Project description:The nucleus accumbens plays a central role in ther regulation of reward, emotion, motivation and goal-directed behavior. Gene expression impairments in this brain region are of crucial interest to understand the neurobiological underpinnings of heroin use disorder. We used the Affymetrix HG-U133A microarray to assess gene expression in the post-mortem nucleus accumbens of human heroin users and control subjects and identified differentially expressed genes.
Project description:Single-nucleus RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) was used to profile the transcriptome of 16,015 nuclei in human adult testis. This dataset includes five samples from two different individuals. This dataset is part of a larger evolutionary study of adult testis at the single-nucleus level (97,521 single-nuclei in total) across mammals including 10 representatives of the three main mammalian lineages: human, chimpanzee, bonobo, gorilla, gibbon, rhesus macaque, marmoset, mouse (placental mammals); grey short-tailed opossum (marsupials); and platypus (egg-laying monotremes). Corresponding data were generated for a bird (red junglefowl, the progenitor of domestic chicken), to be used as an evolutionary outgroup.
Project description:Illumina 450K Infinium microarray profiling of DNA methylation in FACS-separated neuronal nuclei from the postmortem orbitofrontal (OF) cortex of heroin users, controls and sucide individuals.
Project description:Opioid abuse produces enduring associations between the drug euphoria and features of the drug-taking experience, and these powerful associations can trigger relapse in individuals recovering from opioid use disorder. We show here that the epigenetic enzyme, histone deacetylase 5 (HDAC5), functions in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) during active heroin use to limit future relapse-like behavior. Moreover, enhancing HDAC5 function in NAc dramatically suppresses context-associated and reinstated heroin seeking behaviors, but it does not impact sucrose seeking. We also find that HDAC5 functions within dopamine D1 receptor-expressing medium spiny neurons (MSNs) to suppress cue-induced heroin seeking, but within dopamine D2 receptor-expressing MSNs to suppress drug-primed heroin seeking. Using cell type-specific transcriptomics analysis, we found that HDAC5 reduces expression of numerous genes linked to ion transport, and it decreases intrinsic excitability of NAc MSNs, suggesting that HDAC5 limits relapse vulnerability by suppressing NAc MSN firing rates during active heroin use. We used microarrays to define genes differentially expressed in the presence or absence of AAV2-DIO-HDAC5-3SA in both D1 and D2 cell-types derived from Nucleus accumbens following vTRAP.
Project description:Noncoding RNAs, especially microRNAs (miRNAs) have been implicated in the regulation of neuronal functions, such as learning, cognition and memory formation. However, the particular miRNAs involved in drug-induced behavioral plasticity are largely unknown. Here we report a novel regulator, miR-218, that inhibits heroin-induced behavioral plasticity. Network propagation-based method revealed several miRNAs that play key roles in drug-addiction, among which, miR-218 was decreased in nucleus accumbens (NAc) after chronic exposure to heroin. Lentiviral overexpression of miR-218 in NAc could inhibit heroin-induced reinforcement in both conditioning place preference (CPP) test and heroin self-administration (SA) experiment. Luciferase activity assay indicated miR-218 could regulate neuroplasticity related genes and directly target Mecp2 3’UTR. Consistently, Mecp2-/y mice exhibited reduced heroin seeking behavior in CPP test. These data reveal a functional role of miR-218 and its target, Mecp2, in the regulation of heroin-induced behavioral plasticity.
Project description:Gene expression profiling of immortalized human mesenchymal stem cells with hTERT/E6/E7 transfected MSCs. hTERT may change gene expression in MSCs. Goal was to determine the gene expressions of immortalized MSCs.
Project description:This study investigates differences in DNA methylation that are associated with chronic cociane dependence in post-mortem nucleus accumbens tissue samples from human brain. The data were generated with reduced representation bisulfite sequencing (RRBS) and compared to data generated in accumbens tissue from psychiatrically healthy controls.
Project description:Transcriptional profiling of human mesenchymal stem cells comparing normoxic MSCs cells with hypoxic MSCs cells. Hypoxia may inhibit senescence of MSCs during expansion. Goal was to determine the effects of hypoxia on global MSCs gene expression.
