Featured Paper of the Month

Featured Paper of the Month – July 2017
Published in The Journal of Medical Chemistry by Kumar, Vivek; Moritz, Amy E; Keck, Thomas M; Bonifazi, Alessandro; Ellenberger, Michael P; Sibley, Christopher D; Free, Benjamin R; Shi, Lei; Lane, Robert J; Sibley, David R; Newman, Amy Hauck

The development of bitopic ligands directed toward D2-like receptors has proven to be of particular interest to improve the selectivity and/or affinity of these ligands and as an approach to modulate and bias their efficacies. The structural similarities between dopamine D3 receptor (D3R)-selective molecules that display bitopic or allosteric pharmacology and those that are simply competitive antagonists are subtle and intriguing…

Featured Paper of the Month – June 2017
Published in Neuropsychopharmacology by Zapata, Agustin; Hwang, Eun-Kyung; Lupica, Carl R

The lateral habenula (LHb) is a brain structure receiving inputs from limbic forebrain areas and innervating major midbrain monoaminergic nuclei. Evidence indicates LHb involvement in sleep control, reward-based decision making, avoidance of punishment, and responses to stress. Additional work has established that the LHb mediates negative feedback in response to aversive events…

Featured Paper of the Month – May 2017
Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Estefania Moreno, Cesar Quiroz, William Rea, Ning-Sheng Cai, Josefa Mallol, Antoni Cortes, Carme Lluis, Enric I Canela, Vicent Casado, Sergi Ferré

The neuropeptide galanin has been shown to interact with the opioid system. More specifically, galanin counteracts the behavioral effects of the systemic administration of mu-opioid receptor (MOR) agonists. Yet the mechanism responsible for this galanin-opioid interaction has remained elusive…

Featured Paper of the Month – April 2017
Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Caprioli, Daniele; Venniro, Marco; Zhang, Michelle; Bossert, Jennifer M; Warren, Brandon L; Hope, Bruce T; Shaham, Yavin

We recently developed a rat model of incubation of methamphetamine craving after choice-based voluntary abstinence. Here, we studied the role of dorsolateral striatum (DLS) and dorsomedial striatum (DMS) in this incubation. We trained rats to self-administer palatable food pellets (6 d, 6 h/d) and methamphetamine (12 d, 6 h/d)…

Featured Paper of the Month – March 2017
Published in Science Advances by Bonaventura, Jordi; Quiroz, Cesar; Cai, Ning-Sheng; Rubinstein, Marcelo; Tanda, Gianluigi; Ferre, Sergi

Polymorphic variants of the dopamine D4 receptor gene (DRD4) have been repeatedly associated with numerous neuropsychiatric disorders. Yet, the functional role of the D4 receptor and the functional differences of the products of DRD4 polymorphic variants remained enigmatic…

Featured Paper of the Month – February 2017
Published in Biological Psychiatry by Li, Sufang; Yang, Yihong; Hoffmann, Ewa; Tyndale, Rachel F; Stein, Elliot A

Variation in the CYP2A6 gene alters the rate of nicotine metabolic inactivation and is associated with smoking behaviors and cessation success rates. The underlying neurobiological mechanisms of this genetic influence are unknown…

Featured Paper of the Month – January 2017
Published in Cell Reports by Yau, Hau-Jie; Wang, Dong V; Tsou, Jen-Hui; Chuang, Yi-Fang; Chen, Billy T; Deisseroth, Karl; Ikemoto, Satoshi; Bonci, Antonello

The ventral tegmental area (VTA) receives phenotypically distinct innervations from the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg). While PPTg-to-VTA inputs are thought to play a critical role in stimulus-reward learning, direct evidence linking PPTg-to-VTA phenotypically distinct inputs in the learning process remains lacking…

Featured Paper of the Month – December 2016
Published in Scientific Reports by Root, David H; Wang, Hui-Ling; Liu, Bing; Barker, David J; Mod, Laszlo; Szocsics, Peter; Silva, Afonso C; Magloczky, Zsofia; Morales, Marisela

The rodent ventral tegmental area (VTA) and substantia nigra pars compacta (SNC) contain dopamine neurons intermixed with glutamate neurons (expressing vesicular glutamate transporter 2; VGluT2), which play roles in reward and aversion. However, identifying the neuronal compositions of the VTA and SNC in higher mammals has remained challenging…

Featured Paper of the Month – November 2016
Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Warren, Brandon L; Mendoza, Michael P; Cruz, Fabio C; Leao, Rodrigo M; Caprioli, Daniele; Rubio, Javier F; Whitaker, Leslie R; McPherson, Kylie B; Bossert, Jennifer M; Shaham, Yavin; Hope, Bruce T

In operant learning, initial reward-associated memories are thought to be distinct from subsequent extinction-associated memories. Memories formed during operant learning are thought to be stored in “neuronal ensembles.” Thus, we hypothesize that different neuronal ensembles encode reward- and extinction-associated memories…

Featured Paper of the Month – October 2016
Published in The Journal of Biological Chemistry by Stolzenberg, Sebastian; Quick, Matthias; Zhao, Chunfeng; Gotfryd, Kamil; Khelashvili, George; Gether, Ulrik; Loland, Claus J; Javitch, Jonathan A; Noskov, Sergei; Weinstein, Harel; Shi, Lei

Neurotransmitter:sodium symporters (NSSs) terminate neurotransmission by Na(+)-dependent reuptake of released neurotransmitters. Previous studies suggested that Na(+)-binding reconfigures dynamically coupled structural elements in an allosteric interaction network (AIN) responsible for function-related conformational changes, but the intramolecular pathway of this mechanism has remained uncharted…