Event Details:
Acute stress triggers persistent synaptic changes and long-lasting activation of kappa opioid receptors
Julie Kauer, Ph.D
Professor of Medical Science, Professor of Neuroscience
Brown University
Host: Jun Ding
Abstract
My lab is interested in understanding how different parts of the nervous system take advantage of rapid alterations in synaptic strength for diverse adaptive and non-adaptive responses to the environment. Drugs of abuse and stressful experiences produce rapid and persistent changes in brain function, and in recent years we have begun to explore how synaptic and intrinsic properties of neurons and circuits are altered by even a single exposure to drugs or acute stress. In the first part of my talk, I will describe a form of synaptic potentiation (LTP) at inhibitory GABAergic synapses in the ventral tegmental area (VTA), a region that is essential for the development of addiction to drugs of abuse, and its loss after exposure to either opiate drugs or acute stress. We have now discovered that brain kappa opioid receptors become persistently active after acute stress for a period lasting at least five days, and this is correlated with stress-induced relapse to cocaine-seeking. In the second part of my talk, I will describe how blocking kappa opioid receptors even days after the initial stress insult rescues the LTP at VTA synapses, and also prevents stress-induced relapse.
Related papers
[1] N. Graziane, A. Polter, L. Briand, R. C. Pierce, J. Kauer. Kappa Opioid Receptors Regulate Stress-Induced Cocaine Seeking and Synaptic Plasticity. Neuron, Volume 77, Issue 5, 6 March 2013, Pages 942-954. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2012.12.034
[2] A. Polter, K. Barcomb, R. Chen, P. Dingess, N. Graziane, T. Brown J. Kauer. Constitutive activation of kappa opioid receptors at ventral tegmental area inhibitory synapses following acute stress. eLife 2017;6:e23785. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.23785