Functional Plasticity and Genetic Variation: Insights into the Neurobiology of Alcoholism PDF
Preview Functional Plasticity and Genetic Variation: Insights into the Neurobiology of Alcoholism
SERIES EDITORS R. ADRON HARRIS Waggoner Centerfor Alcoholand Drug AddictionResearch The University of Texasat Austin Austin,Texas, USA PETER JENNER Division of Pharmacologyand Therapeutics GKTSchoolof Biomedical Sciences King’s College, London, UK EDITORIAL BOARD ERIC AAMODT HUDA AKIL PHILIPPE ASCHER MATTHEW J. DURING DONARD S. DWYER DAVID FINK MARTIN GIURFA BARRY HALLIWELL PAUL GREENGARD JON KAAS NOBU HATTORI LEAH KRUBITZER DARCY KELLEY KEVIN MCNAUGHT BEAU LOTTO JOS�E A. OBESO MICAELA MORELLI CATHY J. PRICE JUDITH PRATT SOLOMON H. SNYDER EVAN SNYDER STEPHEN G. WAXMAN JOHN WADDINGTON Functional Plasticity and Genetic Variation: Insights into the Neurobiology of Alcoholism EDITED BY MATTHEW T. REILLY Program Director-Molecular and Behavioral Genetics Division of Neuroscience and Behavior National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism National Institutes of Health 5635 Fishers Lane Suite 2065, MSC 9304 Bethesda, MD 20892-1705 USA and DAVID M. LOVINGER Laboratory for Integrative Neuroscience Division of Intramural Clinical and Biomedical Research National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism 5625 Fishers Lane, Room TS-11 Rockville, MD 20852 AMSTERDAM • BOSTON • HEIDELBERG • LONDON NEW YORK • OXFORD • PARIS • SAN DIEGO SAN FRANCISCO • SINGAPORE • SYDNEY • TOKYO Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier 360 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10010-1700 525 B Street, Suite 1900, San Diego, California 92101-4495, USA 32 Jamestown Road, London NW1 7BY, UK This book is printed on acid-free paper. Copyright © 2010, Elsevier Inc. All Rights Reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher. 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If no fee code appears on the title page, the copy fee is the same as for current chapters. 0074-7742/2007 $35.00 Permissions may be sought directly from Elsevier’s Science & Technology Rights Department in Oxford, UK: phone: (þ44) 1865 843830, fax: (þ44) 1865 853333, E-mail: [email protected]. You may also complete your request on-line via the Elsevier homepage (http://elsevier.com), by selecting ‘‘Support & Contact’’ then ‘‘Copyright and Permission’’ and then ‘‘Obtaining Permissions.’’ For information on all Elsevier publications visit our website at books.elsevier.com ISBN: 978-0-12-381276-6 PRINTED AND BOUND IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 10111213 987654321 Working together to grow libraries in developing countries www.elsevier.com | www.bookaid.org | www.sabre.org CONTRIBUTORS Numbers in parentheses indicate the pages on which the authors contributions begin. Kenneth Abernathy (289), Department of Neurosciences and Center for Drug and Alcohol Programs, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA Karl Bjo¨rk (129), Translational Neuropharmacology, Center for Molecular Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden Kari J. Buck (173), Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, VA Medical Center and Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA L. Judson Chandler (289), Department of Neurosciences and Center for Drug and Alcohol Programs, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA Daniel T. Christian (205), Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA Marvin R. Diaz (205), Neuroscience Training Program, Wake Forest Univer sity School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA Sean P. Farris (95), Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA Anita C. Hansson (129), Department of Psychopharmacology, Central Insti tute for Mental Health, D 68159 Mannheim, Germany Shirley Y. Hill (53), Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA Anna K. La¨ck (205), Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC 27157, USA Britta Lindquist (339), Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA Gilles Erwan Martin (321), Department of Psychiatry, The Brudnick Neu ropsychiatric Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA 01605, USA Brian A. McCool (205), Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Trans lational Center for the Neurobehavioral Study of Alcohol, and Neuroscience Training Program, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston- Salem, NC 27157, USA ix x CONTRIBUTORS Michael F. Miles (95), Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA Lauren C. Milner (173), Department of Behavioral Neuroscience, VA Medical Center and Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA Hitoshi Morikawa (235), Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA