membrane excitability and a decrease of inward rectifying channels Kir2.1 currents after 30-day withdrawal. Overexpression of Kir2.1 in NAcSh cocaine-ensembles restored neuronal membrane excitability and suppressed cue-induced drug-seeking after 30-day withdrawal. Expression of dominant-negative Kir2.1 in NAcSh cocaine-ensembles enhanced neuronal membrane excitability and accelerated incubation of cocaine craving. Our results provide a cellular mechanism that the downregulation of Kir2.1 functions in NAcSh cocaine-ensembles induced by prolonged withdrawal mediates the enhancement of ensemble membrane excitability, leading to incubation of cocaine craving.

Paramagnons and high-temperature superconductivity in a model family of cuprates.

Cuprate superconductors have the highest critical temperatures (Tc) at ambient pressure, yet a consensus on the superconducting mechanism remains to be established. Finding an empirical parameter that limits the highest reachable Tc can provide crucial insight into this outstanding problem. Here, in the first two Ruddlesden-Popper members of the model Hg-family of cuprates, which are chemically nearly identical and have the highest Tc among all cuprate families, we use inelastic photon scattering to reveal that the energy of magnetic fluctuations may play such a role. In particular, we observe the single-paramagnon spectra to be nearly identical between the two compounds, apart from an energy scale difference of ~30% which matches their difference in Tc. The empirical correlation between paramagnon energy and maximal Tc is further found to extend to other cuprate families with relatively high Tc's, hinting at a fundamental connection between them.

CRHCeA→VTA inputs inhibit the positive ensembles to induce negative effect of opiate withdrawal.

Plasticity of neurons in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) is critical for establishment of drug dependence. However, the remodeling of the circuits mediating the transition between positive and negative effect remains unclear. Here, we used neuronal activity-dependent labeling technique to characterize and temporarily control the VTA neuronal ensembles recruited by the initial morphine exposure (morphine-positive ensembles, Mor-Ens). Mor-Ens preferentially projected to NAc, and induced dopamine-dependent positive reinforcement. Electrophysiology and rabies viral tracing revealed the preferential connections between the VTA-projective corticotrophin-releasing hormone (CRH) neurons of central amygdala (CRHCeA→VTA) and Mor-Ens, which was enhanced after escalating morphine exposure and mediated the negative effect during opiate withdrawal. Pharmacologic intervention or CRISPR-mediated repression of CRHR1 in Mor-Ens weakened the inhibitory CRHCeA→VTA inputs, and alleviated the negative effect during opiate withdrawal. These data suggest that neurons encoding opioid reward experience are inhibited by enhanced CRHCeA→VTA inputs induced by chronic morphine exposure, leading to negative effect during opiate withdrawal, and provide new insight into the pathological changes in VTA plasticity after drug abuse and mechanism of opiate dependence.

Morphine coordinates SST and PV interneurons in the prelimbic cortex to disinhibit pyramidal neurons and enhance reward.

Opioids, such as morphine, are clinic analgesics which induce euphoria. Morphine exposure modifies the excitability and functional interactions between neurons, while the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms, especially how morphine assembles heterogeneous interneurons (INs) in prelimbic cortex (PrL) to mediate disinhibition and reward, are not clear. Using approaches of optogenetics, electrophysiology, and cell type-specific RNA-seq, we show that morphine attenuates the inhibitory synaptic transmission from parvalbumin+ (PV)-INs onto pyramidal neurons in PrL via µ-opioid receptor (MOR) in PV-INs. Meanwhile, morphine enhances the inhibitory inputs from somatostatin+ (SST)-INs onto PV-INs, and thus disinhibits pyramidal neurons via δ-opioid receptor (DOR)-dependent Rac1 upregulation in SST-INs. We show that MOR in PV-INs is required for morphine-induced behavioral sensitization, while DOR as well as Rac1 activity in SST-INs is required for morphine-induced conditioned place preference and hyper-locomotion. These results reveal that SST- and PV-INs, functioning in PrL as a disinhibitory architecture, are coordinated by morphine via different opioid receptors to disinhibit pyramidal neurons and enhance reward.

Global Proteomics Deciphered Novel-Function of Osthole Against Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension.

Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive cardiovascular-disease with high mortality lacking high-efficiency drug. Our efforts attempted to delineate therapeutic action of osthole produced by Angelica Pubescens Maxim, which has the capacity to treat PAH by exploiting an iTRAQ-based proteomic method. Excitingly, osthole was observed to significantly restore 98 of 315 differential proteins significantly modified by PAH progression. They were primarily annotated into 24 signaling pathways. Four mostly affected proteins (RPL15, Cathepsin S, Histone H3.3 and HMGB1) were experimentially validated which belonged to ribosome pathway, oxidative phosphorylation pathway, systemic lupus erythematosus pathway, complement and coagulation cascades pathway, whose modifications and modulations mostly accounted for therapeutic capacity of this compound against PAH. Altogether, our findings demonstrated that global proteomics is a promising systems-biology approach for deciphering therapeutic actions and associated mechanisms of natural products derived from traditional Chinese medicine. Importantly, osthole is supposed to be a candidate compound for new drug development to treat PAH.

ß-Arrestin-biased ß-adrenergic signaling promotes extinction learning of cocaine reward memory.

Extinction learning of cocaine-associated contextual cues can help prevent cocaine addicts from relapsing. Pharmacological manipulation of ß-adrenergic receptor (ß-AR) during extinction learning is being developed as a potential strategy to treat drug addiction. We demonstrated that the extinction learning of cocaine-associated memory was mediated by ß-arrestin2-biased but not heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding protein (G protein)-dependent ß-adrenergic signaling. We found that administration of the nonbiased ß-AR antagonist propranolol, but not the G protein-biased ß-AR antagonist carvedilol, blocked extinction learning of cocaine-conditioned place preference and the associated ERK activation in the infralimbic prefrontal cortex. Overexpression of ß-arrestin2 in the infralimbic prefrontal cortex promoted extinction learning, which was blocked by propranolol. Knockout of ß-arrestin2 in the infralimbic prefrontal cortex, specifically in excitatory neurons, impaired extinction learning of cocaine-conditioned place preference, which was not rescued by carvedilol. ß-Arrestin2 signaling in infralimbic excitatory neurons was also required for the extinction learning in the cocaine self-administration model. Our results suggest that ß-arrestin-biased ß-adrenergic signaling in the infralimbic prefrontal cortex regulates extinction learning of cocaine-associated memories and could be therapeutically targeted to treat addiction.