Project description:Maintenance of the drug-addicted state involves changes in gene expression in different neuronal cell types and neural circuits. Midbrain dopamine neurons in particular mediate numerous responses to drugs of abuse. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate CNS gene expression through a variety of mechanisms, but very little is known about their role in drug abuse. The proportion of lncRNAs that are primate-specific provides a strong rationale for their study in human drug abusers. We examined the profile of lncRNA expression in postmortem human midbrain specimens from chronic cocaine abusers and well-matched control subjects (n=11 subject pairs) using a custom lncRNA microarray. Differential expression was validated by quantitative PCR, and cellular localization investigated by in situ hybridization histochemistry.A profile of lncRNAs significantly dysregulated in chronic cocaine abusers was determined. LncRNAs with dopamine cell-specific expression, differential subcellular distribution, covariance with protein-coding genes, and tissue-specific drug-responsiveness were identified. Dysregulation of midbrain lncRNA expression may reflect pathophysiological processes associated with chronic cocaine abuse. LncRNAs may be central mediators of cellular responses to drug abuse. cRNAs were generated from postmortem human midbrain specimens from chronic cocaine abusers and well-matched control subjects and hybridized to a custom Agilent 4 x 44,000-feature high-density oligonucleotide microarray platform using 60-mer probes. Cocaine control pairs were run together in a dye-flip two-color design, meaning each sample was run in quadruplicate, twice with each dye (Alexa-647 and Alexa-555; Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA). Microarray slides were scanned with the default Agilent protocol and the intensity of fluorescence between dyes was normalized using a Loess correction. There are 7 probes per gene. Data across all cases and quadruplicates were quantile-normalized.
Project description:Maintenance of the drug-addicted state involves changes in gene expression in different neuronal cell types and neural circuits. Midbrain dopamine neurons in particular mediate numerous responses to drugs of abuse. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) regulate CNS gene expression through a variety of mechanisms, but very little is known about their role in drug abuse. The proportion of lncRNAs that are primate-specific provides a strong rationale for their study in human drug abusers. We examined the profile of lncRNA expression in postmortem human midbrain specimens from chronic cocaine abusers and well-matched control subjects (n=11 subject pairs) using a custom lncRNA microarray. Differential expression was validated by quantitative PCR, and cellular localization investigated by in situ hybridization histochemistry.A profile of lncRNAs significantly dysregulated in chronic cocaine abusers was determined. LncRNAs with dopamine cell-specific expression, differential subcellular distribution, covariance with protein-coding genes, and tissue-specific drug-responsiveness were identified. Dysregulation of midbrain lncRNA expression may reflect pathophysiological processes associated with chronic cocaine abuse. LncRNAs may be central mediators of cellular responses to drug abuse.
Project description:Midbrain dopamine (DA)-synthesizing neurons play a key role in the addiction process, providing a compelling rationale for determining drug-induced molecular changes arising in these cells. This microarray-based study determined the profiles of midbrain gene expression in chronic cocaine abusers (n = 10) and well-matched drug-free control subjects (n = 10). Array-related procedures were performed in triplicate for each subject. Data analysis revealed that 98 array probes (corresponding to 91 genes) exhibited robust, statistically significant expression differences between chronic cocaine abusers and matched control subjects (p ? 0.05, FDR = 5%; with ? 1.4 fold-change cut-off applied). Changes in transcript abundance identified by microarray were validated by qPCR analysis in every instance examined (n = 11), regardless of the direction or magnitude of change, supporting the validity of the larger dataset of genes differentially expressed in cocaine abusers. Many of the genes exhibiting robust differential expression were associated with the regulation of transcription, chromatin function, or dopamine cell phenotype. For approximately one-half of these genes, transcript abundance was significantly predictive for subject assignment to the cocaine-abusing versus control cohort. The findings suggest that there is a molecular signature associated with core pathophysiological changes in the DA neurons of chronic cocaine abusers that can be exploited for the development of potential biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets for addiction. Human post-mortem midbrain gene expression derived from cocaine-related deaths are compared to midbrain gene expression of non-cocaine related deaths. Each subject was was arrayed in triplicates.
Project description:Midbrain dopamine (DA)-synthesizing neurons play a key role in the addiction process, providing a compelling rationale for determining drug-induced molecular changes arising in these cells. This microarray-based study determined the profiles of midbrain gene expression in chronic cocaine abusers (n = 10) and well-matched drug-free control subjects (n = 10). Array-related procedures were performed in triplicate for each subject. Data analysis revealed that 98 array probes (corresponding to 91 genes) exhibited robust, statistically significant expression differences between chronic cocaine abusers and matched control subjects (p ≤ 0.05, FDR = 5%; with ≥ 1.4 fold-change cut-off applied). Changes in transcript abundance identified by microarray were validated by qPCR analysis in every instance examined (n = 11), regardless of the direction or magnitude of change, supporting the validity of the larger dataset of genes differentially expressed in cocaine abusers. Many of the genes exhibiting robust differential expression were associated with the regulation of transcription, chromatin function, or dopamine cell phenotype. For approximately one-half of these genes, transcript abundance was significantly predictive for subject assignment to the cocaine-abusing versus control cohort. The findings suggest that there is a molecular signature associated with core pathophysiological changes in the DA neurons of chronic cocaine abusers that can be exploited for the development of potential biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets for addiction.
Project description:Dysregulated expression of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) has been demonstrated as being implicated in a variety of human diseases. In the study we aimed to determine lncRNA profile in CD8+ T cells response to active tuberculosis (TB).