The hypocretin (Hcrt) system has long been known to regulate a wide range of physiological processes, including feeding, energy metabolism, and arousal. More recently, concordant observations have demonstrated an important role for Hcrt in the reinforcing properties of most drugs of abuse. Accordingly, Hcrt neurons, which predominantly arise from the lateral hypothalamus (LH), project to brain structures implicated in the regulation of arousal, stress, and reward. Although Hcrt neurons have been shown to massively project to the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT), recent evidence suggests that the PVT may be a key relay of Hcrt-coded reward-related communication between the LH and both the ventral and dorsal striatum. While this thalamic region was not thought to be part of drug addiction circuitry, an increasing amount of evidence indicates that the PVT-particularly Hcrt transmission in the PVT-is implicated in the modulation of reward function in general and several aspects of drug-directed behaviors in particular. Importantly, findings from our laboratory demonstrated selective activation of the PVT during ethanol seeking, and our preliminary data suggest that a history of ethanol dependence produces a downregulation of Hcrt in the LH and upregulation of Hcrtr1 (encoding Hcrt receptor 1) in the PVT. This proposal is designed to study the neurobiological basis of chronic vulnerability to relapse by focusing on Hcrt transmission in the PVT as a novel neural substrate that may be responsible for the compulsive nature of ethanol seeking. Specifically, this proposal will (i) establish the role of Hcrt transmission in the PVT in ethanol-seeking behavior and (ii) test the hypothesis that knocking down Hcrt using local gene silencing in the LH in nondependent rats will mimic the phenotype of postdependent rats. Overall, the planned experiments will provide novel insights into the specific involvement of LH?PVT Hcrt transmission in alcohol-seeking behavior and will likely highlight a previously unrecognized neurotransmission system in the etiology of compulsive alcohol seeking during abstinence and justify targeting the hyprocretin system for alcoholism and relapse prevention.
Chronic vulnerability to relapse in abstinent alcoholics is a challenge for the successful treatment of alcohol addiction, and treatments that target multiple aspects of vulnerability to relapse offer the most promise of providing improved therapeutic benefits over medications currently in use for relapse prevention. Recent findings and preliminary evidence indicate that hypocretin signaling contributes to ethanol seeking and that dysregulation of this system may explain the compulsive nature of alcohol seeking. This project is likely to highlight a previously unrecognized mechanism in the etiology of alcohol dependence and justify manipulating the hyprocretin system as a therapeutic target to prevent relapse.
| Matzeu, Alessandra; Terenius, Lars; Martin-Fardon, Remi (2018) Exploring Sex Differences in the Attenuation of Ethanol Drinking by Naltrexone in Dependent Rats During Early and Protracted Abstinence. Alcohol Clin Exp Res 42:2466-2478 |
| Schmeichel, Brooke E; Matzeu, Alessandra; Koebel, Pascale et al. (2018) Knockdown of hypocretin attenuates extended access of cocaine self-administration in rats. Neuropsychopharmacology 43:2373-2382 |
| Serrano, Antonia; Pavon, Francisco J; Buczynski, Matthew W et al. (2018) Deficient endocannabinoid signaling in the central amygdala contributes to alcohol dependence-related anxiety-like behavior and excessive alcohol intake. Neuropsychopharmacology 43:1840-1850 |
| de Guglielmo, Giordano; Matzeu, Alessandra; Kononoff, Jenni et al. (2017) Cebranopadol Blocks the Escalation of Cocaine Intake and Conditioned Reinstatement of Cocaine Seeking in Rats. J Pharmacol Exp Ther 362:378-384 |
