Faculty Collaboration Database

Corticosterone acts in the nucleus accumbens to enhance dopamine signaling and potentiate reinstatement of cocaine seeking. J Neurosci 2013 Jul 17;33(29):11800-10

Date

07/19/2013

Pubmed ID

23864669

Pubmed Central ID

PMC3713722

DOI

10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1969-13.2013

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-84880429231 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   114 Citations

Abstract

Stressful life events are important contributors to relapse in recovering cocaine addicts, but the mechanisms by which they influence motivational systems are poorly understood. Studies suggest that stress may "set the stage" for relapse by increasing the sensitivity of brain reward circuits to drug-associated stimuli. We examined the effects of stress and corticosterone on behavioral and neurochemical responses of rats to a cocaine prime after cocaine self-administration and extinction. Exposure of rats to acute electric footshock stress did not by itself reinstate drug-seeking behavior but potentiated reinstatement in response to a subthreshold dose of cocaine. This effect of stress was not observed in adrenalectomized animals, and was reproduced in nonstressed animals by administration of corticosterone at a dose that reproduced stress-induced plasma levels. Pretreatment with the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist RU38486 did not block the corticosterone effect. Corticosterone potentiated cocaine-induced increases in extracellular dopamine in the nucleus accumbens (NAc), and pharmacological blockade of NAc dopamine receptors blocked corticosterone-induced potentiation of reinstatement. Intra-accumbens administration of corticosterone reproduced the behavioral effects of stress and systemic corticosterone. Corticosterone treatment acutely decreased NAc dopamine clearance measured by fast-scan cyclic voltammetry, suggesting that inhibition of uptake₂-mediated dopamine clearance may underlie corticosterone effects. Consistent with this hypothesis, intra-accumbens administration of the uptake₂ inhibitor normetanephrine potentiated cocaine-induced reinstatement. Expression of organic cation transporter 3, a corticosterone-sensitive uptake₂ transporter, was detected on NAc neurons. These findings reveal a novel mechanism by which stress hormones can rapidly regulate dopamine signaling and contribute to the impact of stress on drug intake.

Author List

Graf EN, Wheeler RA, Baker DA, Ebben AL, Hill JE, McReynolds JR, Robble MA, Vranjkovic O, Wheeler DS, Mantsch JR, Gasser PJ

Authors

Paul Gasser BS,MS,PhD Assistant Professor in the Biomedical Sciences department at Marquette University
John Mantsch PhD Chair, Professor in the Pharmacology and Toxicology department at Medical College of Wisconsin

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Adrenalectomy
Animals
Behavior, Animal
Cocaine
Conditioning, Operant
Corticosterone
Dopamine
Dopamine Uptake Inhibitors
Drug-Seeking Behavior
Electroshock
Extinction, Psychological
Hormone Antagonists
Male
Mifepristone
Nucleus Accumbens
Rats
Rats, Sprague-Dawley
Receptors, Glucocorticoid
Self Administration
Signal Transduction
Stress, Physiological