Alcohol action on extended amygdala glutamate synapses

描述（由申请人提供）：酗酒是我们社会巨大的健康和经济负担。越来越多的文献表明，一系列相互关联的大脑区域（被称为扩展杏仁核）在酒精相关行为中起着关键作用。在孤立的研究中，我们和其他人已经确定了这些区域的突触对急性和慢性乙醇暴露的适应。在这里，我们提出了平行实验，以检查该电路中的关键点对常见酒精治疗方案的反应，以更好地确定乙醇和乙醇戒断的协同效应。此外，我们将通过使用NMDA受体亚基NR2B的新条件敲除小鼠结合病毒定向敲除策略来评估参与这些作用的分子机制。总的来说，这项工作将开始确定可能在慢性酒精摄入相关的病理适应和行为中发挥关键作用的具体机制，从而为治疗发展提供新的潜在机会。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Alcoholism is a tremendous health and financial burden on our society. A growing literature indicates that a series of interconnected brain regions referred to as the extended amygdala plays a key role in alcohol-related behaviors. In isolated studies, we and others have identified adaptations that occur at synapses in these regions in response to acute and chronic ethanol exposure. Here, we propose experiments to in parallel examine key points in this circuitry for their responses to a common alcohol treatment regimen, to better determine the concerted effects of ethanol and ethanol withdrawal. Moreover, we will assess molecular mechanisms involved in these actions through the use of a new conditional knockout mouse for the NMDA receptor subunit NR2B combined with a viral-directed knockout strategy. In total, the proposed work will begin to define specific mechanisms likely to play key roles in pathological adaptations and behaviors associated with chronic alcohol intake, thus providing new potential opportunities for therapeutic development.