Featured Paper of the Month

Featured Paper of the Month – February 2016
Published in Cell Reports by Wang, Huikun; Treadway, Tyler; Covey, Daniel P; Cheer, Joseph F; Lupica, Carl R

Cocaine is a highly addictive drug that acts upon the brain’s reward circuitry via the inhibition of monoamine uptake. Endogenous cannabinoids (eCB) are lipid molecules released from midbrain dopamine (DA) neurons that modulate cocaine’s effects through poorly understood mechanisms…

Featured Paper of the Month – January 2016
Published in The Journal of Medical Chemistry by Boateng, Comfort A; Bakare, Oluyomi M; Zhan, Jia; Banala, Ashwini K; Burzynski, Caitlin; Pommier, Elie; Keck, Thomas M; Donthamsetti, Prashant; Javitch, Jonathan A; Rais, Rana; Slusher, Barbara S; Xi, Zheng-Xiong; Newman, Amy Hauck

The dopamine D3 receptor (D3R) is a promising target for the development of pharmacotherapeutics to treat substance use disorders. Several D3R-selective antagonists are effective in animal models of drug abuse, especially in models of relapse. Nevertheless, poor bioavailability, metabolic instability, and/or predicted toxicity have impeded success in translating these drug candidates to clinical use…

Featured Paper of the Month – December 2015
Published in The Journal of Medical Chemistry by Selfridge, Brandon R; Wang, Xiaohui; Zhang, Yingning; Yin, Hang; Grace, Peter M; Watkins, Linda R; Jacobson, Arthur E; Rice, Kenner C

Activation of Toll-like receptors has been linked to neuropathic pain and opioid dependence. (+)-Naltrexone acts as a Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) antagonist and has been shown to reverse neuropathic pain in rat studies. We designed and synthesized compounds based on (+)-naltrexone and (+)-noroxymorphone and evaluated their TLR4 antagonist activities by their effects on inhibiting lipopolysaccharide (LPS) induced TLR4 downstream nitric oxide (NO) production in microglia BV-2 cells…

Featured Paper of the Month – November 2015
Published in JAMA Psychiatry by Hu, Yuzheng; Salmeron, Betty Jo; Gu, Hong; Stein, Elliot A; Yang, Yihong

Converging evidence has long identified both impulsivity and compulsivity as key psychological constructs in drug addiction. Although dysregulated striatal-cortical network interactions have been identified in cocaine addiction, the association between these brain networks and addiction is poorly understood…

Featured Paper of the Month – October 2015
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…

Featured Paper of the Month – September 2015
Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Li, Xuan; Rubio, Javier F; Zeric, Tamara; Bossert, Jennifer M; Kambhampati, Sarita; Cates, Hannah M; Kennedy, Pamela J; Liu, Qing-Rong; Cimbro, Raffaello; Hope, Bruce T; Nestler, Eric J; Shaham, Yavin

Cue-induced methamphetamine seeking progressively increases after withdrawal (incubation of methamphetamine craving), but the underlying mechanisms are largely unknown. We determined whether this incubation is associated with alterations in candidate genes in dorsal striatum (DS), a brain area implicated in cue- and context-induced drug relapse.

Featured Paper of the Month – August 2015
Published in The Journal of Neuroscience by Root, David H; Hoffman, Alexander F; Good, Cameron H; Zhang, Shiliang; Gigante, Eduardo; Lupica, Carl R; Morales, Marisela

The lateral habenula (LHb) is involved in reward and aversion and is reciprocally connected with dopamine (DA)-containing brain regions, including the ventral tegmental area (VTA). We used a multidisciplinary approach to examine the properties of DA afferents to the LHb in the rat. We find that >90% of VTA tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) neurons projecting to the LHb lack vesicular monoamine transporter 2 (VMAT2) mRNA, and there is little coexpression of TH and VMAT2 protein in this mesohabenular pathway…

Featured Paper of the Month – July 2015
Published in Biological Psychiatry by Adinoff, Bryon; Gu, Hong; Merrick, Carmen; McHugh, Meredith; Jeon-Slaughter, Haekyung; Lu, Hanzhang; Yang, Yihong; Stein, Elliot A

Cocaine-induced neuroplastic changes may result in a heightened propensity for relapse. Using regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) as a marker of basal neuronal activity, this study assessed alterations in rCBF and related resting state functional connectivity (rsFC) to prospectively predict relapse in patients following treatment for cocaine use disorder (CUD)…

Featured Paper of the Month – June 2015
Published in Neuropsychopharmacology by Wang, Xiao-Fei; Bi, Guo-Hua; He, Yi; Yang, Hong-Ju; Gao, Jun-Tao; Okunola-Bakare, Oluyomi M; Slack, Rachel D; Gardner, Eliot L; Xi, Zheng-Xiong; Newman, Amy Hauck

(+/-)-Modafinil (MOD) is used clinically for the treatment of sleep disorders and has been investigated as a potential medication for the treatment of psychostimulant addiction. However, the therapeutic efficacy of (+/-)-MOD for addiction is inconclusive. Herein we used animal models of self-administration and in vivo microdialysis to study the pharmacological actions of R-modafinil (R-MOD) and S-modafinil (S-MOD) on nicotine-taking and nicotine-seeking behavior, and mechanisms underlying such actions…

Featured Paper of the Month – May 2015
Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by Kusumoto-Yoshida, Ikue; Liu, Haixin; Chen, Billy T; Fontanini, Alfredo; Bonci, Antonello

Reward-related circuits are fundamental for initiating feeding on the basis of food-predicting cues, whereas gustatory circuits are believed to be involved in the evaluation of food during consumption. However, accumulating evidence challenges such a rigid separation. The insular cortex (IC), an area largely studied in rodents for its role in taste processing, is involved in representing anticipatory cues…