Reviews To Read – January 3, 2018. From the NIDA IRP Real World Assessment, Prediction and Treatment Unit. In this invited commentary, Bill Kowalczyk and I weighed in on a new rat model of addiction developed by Chiara Giuliano in Barry Everitt’s lab at the University of Cambridge. Like other recently developed models of addiction,… [Read More]
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High fat diet disrupts endoplasmic reticulum calcium homeostasis in the rat liver.
Featured Paper of the Month – January 2018
Published in The Journal of Hepatology by Wires, Emily S; Trychta, Kathleen A; Back, Susanne; Sulima, Agnieszka; Rice, Kenner C; Harvey, Brandon K
From the NIDA IRP Molecular Mechanisms of Cellular Stress and Inflammation Section
The endoplasmic reticulum (ER) is cellular organelle that performs critical functions such as the production and processing of proteins, lipids and drugs. The ER also serves as the primary storage site for calcium inside the cell. Using a novel biological sensor protein called GLuc-SERCaMP developed by our laboratory at the NIDA IRP, we show that high fat diets causes changes to ER calcium in the livers of rats. Unrestricted access to high fat food pellets caused molecular changes to regulators of ER calcium and an increase in markers of fatty liver disease…
Kenner Rice Elected 2017 National Academy of Inventors Fellow
Dr. Kenner Rice from the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s (NIDA) Intramural Research Program (IRP) was recently named as a 2017 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). This is the highest professional accolade bestowed to academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have… [Read More]
Deletion of Type 2 Metabotropic Glutamate Receptor Decreases Sensitivity to Cocaine Reward in Rats.
Featured Paper of the Month – December 2017
Published in Cell Reports by Yang, Hong-Ju; Zhang, Hai-Ying; Bi, Guo-Hua; He, Yi; Gao, Jun-Tao; Xi, Zheng-Xiong
The etiology and pathophysiology of drug addiction are still not well understood. In this research paper, we show that genetic deletion of mGluR2, a presynaptic glutamate autoreceptor, decreases sensitivity to cocaine reward that causes a compensatory increase in cocaine intake and a decrease in relapse to cocaine-seeking behavior in rats…
Preclinical Studies of Cannabinoid Reward, Treatments for Cannabis Use Disorder, and Addiction-Related Effects of Cannabinoid Exposure
Reviews To Read – November 20, 2017
Panlilio, Leigh V; Justinova, Zuzana
Neuropsychopharmacology. 2017 Aug 28.
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Dr. Jeremy P. Waletzky Honored at NIDA IRP Event
The Jacob P. Waletzky Award of the Society for Neuroscience is given to a young scientist (within 15 years of his/her Ph.D. or M.D. degree) whose independent research has led to significant conceptual and empirical contributions to the understanding of drug addiction. Both basic and clinical researchers are eligible for the award. Future plans to… [Read More]
A relationship between the aldosterone-mineralocorticoid receptor pathway and alcohol drinking: preliminary translational findings across rats, monkeys and humans.
Featured Paper of the Month – November 2017
Published in Molecular Psychiatry by Aoun, E G; Jimenez, V A; Vendruscolo, L F; Walter, N A R; Barbier, E; Ferrulli, A; Haass-Koffler, C L; Darakjian, P; Lee, M R; Addolorato, G; Heilig, M; Hitzemann, R; Koob, G F; Grant, K A; Leggio, L
This paper describes three separate studies, conducted with non-human primates, rats, and humans, that investigated the potential contribution of the hormone aldosterone and its mineralocorticoid receptor to alcohol use disorder. Taken together, these findings suggest a relationship between excessive alcohol use, alcohol use disorder, and specific changes in the aldosterone/ mineralocorticoid receptor pathway marked by increased circulating aldosterone and decreased mineralocorticoid receptor gene expression in the amygdala…
Dr. Jeremy P. Waletzky Event
The Jacob P. Waletzky Award of the Society for Neuroscience is given to a young scientist (within 15 years of his/her Ph.D. or M.D. degree) whose independent research has led to significant conceptual and empirical contributions to the understanding of drug addiction. Both basic and clinical researchers are eligible for the award. Future plans to… [Read More]
The Anterior Insular Cortex–>Central Amygdala Glutamatergic Pathway Is Critical to Relapse after Contingency Management.
Hot Off the Press! – October 2017
Venniro, Marco; Caprioli, Daniele; Zhang, Michelle; Whitaker, Leslie R; Zhang, Shiliang; Warren, Brandon L; Cifani, Carlo; Marchant, Nathan J; Yizhar, Ofer; Bossert, Jennifer M; Chiamulera, Cristiano; Morales, Marisela; Shaham, Yavin
Neuron, 96 (2), pp. 414–427, 2017, ISSN: 1097-4199 (Electronic); 0896-6273 (Linking).
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Compulsive Addiction-like Aggressive Behavior in Mice.
Featured Paper of the Month – October 2017
Published in Biological Psychiatry by Golden, Sam A; Heins, Conor; Venniro, Marco; Caprioli, Daniele; Zhang, Michelle; Epstein, David H; Shaham, Yavin
Some people are highly motivated to seek aggressive encounters, and among those who have been incarcerated for such behavior, recidivism rates are high. These observations echo two core features of drug addiction: high motivation to seek addictive substances, despite adverse consequences, and high relapse rates. Here we used established rodent models of drug addiction to determine whether they would be sensitive to “addiction-like” features of aggression in CD-1 mice…