Richard A. Morrisett (235), Waggoner Center for Alcohol and Addiction Research, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA Andrzej Zbigniew Pietrzykowski (1), Department of Animal Sciences, Rut gers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1414, USA Aylin R. Rodan (25), Division of Nephrology, Department of Psychiatry and Program in Neuroscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA Adrian Rothenfluh (25), Department of Psychiatry and Program in Neu roscience, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA Wolfgang H. Sommer (129), Department of Psychopharmacology, Central Institute for Mental Health, D 68159 Mannheim, Germany C. Fernando Valenzuela (339), Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA Aaron R. Wolen (95), Department of Human and Molecular Genetics, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA 23298, USA John J. Woodward (289), Department of Neurosciences and Center for Drug and Alcohol Programs, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, SC 29425, USA Paula A. Zamudio-Bulcock (339), Department of Neurosciences, School of Medicine, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA PREFACE The brain, arguably the most complex organ of the body, plays a critical role in the predisposition, expression, and maintenance of alcoholism. This adds an unmatched degree of complexity in the search for the causes of alcoholism as compared to other illnesses with a genetic component such as type 2 diabetes. The brain orchestrates such processes as cognition, emotion, mood, learning, and motivation through circuits in a network of different brain regions, which communicate through synaptic connections. Synaptic communication is spa tially and temporally mediated by the cellular expression of genes, regulation of the expression of these genes, and the functioning of the corresponding proteins. However, how individual differences, influenced by genetic variation, affect synaptic communication and functional plasticity of alcohol-sensitive brain circuits is not well understood. This is a burgeoning research area which holds promise for psychiatric research in general (Akil et al., 2010; Koob and Volkow, 2010). Over the last several decades, a great deal of work has examined the consequences of alcohol exposure on the plasticity of the brain. A parallel line of work has begun to uncover the genes and genetic variation that might contribute to or mediate alcohol-induced plasticity. This volume contains critical reviews of the current state of these research domains: Functional plasticity and genetic variation; which we hope will offer novel insights into the neurobiology of alcoholism. The first chapter discusses the newly identified role of microRNAs in the neuronal mechanisms of alcohol tolerance and the potential involvement in other alcohol phenotypes. The use of Drosophila in understanding the genetics of alcohol-related phenotypes is then reviewed followed by a chapter on neural plasticity, human genetics, and risk for alcohol dependence. In the next two chapters, approaches to understand alcoholism via examination of gene expres sion are reviewed. The first of these (Farris et al.) is a comprehensive review of the powerful use of expression genetics to study the neurobiology of alcoholism, while the second (Bjo¨rk et al.) highlights the need to examine gene expression altera tions in clinically relevant animal models of alcoholism. The final chapter in this section reviews progress in the identification of genes for alcohol phenotypes in mice. The second half of the volume changes gears with chapters focusing on the cellular and synaptic consequences of alcohol-induced plasticity in specific brain regions. The first of these reviews glutamate plasticity in the amygdala followed by a chapter on ethanol action on dopamine neurons of the ventral tegmental xi xii PREFACE area. The prefrontal cortex and striatum are covered in the next two chapters. Finally, synaptic plasticity at Purkinje neurons in the cerebellum is reviewed. In summary, this volume has highlighted two important areas in alcohol research which have significantly increased our understanding and given us an appreciation for the complexity of alcoholism as a brain disease. We hope this volume will begin to stimulate some convergence between these areas. MATTHEW T. REILLY DAVID M. LOVINGER References Akil, H., Brenner, S., Kandel, E., Kendler, K. S., King, M. C., Scolnick, E., Watson, J. D., and Zoghbi, H. Y. (2010). Medicine. The future of psychiatric research: Genomes and neural circuits. Science 327(5973), 1580–1581. Koob, G. F., and Volkow, N. D. (2010). Neurocircuitry of addiction. Neuropsychopharmacology 