The consequences of alcohol abuse on the American public are profound, both in terms of individual well-being and impact on the family structure, as well as the enormous cost to society in terms of lost productivity and associated health care expenses. Despite increasing efforts, our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie the effects of alcohol and the development of alcohol use disorders remains incomplete. Epidemiological research has pointed to adolescence as a critical period in the development of alcohol disorders. One area of the brain that appears especially vulnerable to the effects of alcohol is the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which remains immature at the onset of adolescence. The PFC is involved in decision- making, memory and impulse control, behaviors that are often disrupted following consumption of alcohol and are believed to underlie long-term addiction. In the PFC, pharmacologically relevant doses of alcohol are known to depress neuronal activity (Tu et al. 2007), but very little is known of its interactions with the inhibitor receptors, GABA and glycine, within the PFC. This is despite the expression of GABA-A receptor subtypes in the PFC (Hoestgaard-Jensen et al. 2010) that mediate tonic inhibition in other brain regions and demonstrate high sensitivity to alcohol (Wei et al. 2004, Jia et al. 2008). In addition, we note that functional glycine receptors are also present in PFC (Ye et al. 2011) but have received little to no attention. The goal of this research proposal is to examine the pharmacological actions of alcohol on neuronal excitability and on GABA and glycine-mediated synaptic and tonic inhibition in the adolescent PFC, and to determine if chronic alcohol drinking during adolescence leads to specific alterations of inhibition that affect neuronal excitability. Tis information could enhance our understanding of the negative effects of alcohol drinking during adolescence and an increased focus on cellular mechanisms involved can help lead to the development of therapeutic strategies to treat alcohol use disorders.

Public Health Relevance

Drinking alcohol during adolescence is a major public health concern as it often leads to alcohol and substance abuse disorders later in life. The goal of this proposal is to better understand the effects of alcohol on the adolescent brain which will be accomplished by measuring changes in brain cell activity in animals that drink alcohol during adolescence. Findings from this work will raise awareness on alcohol vulnerability during adolescence and could lead to the development of medicines that treat alcohol use disorders.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Postdoctoral Individual National Research Service Award (F32)
Project #
5F32AA022028-02
Application #
8549688
Study Section
Health Services Research Review Subcommittee (AA)
Program Officer
Liu, Qi-Ying
Project Start
2012-09-30
Project End
2014-09-29
Budget Start
2013-09-30
Budget End
2014-09-29
Support Year
2
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$52,190
Indirect Cost
Name
Columbia University (N.Y.)
Department
Anesthesiology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
621889815
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10032
Salling, Michael C; Skelly, Mary Jane; Avegno, Elizabeth et al. (2018) Alcohol Consumption during Adolescence in a Mouse Model of Binge Drinking Alters the Intrinsic Excitability and Function of the Prefrontal Cortex through a Reduction in the Hyperpolarization-Activated Cation Current. J Neurosci 38:6207-6222
McCracken, Lindsay M; Lowes, Daniel C; Salling, Michael C et al. (2017) Glycine receptor ?3 and ?2 subunits mediate tonic and exogenous agonist-induced currents in forebrain. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 114:E7179-E7186
Avegno, Elizabeth M; Salling, Michael C; Borgkvist, Anders et al. (2016) Voluntary adolescent drinking enhances excitation by low levels of alcohol in a subset of dopaminergic neurons in the ventral tegmental area. Neuropharmacology 110:386-395
Salling, Michael C; Faccidomo, Sara P; Li, Chia et al. (2016) Moderate Alcohol Drinking and the Amygdala Proteome: Identification and Validation of Calcium/Calmodulin Dependent Kinase II and AMPA Receptor Activity as Novel Molecular Mechanisms of the Positive Reinforcing Effects of Alcohol. Biol Psychiatry 79:430-42
Gallo, Eduardo F; Salling, Michael C; Feng, Bo et al. (2015) Upregulation of dopamine D2 receptors in the nucleus accumbens indirect pathway increases locomotion but does not reduce alcohol consumption. Neuropsychopharmacology 40:1609-18
Meyers, J L; Salling, M C; Almli, L M et al. (2015) Frequency of alcohol consumption in humans; the role of metabotropic glutamate receptors and downstream signaling pathways. Transl Psychiatry 5:e586
Salling, Michael C; Harrison, Neil L (2014) Strychnine-sensitive glycine receptors on pyramidal neurons in layers II/III of the mouse prefrontal cortex are tonically activated. J Neurophysiol 112:1169-78