Alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone modulates ethanol self-administration in posterior ventral tegmental area through melanocortin-4 receptors

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 302-315 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gajanan P. Shelkar ◽  
Atmaram D. Kale ◽  
Uday Singh ◽  
Praful S. Singru ◽  
Nishikant K. Subhedar ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ventral Tegmental Area ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
Melanocyte Stimulating Hormone ◽  
Ventral Tegmental ◽  
Stimulating Hormone

scholarly journals Cocaine induces paradigm-specific changes to the transcriptome within the ventral tegmental area

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rianne R. Campbell ◽  
Siwei Chen ◽  
Joy H. Beardwood ◽  
Alberto J. López ◽  
Lilyana V. Pham ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gene Expression ◽  
Ventral Tegmental Area ◽  
Home Cage ◽  
Expression Patterns ◽  
Energy Regulation ◽  
Biological Processes ◽  
Cocaine Exposure ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
Drug Reinforcement ◽  
Ventral Tegmental

AbstractDuring the initial stages of drug use, cocaine-induced neuroadaptations within the ventral tegmental area (VTA) are critical for drug-associated cue learning and drug reinforcement processes. These neuroadaptations occur, in part, from alterations to the transcriptome. Although cocaine-induced transcriptional mechanisms within the VTA have been examined, various regimens and paradigms have been employed to examine candidate target genes. In order to identify key genes and biological processes regulating cocaine-induced processes, we employed genome-wide RNA-sequencing to analyze transcriptional profiles within the VTA from male mice that underwent one of four commonly used paradigms: acute home cage injections of cocaine, chronic home cage injections of cocaine, cocaine-conditioning, or intravenous-self administration of cocaine. We found that cocaine alters distinct sets of VTA genes within each exposure paradigm. Using behavioral measures from cocaine self-administering mice, we also found several genes whose expression patterns corelate with cocaine intake. In addition to overall gene expression levels, we identified several predicted upstream regulators of cocaine-induced transcription shared across all paradigms. Although distinct gene sets were altered across cocaine exposure paradigms, we found, from Gene Ontology (GO) term analysis, that biological processes important for energy regulation and synaptic plasticity were affected across all cocaine paradigms. Coexpression analysis also identified gene networks that are altered by cocaine. These data indicate that cocaine alters networks enriched with glial cell markers of the VTA that are involved in gene regulation and synaptic processes. Our analyses demonstrate that transcriptional changes within the VTA depend on the route, dose and context of cocaine exposure, and highlight several biological processes affected by cocaine. Overall, these findings provide a unique resource of gene expression data for future studies examining novel cocaine gene targets that regulate drug-associated behaviors.

scholarly journals Inflammatory Pain Promotes Increased Opioid Self-Administration: Role of Dysregulated Ventral Tegmental Area   Opioid Receptors

2015 ◽  
Vol 35 (35) ◽  
pp. 12217-12231 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Hipolito ◽  
A. Wilson-Poe ◽  
Y. Campos-Jurado ◽  
E. Zhong ◽  
J. Gonzalez-Romero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ventral Tegmental Area ◽  
Opioid Receptors ◽  
Inflammatory Pain ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
Ventral Tegmental

Microinjection of baclofen and CGP7930 into the ventral tegmental area suppresses alcohol self-administration in alcohol-preferring rats

2018 ◽  
Vol 136 ◽  
pp. 146-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Maccioni ◽  
Irene Lorrai ◽  
Andrea Contini ◽  
Kimberly Leite-Morris ◽  
Giancarlo Colombo
Keyword(s):  
Ventral Tegmental Area ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
Ventral Tegmental

scholarly journals Insulin acts at different CNS sites to decrease acute sucrose intake and sucrose self-administration in rats

2008 ◽  
Vol 295 (2) ◽  
pp. R388-R394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dianne P. Figlewicz ◽  
Jennifer L. Bennett ◽  
Sepideh Aliakbari ◽  
Aryana Zavosh ◽  
Alfred J. Sipols
Keyword(s):  
Ventral Tegmental Area ◽  
Energy Homeostasis ◽  
Sucrose Intake ◽  
Palatable Food ◽  
Self Administration ◽  
Mu Opioid ◽  
Reward Function ◽  
Sucrose Feeding ◽  
Adiposity Signals ◽  
Ventral Tegmental

Findings from our laboratory and others have demonstrated that the hormone insulin has chronic effects within the CNS to regulate energy homeostasis and to decrease brain reward function. In this study, we compared the acute action of insulin to decrease intake of a palatable food in two different behavioral tasks—progressive ratios sucrose self-administration and mu opioid-stimulated sucrose feeding—when administered into several insulin-receptive sites of the CNS. We tested insulin efficacy within the medial hypothalamic arcuate (ARC) and paraventricular (PVN) nuclei, the nucleus accumbens, and the ventral tegmental area. Administration of insulin at a dose that has no chronic effect on body weight (5 mU) into the ARC significantly suppressed sucrose self-administration (75 ± 5% of paired control). However, although the mu opioid DAMGO, [d-Ala2,N-MePhe4,Gly5-ol]-enkephalin acetate salt, stimulated sucrose intake at all four CNS sites, the ventral tegmental area was the only sensitive site for a direct effect of insulin to antagonize acute (60 min) mu opioid-stimulated sucrose feeding: sucrose intake was 53 ± 8% of DAMGO-induced feeding, when insulin was coadministered with DAMGO. These findings demonstrate that free feeding of sucrose, and motivated work for sucrose, can be modulated within unique sites of the CNS reward circuitry. Further, they support the interpretation that adiposity signals, such as insulin, can decrease different aspects of ingestion of a palatable food, such as sucrose, in an anatomically specific manner.

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