Changes That May Occur In Neural Circuits Due To Addiction Identified
Monday, May 12, 2014 - 20:30
in Biology & Nature
A research team from the Friedman Brain Institute of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai has published evidence which finds that subtle changes of inhibitory signaling in the reward pathway can change how animals respond to drugs such as cocaine. The authors say this is the first study to demonstrate the critical links between the levels of the trafficking protein, the potassium channels' effect on neuronal activity and a mouse's response to cocaine. The authors investigated the role of sorting nexin 27 (SNX27), a PDZ-containing protein known to bind GIRK2c/GIRK3 channels, in regulating GIRK currents in dopamine (DA) neurons on the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in mice. read more