Here, female High Drinking in the Dark (HDID) mice were stereotaxically injected with 0.5uL rAAV2/5-CMV-Cre-GFP and 0.5uL rAAV2-hSyn-DIO-hM3Dq-mCherry bilaterally into the NAc. A Drinking in the Dark (DID) experiment lasting 6 weeks was carried out with 2 fluid groups (water or ethanol) and 2 treatment groups (VEH/VEH/VEH or VEH/CNO/VEH). Mice were serially treated with vehicle prior to DID during week 1 to establish baseline drinking, CNO (1mg/kg) during weeks 2-5 to measure the effects of chronic treatment, and then mice were treated with vehicle again during week 6 to determine if there were any lasting effects of chronic CNO treatment. This gene set comprises 1,157 genes that were differentially expressed in water drinking HDID mice treated with CNO as compared to the water drinking and vehicle treated control group (H2O(CNO) vs H2O(VEH)).
Authors:
Darya Y. Pozhidayeva, Sean P. Farris, Calla M. Goeke, Evan J. Firsick, Kayla G. Townsley, Marina Guizzetti, and Angela R. Ozburn
Here, female High Drinking in the Dark (HDID) mice were stereotaxically injected with 0.5uL rAAV2/5-CMV-Cre-GFP and 0.5uL rAAV2-hSyn-DIO-hM3Dq-mCherry bilaterally into the NAc. A Drinking in the Dark (DID) experiment lasting 6 weeks was carried out with 2 fluid groups (water or ethanol) and 2 treatment groups (VEH/VEH/VEH or VEH/CNO/VEH). Mice were serially treated with vehicle prior to DID during week 1 to establish baseline drinking, CNO (1mg/kg) during weeks 2-5 to measure the effects of chronic treatment, and then mice were treated with vehicle again during week 6 to determine if there were any lasting effects of chronic CNO treatment. This gene set comprises 612 genes that were uniquely differentially expressed in the nucleus accumbens of only H2O drinking HDID mice treated with CNO as compared to the water drinking and vehicle treated control group.
Authors:
Darya Y. Pozhidayeva, Sean P. Farris, Calla M. Goeke, Evan J. Firsick, Kayla G. Townsley, Marina Guizzetti, and Angela R. Ozburn
Alcohol transcriptome changes in mice microglia total homogenate log2FC
Description:
Microglia are fundamentally important immune cells within the central nervous system (CNS) that respond to environmental challenges to maintain normal physiological processes. Alterations in steady-state cellular function and over-activation of microglia can facilitate the initiation and progression of neuropathological conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Multiple Sclerosis, and Major Depressive Disorder. Alcohol consumption disrupts signaling pathways including both innate and adaptive immune responses that are necessary for CNS homeostasis. Coordinate expression of these genes is not ascertained from an admixture of CNS cell-types, underscoring the importance of examining isolated cellular populations to reveal systematic gene expression changes arising from mature microglia. Unbiased RNA-Seq profiling was used to identify gene expression changes in isolated prefrontal cortical microglia in response to recurring bouts of voluntary alcohol drinking behavior. The voluntary ethanol paradigm utilizes long-term consumption ethanol that results in escalated alcohol intake and altered cortical plasticity that is seen in humans. Gene coexpression analysis identified a coordinately regulated group of genes, unique to microglia, that collectively are associated with alcohol consumption. Genes within this group are involved in toll-like receptor signaling and transforming growth factor beta signaling. Network connectivity of this group identified Siglech as a putative hub gene and highlighted the potential importance of proteases in the microglial response to chronic ethanol. In conclusion, we identified a distinctive microglial gene expression signature for neuroimmune responses related to alcohol consumption that provides valuable insight into microglia-specific changes underlying the development of substance abuse, and possibly other CNS disorders.
