NOVEL GENES WITH ALTERED EXPRESSION DURING DRUG TREATMENT AND WITHDRAWAL

基因表达的变化可以在生物体的整个生命过程中保持 并可能成为成瘾行为长期变化的基础。 虐待 药物引起的长期行为障碍被认为是 由中枢神经系统中的生物机制维持， 大部分都是未知的。 在前几个财政年度， 开发了识别这些基因的方法，并记录了候选基因 受滥用药物调控的基因，包括 安非他明、可卡因和吗啡，但代表新的序列， 基因库搜索中的同源物。 这类新基因中的一个cDNA是 追求。 筛选大鼠大脑皮层cDNA文库， 在大鼠大脑皮层中识别8kb mRNA的cDNA。 进一步 研究将评估这种基因产物的大脑分布， 监管与发展和额外的药物治疗，以及其他 基因同源物，现在似乎代表了一个原型成员， 新的药物调控基因家族。

Changes in gene expression can be maintained over the life of an organism and may underlie long term changes in addictive behavior. Abused drugs-induce long-term behavioral disorders that are thought to be maintained by biological mechanisms in the central nervous system that are largely unknown. Work in this group during previous FYs has developed approaches to identifying such genes and documented candidate genes whose expression are regulated by abused drugs, including amphetamine, cocaine and morphine, but represent novel sequences without homologs in genebank searches. One cDNA in this class of new genes was pursued. Screening of rat cortex cDNA libraries produced a 2.4 kb in cDNA that recognizes to a 8 kb mRNA in rat cerebral cortex. Further studies will assess the brain distribution of this gene product, its regulation with development and additional drug treatments, and other gene homologs of what now appears to represent a prototypic member of a novel, drug-regulated gene family.