| First Author | Akers AT | Year | 2020 |
| Journal | eNeuro | Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 5 | PubMed ID | 32988984 |
| Mgi Jnum | J:302520 | Mgi Id | MGI:6508298 |
| Doi | 10.1523/ENEURO.0189-20.2020 | Citation | Akers AT, et al. (2020) Upregulation of nAChRs and Changes in Excitability on VTA Dopamine and GABA Neurons Correlates to Changes in Nicotine-Reward-Related Behavior. eNeuro 7(5):ENEURO.0189-20.2020 |
| abstractText | Previous reports indicate that nicotine reward is mediated through alpha4beta2*, alpha6beta2*, and alpha4alpha6beta2* nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs; * indicates that additional nAChR subunits may be present). Little is known about alpha4alpha6beta2* nAChR involvement in reward and reinforcement because of a lack of methods that allow the direct investigation of this particular nAChR subtype. Here, we use male and female mice that contain alpha4-mCherry and alpha6-GFP nAChR subunits to show that concentrations of nicotine sufficient to evoke reward-related behavior robustly upregulate alpha4* and alpha4alpha6* nAChRs on midbrain dopamine (DA) and GABA neurons. Furthermore, the extent of alpha4alpha6* nAChR upregulation on ventral tegmental area (VTA) DA neurons aligns with the magnitude of nicotine reward-related behavior. We also show that the upregulation of nAChRs is accompanied by a functional change in firing frequency of both DA and GABA neurons in the VTA that is directly linked to nicotine reward-related behavior. |