Authors:
Gizelle M McCarthy, Sean P Farris, Yuri A Blednov, R Adron Harris, R Dayne Mayfield
Analysis using RNA-seq of FACS-purified oligodendrocytes revealed a large cohort of morphine-regulated genes. In addition, to investigate cell-type-specific opioid responses, we performed single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) of the nucleus accumbens of mice following acute morphine treatment. Differential expression analysis uncovered unique morphine-dependent transcriptional responses by oligodendrocytes and astrocytes.
Authors:
Denis Avey, Sumithra Sankararaman, Aldrin K Y Yim, Ruteja Barve, Jeffrey Milbrandt, Robi D Mitra
Differential gene expression in nucleus accumbens somatostatin interneurons_cocaine_mice_logFC
Description:
To characterize transcriptional alterations that cocaine induces in these cells, we perform cell type-specific RNA-sequencing on FACS-isolated nuclei of somatostatin interneurons and identified 1100 DETs enriched for processes related to neural plasticity. To profile the entire (non poly-A selected) transcriptome of NAc somatostatin interneurons, we generated a transgenic reporter line (SST-TLG498 mice) to label the nuclei of these cells with a modified form of EGFP that is retained in the nuclear membrane (EGFP-F)22, enabling their isolation from NAc dissections using FACS. We succeeded in FACS-isolating nuclei suitable for RNA-sequencing from individual SST-TLG498 mice. We proceeded with differential expression analysis of the RNA-sequencing data to identify differentially expressed transcripts (DETs) in NAc somatostatin interneurons in response to repeated cocaine exposure: 778 transcripts were upregulated by cocaine and 322 were downregulated.
Authors:
Efrain A Ribeiro, Marine Salery, Joseph R Scarpa, Erin S Calipari, Peter J Hamilton, Stacy M Ku, Hope Kronman, Immanuel Purushothaman, Barbara Juarez, Mitra Heshmati, Marie Doyle, Casey Lardner, Dominicka Burek, Ana Strat, Stephen Pirpinias, Ezekiell Mouzon, Ming-Hu Han, Rachael L Neve, Rosemary C Bagot, Andrew Kasarskis, Ja Wook Koo, Eric J Nestler
DEG male mouse forebrain 3-tri morphine vs saline_pvalue
Description:
To examine forebrain transcriptomic changes that might elucidate mechanisms of withdrawal, delayed development, and any long-term behavior changes, we generated transcriptomic signatures following our “3-trimester” exposure model (3-Tri). In addition, we also examined transcriptomes from animals that received opioids only during the gestational period (PND1) or only during the last trimester from PND 1–14 (PND 14). We sought to determine whether transcriptomic signatures vary based on the window of exposure, perhaps contributing to the discrepancies in the literature regarding acute and long-term outcomes. Brains were dissected from PND 1 pups 6 h after discovery. Brains were dissected from post-natal exposure only (PND 14) or 3-trimester exposure (3-tri) 6 h after the last morphine or saline injection. The number of animals per group was similar (N = 5–7 animals, male and female C57Bl/6NTac mice), and the quality controls, library construction and sequence parameters were also identical across all groups. Libraries were sequenced on a NovaSeq 6000 at a depth of 30 million total reads/sample using paired-end sequencing of 150 base pairs (PE150), to a depth of 30 million total reads/sample. Reads were then mapped to the mouse reference genome (Mus Musculus, GRCm38/mm10) using HISAT2 (version 2.2.1), and duplicated fragments were removed using Picard MarkDuplicates. Differential expression analysis between two conditions (e.g., Morphine and Saline) was performed in R (version 4.1.1) with DESeq2 (v1.32.0) package. Genes were assigned by the authors as differentially expressed if the (adjusted) (nominal) p-value < 0.05. All genes/scores are presented here.
Authors:
Amelia D Dunn, Shivon A Robinson, Chiso Nwokafor, Molly Estill, Julia Ferrante, Li Shen, Crystal O Lemchi, Jordi Creus-Muncunill, Angie Ramirez, Juliet Mengaziol, Julia K Brynildsen, Mark Leggas, Jamie Horn, Michelle E Ehrlich, Julie A Blendy
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