Browsing by Subject "glutamate"
Now showing items 1-5 of 5
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(2019)Understanding how neuronal activity patterns in the brain correlate with complex behavior is one of the primary goals of modern neuroscience. Chemical transmission is the major way of communication between neurons, however, traditional methods of detection of neurotransmitter and neuromodulator transients in mammalian brain lack spatiotemporal precision. Modern fluorescent biosensors for neurotransmitters and neuromodulators allow monitoring chemical transmission in vivo with millisecond precision and single cell resolution. Changes in the fluorescent biosensor brightness occur upon neurotransmitter binding and can be detected using fiber photometry, stationary microscopy and miniaturized head-mounted microscopes. Biosensors can be expressed in the animal brain using adeno-associated viral vectors, and their cell-specific expression can be achieved with Cre-recombinase expressing animals. Although initially fluorescent biosensors for chemical transmission were represented by glutamate biosensors, nowadays biosensors for GABA, acetylcholine, glycine, norepinephrine, and dopamine are available as well. In this review, we overview functioning principles of existing intensiometric and ratiometric biosensors and provide brief insight into the variety of neurotransmitter-binding proteins from bacteria, plants, and eukaryotes including G-protein coupled receptors, which may serve as neurotransmitter-binding scaffolds. We next describe a workflow for development of neurotransmitter and neuromodulator biosensors. We then discuss advanced setups for functional imaging of neurotransmitter transients in the brain of awake freely moving animals. We conclude by providing application examples of biosensors for the studies of complex behavior with the single-neuron precision.
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(Helsingfors universitet, 2010)Glutamate is the principal excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system. Glutamatergic neurotransmission plays a central role in the development and maintenance of drug addiction. Glutamate interacts with other neurotransmitters such as dopamine in the actions concerning addiction. During the development of drug addiction, plastic changes in the neuronal connections related to memory and learning occur for example in the amount of synapses and in the efficacy of their action. Glutamatergic AMPA receptor and especially its GluA1 subunit are thought to be included in the neurobiological mechanisms related to drug addiction. Compulsive drug craving and relapses to drug use after a period of abstinence are central problems among people suffering drug addiction. Conditioned place preference is a technique that is used to study motivational properties of drugs in experimental animals. The aim of this master's thesis was to examine the importance of glutamatergic AMPA receptor GluA1 subunit in the morphine-induced place preference and in its extinction and reinstatement behaviour. Locomotor activity of mice was studied during all the phases of experiment. Glutamatergic AMPA receptor GluA1 subunit-deficient (GluA1-/-) and their control (wildtype) mice, based on C57BL/6J mouse strain, were used in the experiments. During the conditioning phase, the mice were trained to associate the effects of morphine (20 mg/kg) with a specific environment. After conditioning, the extinction with morphine paired conditioning environment was assessed by giving saline (0,9 % NaCl solution) to mice. The extinction phase was followed by reinstatement test, in which mice were given morphine (20 mg/kg). The seeking of animals with morphine paired conditioning environment described drug-seeking during different phases of experiment. GluA1-/- mice were more hyperactive when placed in the testing environment compared to the wildtype mice. However, the morphine-induced locomotor activity did not differ between genotypes. Locomotor activity of both genotypes was sensitized equally in consequence of repeated morphine exposures. Morphine induced place preference in both genotypes. Furthermore, the extinction of morphine place preference happened in both genotypes. However, the results of reinstatement test differed partly between genotypes. The place preference was reinstated by morphine in wildtype mice, but not in GluA1-/- mice, when using repeated testing extinction method. Instead of place preference, wildtype mice exhibited place aversion, when extinction method was saline conditioning. As a result of these experiments, extinction method can have an impact on the results of reinstatement test and conclusions cannot be done on the importance of GluA1 subunit in morphine reinstatement. In conclusion, the results of place preference experiments support the conception that GluA1 subunit is not significant in morphine conditioning. However, based on these experiments, GluA1 subunit is not important in morphine extinction, as one might assume on the basis of literature. GluA1 subunit may have an importance in morphine reinstatement, although the results of reinstatement test were partly contradictory.
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(2006)Repeated use of drugs of abuse induces permanent changes in the brain that together with environmental factors can promote the development of addiction. Addiction to alcohol or drugs is a chronic disease that is characterized by a compulsion to seek and take the drug, loss of control in limiting intake, continued use despite obvious harm, and recurrent relapses. Behavioral animal models of addiction are invaluable tools for evaluating the neuroadaptations underlying these behaviors. Behavioral sensitization is a form of neuronal plasticity where repeated administration of drugs induces a progressive and enduring enhancement in their behavioral and neurochemical effects. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in susceptibility to morphine-induced behavioral and neurochemical sensitization in alcohol-preferring AA and alcohol-avoiding ANA rat lines, and to clarify its role on voluntary intake of ethanol. In vivo microdialysis was used to examine dopaminergic, glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission in the brain. Interactions between behavioral sensitization and voluntary ethanol intake were assessed in AA rats during and after the rats were sensitized to morphine. The results showed that AA rats are more susceptible to morphine-induced behavioral sensitization than ANA rats. Neurochemical studies indicated a dissociation between the locomotor stimulant effects of morphine and extracellular levels of dopamine in the nucleus accumbens. In addition, sensitization to morphine affected glutamatergic transmission in the ventral tegmental area differently in AA and ANA rats. In contrast, extracellular levels of GABA differed neither between the lines nor between morphine- sensitized rats and controls. Glutamatergic transmission is therefore potentially involved in the higher susceptibility to morphine-induced sensitization in AA rats relative to ANAs, but the role of GABA remains unclear. Morphine-induced behavioral sensitization or other long-term adaptations in the brain induced by repeated morphine administration were not critically involved in the regulation of voluntary ethanol drinking. Opioid receptor activation with morphine injection, however, was shown to dramatically increase ethanol drinking in morphine-sensitized AA rats. Thus, the neuronal mechanisms underlying behavioral sensitization to morphine probably are distinct from those mediating ethanol reinforcement. In contrast, when given an additional morphine injection, reinforcing effects of ethanol were enhanced in AA rats sensitized to morphine.
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(2019)Extinction and reinstatement of morphine-induced conditioned place preference were studied in glutamate α-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid-receptor GluA1 subunit-deficient mice (global GluA1-KO mice). In line with previous findings, both acquisition and expression of conditioned place preference to morphine (20 mg/kg, subcutaneously) were fully functional in GluA1 KO mice compared with wild-type littermate controls (GluA1-WT), thus enabling the study of extinction. With a 10-session extinction paradigm, the GluA1 KO mice showed complete extinction similar to that of the GluA1-WT mice. Morphine-induced reinstatement (10 mg/kg, subcutaneously) was detected in both mouse lines. GluA1 KO mice moved more during all the phases of the experiment, including the place conditioning trials, extinction sessions, and place preference tests. The results suggest that the GluA1 subunit may be dispensable or prone to compensation at the neural circuitries delineating extinction and reinstatement. The GluA1 KO mice show altered long-term between-session habituation, which extends longer than previously anticipated.
