Stress is a well-known factor in promoting heavy drinking and relapse to drinking in alcoholics, and avoidance of the negative affective symptoms of ethanol withdrawal (e.g. anxiety) is also believed to play a critical role in relapse to heavy ethanol use. Further, anxiety disorders may predispose individuals to drink heavily and these high intakes may exacerbate the interaction of heavy drinking and anxiety. Negative affective behaviors are modulated by neuropeptides such as dynorphin, and its target, kappa opioid receptors (KORs). We will use a mouse model of chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) exposure combined with forced swim stress to understand the role that KORs play in the maladaptive neurobiological changes induced by stress/ethanol interactions. Our previous work revealed that the function of the dynorphin/KOR system in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) was robustly up-regulated by chronic ethanol exposure and withdrawal in a time/exposure dependent manner in both the CIE model in mice and in a long-term voluntary ethanol drinking model in monkeys. In addition, in mice we found that systemic administration of a KOR antagonist reduced anxiety/compulsive behaviors (marble burying) and withdrawal-induced excessive drinking. Because norepinephrine (NE) and dopamine (DA) are both involved in negative affective responses to stress, and are known targets of KOR activity, we will examine KOR regulation of DA signaling in the NAc, which regulates motivation to drink alcohol, and NE signaling in the basolateral amygdala (BLA), which regulates stress/anxiety-related behaviors. We have established that KOR inhibition of DA signaling in the NAc is up- regulated by chronic intermittent ethanol (CIE) exposure, and we will expand these findings to include activation of the NE system by forced swim stress (FSS) and CIE, regulation of this system by KORs, and interactions with DA that may exacerbate negative affective responses and subsequent ethanol drinking. The overall goal is to define FSS and CIE-induced adaptations in stress-responsive limbic circuitry nodes that are responsible for withdrawal-associated negative affect and that can be targeted for the treatment of alcoholism.

Public Health Relevance

Stress and anxiety contribute to heavy alcohol drinking and alcoholism, although the neurobiological basis of this interaction is not well understood. The proposed studies will examine the involvement of the endogenous opioid dynorphin and its target, the kappa opioid receptor, in mediating anxiety-like behavior and increased alcohol drinking in mice that are exposed to repeated stress over several weeks. The results of these studies will help define the role of dynorphin and kappa opioid receptors in stress-induced relapse to alcohol drinking and lead the way toward developing targeted pharmacological therapies to reduce the impact of stress in alcoholics.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)
Type
Research Project--Cooperative Agreements (U01)
Project #
5U01AA014091-19
Application #
10090533
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAA1)
Program Officer
Liu, Qi-Ying
Project Start
2003-02-01
Project End
2022-01-31
Budget Start
2021-02-01
Budget End
2022-01-31
Support Year
19
Fiscal Year
2021
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Wake Forest University Health Sciences
Department
Physiology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
937727907
City
Winston-Salem
State
NC
Country
United States
Zip Code
27157
Siciliano, Cody A; Karkhanis, Anushree N; Holleran, Katherine M et al. (2018) Cross-Species Alterations in Synaptic Dopamine Regulation After Chronic Alcohol Exposure. Handb Exp Pharmacol :
McGuier, Natalie S; Rinker, Jennifer A; Cannady, Reginald et al. (2018) Identification and validation of midbrain Kcnq4 regulation of heavy alcohol consumption in rodents. Neuropharmacology 138:10-19
Melchior, James R; Jones, Sara R (2017) Chronic ethanol exposure increases inhibition of optically targeted phasic dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens core and medial shell ex vivo. Mol Cell Neurosci 85:93-104
Karkhanis, Anushree; Holleran, Katherine M; Jones, Sara R (2017) Dynorphin/Kappa Opioid Receptor Signaling in Preclinical Models of Alcohol, Drug, and Food Addiction. Int Rev Neurobiol 136:53-88
Siciliano, Cody A; Locke, Jason L; Mathews, Tiffany A et al. (2017) Dopamine synthesis in alcohol drinking-prone and -resistant mouse strains. Alcohol 58:25-32
Fordahl, Steve C; Jones, Sara R (2017) High-Fat-Diet-Induced Deficits in Dopamine Terminal Function Are Reversed by Restoring Insulin Signaling. ACS Chem Neurosci 8:290-299
Salvatore, Michael F; Calipari, Erin S; Jones, Sara R (2016) Regulation of Tyrosine Hydroxylase Expression and Phosphorylation in Dopamine Transporter-Deficient Mice. ACS Chem Neurosci 7:941-51
Siciliano, Cody A; Calipari, Erin S; Yorgason, Jordan T et al. (2016) Chronic ethanol self-administration in macaques shifts dopamine feedback inhibition to predominantly D2 receptors in nucleus accumbens core. Drug Alcohol Depend 158:159-63
Brust, Tarsis F; Morgenweck, Jenny; Kim, Susy A et al. (2016) Biased agonists of the kappa opioid receptor suppress pain and itch without causing sedation or dysphoria. Sci Signal 9:ra117
Siciliano, Cody A; Calipari, Erin S; Yorgason, Jordan T et al. (2016) Increased presynaptic regulation of dopamine neurotransmission in the nucleus accumbens core following chronic ethanol self-administration in female macaques. Psychopharmacology (Berl) 233:1435-43

Showing the most recent 10 out of 52 publications