Abstract
Drugs of abuse cause activation of the cyclic AMP response element binding protein (CREB) in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). Expression of active CREB in rat NAc medium spiny neurons (MSNs) increased their excitability, whereas dominant-negative CREB had the opposite effect. Decreasing excitability of NAc MSNs in vivo by overexpression of potassium channels enhanced locomotor responses to cocaine, suggesting that the increased NAc MSN excitability caused by CREB helped to limit behavioral sensitivity to cocaine.
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Acknowledgements
We thank E. Sura and W. Ju for technical assistance and J. Trimmer, R.C. Yu and R. Axel for providing constructs. This work was supported by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the US National Institute of Mental Health.
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Supplementary information
Supplementary Table 1
Membrane properties of NAc medium spiny neurons in slice culture (PDF 68 kb)
Supplementary Table 2
Membrane properties of NAc medium spiny neurons in acute slices (PDF 69 kb)
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Dong, Y., Green, T., Saal, D. et al. CREB modulates excitability of nucleus accumbens neurons. Nat Neurosci 9, 475–477 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1661
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1661
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