| First Author | Wang C | Year | 2021 |
| Journal | Transl Psychiatry | Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 11 |
| PubMed ID | 33414382 | Mgi Jnum | J:324336 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6802959 | Doi | 10.1038/s41398-020-01161-1 |
| Citation | Wang C, et al. (2021) AgRP neurons trigger long-term potentiation and facilitate food seeking. Transl Psychiatry 11(1):11 |
| abstractText | Sufficient feeding is essential for animals' survival, which requires a cognitive capability to facilitate food seeking, but the neurobiological processes regulating food seeking are not fully understood. Here we show that stimulation of agouti-related peptide-expressing (AgRP) neurons triggers a long-term depression (LTD) of spontaneous excitatory post-synaptic current (sEPSC) in adjacent pro-opiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons and in most of their distant synaptic targets, including neurons in the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT). The AgRP-induced sEPCS LTD can be enhanced by fasting but blunted by satiety signals, e.g. leptin and insulin. Mice subjected to food-seeking tasks develop similar neural plasticity in AgRP-innervated PVT neurons. Further, ablation of the majority of AgRP neurons, or only a subset of AgRP neurons that project to the PVT, impairs animals' ability to associate spatial and contextual cues with food availability during food seeking. A similar impairment can be also induced by optogenetic inhibition of the AgRP-->PVT projections. Together, these results indicate that the AgRP-->PVT circuit is necessary for food seeking. |