35(1), 217–238. THE ROLE OF microRNAs IN DRUG ADDICTION: A BIG LESSON FROM TINY MOLECULES Andrzej Zbigniew Pietrzykowski Department of Animal Sciences, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ 08901-1414, USA I. Introduction II. microRNA A. Overview B. Role of microRNA in Brain Function and Neuronal Plasticity III. microRNA and Alcohol A. Regulation of microRNA by Alcohol B. microRNA and Alcoholism Susceptibility Loci C. Alcohol-Relevant microRNA Targets IV. Future Directions V. Conclusions References Alcoholism is a multifactorial disease of unclear molecular underpinnings. Currently, we are witnessing a major shift in our understanding of the func tional elements of the genome, which could help us to discover novel insights into the nature of alcoholism. In humans, the vast majority of the genome encodes non-protein-coding DNA with unclear function. Recent research has started to unveil this mystery by describing the functional relevance of micro RNAs,and examining which genesare regulatedby non-protein-codingDNA. Here, I describe alcohol regulation of microRNAs and provide examples of microRNAs that control the expression of alcohol-relevant genes. Emphasis is put on the potential of microRNAs in explaining the polygenic nature of alcoholism and prospects of microRNA research and future directions of this burgeoning field. INTERNATIONAL REVIEW OF 1 Copyright 2010, Elsevier Inc. NEUROBIOLOGY, VOL. 91 All rights reserved. DOI: 10.1016/S0074-7742(10)91001-5 0074-7742/10 $35.00 2 PIETRZYKOWSKI I. Introduction Alcoholism is a complex, human disease, with strong genetic and environ mental components(Pinto andAnsseau, 2009). Mounting evidence, accumulated over several decades, leaves practically no doubt that genetic factors contribute significantly to the development and maintenance of alcohol addiction. However, all these data suggest that there is no single gene responsible for alcoholism, but rather that alcoholism is a polygenic disease by nature (Tabakoff et al., 2009). Severalloci bear the risk associated with alcoholism, and certain loci are linked to specific phenotypes, such as tolerance, withdrawal, etc.(Tabakoff et al., 2009). It is thought that genes located within these loci express products with altered abundance or products with altered function that puts an organism at higher risk of developing alcoholism upon exposure to alcohol. Human linkage and association studies have identified several candidate genes for susceptibility toward alcoholism (e.g., alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH), aldehyde dehydrogenase (ADLH), gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) A receptor subunits, muscarinic receptors, opioid receptors, etc.), which have been replicated in multiple studies. Animal models, including invertebrate models, have identified candidate genes for specific alcohol phenotypes (Davies et al., 2003; Tabakoff et al., 2009). How ever, much of the genetic variation contributing to alcoholism has yet to be identified. In addition to genetic factors, there is an important contribution of environmental factors to alcoholism. Multiple environmental factors (e.g., stress) substantially contribute to the risk of becoming an alcoholic (Breese et al., 2005; Fox et al., 2007; Madrid et al., 2001; Sinha, 2007). Importantly, alcohol addiction cannot develop without exposure to alcohol and thus susceptible individuals must be in an environment where alcohol is available. Based on epidemiological data, the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) has created worldwide guidelines for alcohol consumption. In the United States, women should con sume no more than one standard drink (14g EtOH = 12 fl. oz of beer, 5fl. oz of wine,1fl.ozof distilled spirits)perday, while men should consumenomorethan two standard drinks per day (Ferreira and Willoughby, 2008) to avoid the detrimental effects of alcohol.However, thereis surprisingly little data describing molecular underpinnings of alcohol exposure and an associated probability of development of alcoholism. Therefore, it is important to understand how differ ent alcohol exposure patterns can lead to different qualitative and/or quantitative changes in molecular pathways relevant for development of addiction. In this chapter, we will describe some recent advances in our understanding of alcohol regulation of molecular processes, which should help in answering these questions. We will focus specifically on the role of microRNAs, newly discovered regulators of gene expression, and their potential to explain the effects of alcohol on multiple molecular pathways and the polygenic nature of alcoholism.
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