Featured Paper of the Month

Impaired functional connectivity within and between frontostriatal circuits and its association with compulsive drug use and trait impulsivity in cocaine addiction.

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…

Mechanism of the Association between Na+ Binding and Conformations at the Intracellular Gate in Neurotransmitter:Sodium Symporters.

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…

Incubation of methamphetamine craving is associated with selective increases in expression of Bdnf and Trkb, glutamate receptors, and epigenetic enzymes in cue-activated fos-expressing dorsal striatal neurons.

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.

Norepinephrine activates dopamine D4 receptors in the rat lateral habenula.

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…

Basal Hippocampal Activity and Its Functional Connectivity Predicts Cocaine Relapse

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)…

R-Modafinil Attenuates Nicotine-Taking and Nicotine-Seeking Behavior in Alcohol-Preferring Rats

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…

Central role for the insular cortex in mediating conditioned responses to anticipatory cues

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…

An in vitro model of human neocortical development using pluripotent stem cells: cocaine-induced cytoarchitectural alterations

Featured Paper of the Month – April 2015
Published in Disease Models & Mechanisms by Kindberg, Abigail A; Bendriem, Raphael M; Spivak, Charles E; Chen, Jia; Handreck, Annelie; Lupica, Carl R; Liu, Jinny; Freed, William J; Lee, Chun-Ting

Neocortical development involves ordered specification of forebrain cortical progenitors to various neuronal subtypes, ultimately forming the layered cortical structure. Modeling of this process using human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) would enable mechanistic studies of human neocortical development, while providing new avenues for exploration of developmental neocortical abnormalities…

Functional selectivity of allosteric interactions within G protein-coupled receptor oligomers: the dopamine D1-D3 receptor heterotetramer.

Featured Paper of the Month – March 2015
Published in Molecular Pharmacology by Guitart, Xavier; Navarro, Gemma; Moreno, Estefania; Yano, Hideaki; Cai, Ning-Sheng; Sanchez-Soto, Marta; Kumar-Barodia, Sandeep; Naidu, Yamini T; Mallol, Josefa; Cortes, Antoni; Lluis, Carme; Canela, Enric I; Casado, Vicent; McCormick, Peter J; Ferre, Sergi

The dopamine D1 receptor-D3 receptor (D1R-D3R) heteromer is being considered as a potential therapeutic target for neuropsychiatric disorders. Previous studies suggested that this heteromer could be involved in the ability of D3R agonists to potentiate locomotor activation induced by D1R agonists. It has also been postulated that its overexpression plays a role in L-dopa-induced dyskinesia and in drug addiction. However, little is known about its biochemical properties…

Synthesis and immunological effects of heroin vaccines

Featured Paper of the Month – February 2015
Published in Organic Biomolecular Chemistry by Li, Fuying; Cheng, Kejun; Antoline, Joshua F G; Iyer, Malliga R; Matyas, Gary R; Torres, Oscar B; Jalah, Rashmi; Beck, Zoltan; Alving, Carl R; Parrish, Damon A; Deschamps, Jeffrey R; Jacobson, Arthur E; Rice, Kenner C

Three haptens have been synthesized with linkers for attachment to carrier macromolecules at either the piperidino-nitrogen or via an introduced 3-amino group. Two of the haptens, with a 2-oxopropyl functionality at either C6, or at both the C3 and C6 positions on the 4,5-epoxymorphinan framework, as well as the third hapten (DiAmHap) with diamido moieties at both the C3 and C6 positions, should be much more stable in solution, or in vivo in a vaccine, than a hapten with an ester in one of those positions, as found in many heroin-based haptens…