| First Author | McCullough KM | Year | 2020 |
| Journal | Nat Commun | Volume | 11 |
| Issue | 1 | Pages | 5180 |
| PubMed ID | 33057013 | Mgi Jnum | J:297626 |
| Mgi Id | MGI:6471400 | Doi | 10.1038/s41467-020-18985-6 |
| Citation | McCullough KM, et al. (2020) Genome-wide translational profiling of amygdala Crh-expressing neurons reveals role for CREB in fear extinction learning. Nat Commun 11(1):5180 |
| abstractText | Fear and extinction learning are adaptive processes caused by molecular changes in specific neural circuits. Neurons expressing the corticotropin-releasing hormone gene (Crh) in central amygdala (CeA) are implicated in threat regulation, yet little is known of cell type-specific gene pathways mediating adaptive learning. We translationally profiled the transcriptome of CeA Crh-expressing cells (Crh neurons) after fear conditioning or extinction in mice using translating ribosome affinity purification (TRAP) and RNAseq. Differential gene expression and co-expression network analyses identified diverse networks activated or inhibited by fear vs extinction. Upstream regulator analysis demonstrated that extinction associates with reduced CREB expression, and viral vector-induced increased CREB expression in Crh neurons increased fear expression and inhibited extinction. These findings suggest that CREB, within CeA Crh neurons, may function as a molecular switch that regulates expression of fear and its extinction. Cell-type specific translational analyses may suggest targets useful for understanding and treating stress-related psychiatric illness. |
