Alternative Splicing of AMPA Subunits in Prefrontal Cortical Fields Of
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE published: 03 Januaryprovided 2012 by Frontiers - Publisher Connector PSYCHIATRY doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2011.00072 Alternative splicing of AMPA subunits in prefrontal cortical fields of cynomolgus monkeys following chronic ethanol self-administration Glen Acosta1, David P.Freidman1, Kathleen A. Grant 2 and Scott E. Hemby 1,3* 1 Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA 2 Oregon National Primate Research Center, Oregon Health and Sciences University, Beaverton, OR, USA 3 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC, USA Edited by: Functional impairment of the orbital and medial prefrontal cortex underlies deficits in exec- Lara Ray, University of California, USA utive control that characterize addictive disorders, including alcohol addiction. Previous Reviewed by: studies indicate that alcohol alters glutamate neurotransmission and one substrate of these Raj Sevak, University of California, USA effects may be through the reconfiguration of the subunits constituting ionotropic gluta- Shaolin Wang, University of Virginia, mate receptor (iGluR) complexes. Glutamatergic transmission is integral to cortico-cortical USA and cortico-subcortical communication and alcohol-induced changes in the abundance of *Correspondence: the receptor subunits and/or their splice variants may result in critical functional impair- Scott E. Hemby, Medical Center ments of prefrontal cortex in alcohol dependence. To this end, the effects of chronic Boulevard, Wake Forest University School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, ethanol self-administration on glutamate receptor ionotropic AMPA (GRIA) subunit vari- NC 27157, USA. ant and kainate (GRIK) subunit mRNA expression were studied in the orbitofrontal cortex e-mail: [email protected] (OFC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) of male cynomolgus monkeys. In DLPFC, total AMPA splice variant expression and total kainate receptor subunit expression were significantly decreased in alcohol drinking monkeys. Expression levels of GRIA3 flip and flop and GRIA4 flop mRNAs in this region were posi- tively correlated with daily ethanol intake and blood ethanol concentrations (BEC) averaged over the 6 months prior to necropsy. In OFC, AMPA subunit splice variant expression was reduced in the alcohol treated group. GRIA2 flop mRNA levels in this region were positively correlated with daily ethanol intake and BEC averaged over the 6 months prior to necropsy. Results from these studies provide further evidence of transcriptional regulation of iGluR subunits in the primate brain following chronic alcohol self-administration. Additional stud- ies examining the cellular localization of such effects in the framework of primate prefrontal cortical circuitry are warranted. Keywords: ethanol, AMPA, kainate, messenger RNA, prefrontal cortex, qPCR, primate INTRODUCTION self-reported alcohol-induced craving (Wrase et al., 2002; Myrick Alcohol abuse is characterized in part by short-term and long- et al.,2004). Furthermore,a priming dose of alcohol sensitizes cue- term biochemical alterations in brain regions that affect subse- induced responses in these regions (Bragulat et al., 2008). Such quent intake, withdrawal, relapse, and cognition. The majority of findings support the hypothesis that prefrontal cortical dysreg- research conducted in this area has focused on alterations in mid- ulation is involved in the mediation of craving and compulsive brain and forebrain regions within the mesolimbic dopamine sys- alcohol intake (Volkow and Fowler, 2000). tem that mediate hypothetical motivational processes (Di Chiara Despite evidence linking excessive alcohol intake to dysfunction and Imperato, 1988; Brodie et al., 1990). More recently, the of specific prefrontal cortical regions, studies exploring biochem- prefrontal cortex has received increasing attention in addiction ical correlates in prefrontal cortex have been limited to human processes because alcoholics show deficits in decision-making like post-mortem tissue analysis (Mitsuyama et al., 1998; Mayfield those of individuals with damage to specific prefrontal fields. et al., 2002; Alexander-Kaufman et al., 2006). The use of a non- In particular, damage to either the dorsolateral prefrontal cor- human primate model of ethanol self-administration enables a tex (DLPFC) or orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), produce impair- clinically relevant characterization of chronic alcohol intake in ments that suggest that these fields may be contributing substrates a well-controlled laboratory setting without confounding vari- in alcoholism (Bechara, 2003; Pears et al., 2003). Results from ables inherent in human post-mortem studies (e.g., reliable intake functional imaging studies support the idea of alcohol-induced measures, lifestyle characteristics, multidrug histories, etc.). The prefrontal cortical alterations. Functional magnetic resonance model exhibits important aspects of human alcohol consump- imaging (fMRI) has revealed increased activation of the medial tion, including an alcoholic drinking phenotype confirmed with frontal, orbitofrontal, and cingulate cortices that is correlated with blood ethanol concentrations (BEC; Grant et al., 2008). Moreover, www.frontiersin.org January 2012 | Volume 2 | Article 72 | 1 Acosta et al. Prefrontal AMPA/kainate expression and ethanol non-human primate cortex exhibits significant anatomical and neuroanatomical and biochemical milieu of the human brain. biochemical similarities with human cortex that facilitate the The primate cerebral cortex is highly elaborated in compari- translation of findings to humans (Preuss, 2001). Previous stud- son to rodents especially in prefrontal regions that are emerg- ies using this model have found marked alterations in GABA-A ing as important substrates for addictive disorders. In the rat, and NMDA receptor subunit mRNA expression in the DLPFC and the prefrontal cortex is composed only of a set of agranular OFC but not in anterior cingulate cortex (ACC; Hemby et al.,2006; fields (e.g., dorsal and ventral anterior cingulate, prelimbic and Acosta et al., 2010), suggesting region specific GABA/glutamate infralimbic fields) and lacks the intricate expansion found in imbalances in the primate prefrontal cortex. primates. The primate brain contains agranular fields as well α-Amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid but adds dysgranular and granular fields that are not found in (AMPA) and kainate receptors comprise two additional families rodents (Carmichael and Price, 1994; Ongur and Price, 2000). of glutamate-gated ion channel receptors (Ozawa et al., 1998). The use of non-human primate models enables a clear and clin- AMPA and kainate receptors are critical for fast synaptic trans- ically relevant characterization of behavioral and biochemical mission and have important roles in neuronal development and changes associated with chronic alcohol use in a well-controlled long- and short-term neuroplasticity (Pinheiro and Mulle, 2006). laboratory setting. To further investigate the potential contribu- AMPA and kainate receptors are tetrameric assemblies of sub- tion of AMPA and kainate receptor subunit expression in the units composed of GluR1–4 and GluR5–7, KA1 and KA2 sub- prefrontal cortical dysfunction characteristic of alcoholism, we units, respectively (Keinanen et al., 1990; Rosenmund et al., 1998). examined AMPA and kainate receptor subunit mRNA expres- AMPA receptors are responsible for the majority of fast excitatory sion, including AMPA flip/flop variants in the DLPFC, OFC, synaptic transmission in the brain and their activation is neces- and ACC of cynomolgus monkeys following chronic ethanol sary for depolarization and release the tonic Mg2+ blockade of self-administration. NMDA receptors, thereby enabling NMDA receptor activation. AMPA receptor subunits undergo post-transcriptional process- EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURES ing including alternative splicing to yield flip and flop variants SUBJECTS AND ETHANOL SELF-ADMINISTRATION that mediate receptor desensitization (Quirk et al., 2004), the rate Ten adult male cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis; 5.5– of receptor re-sensitization (Partin et al., 1994) and of channel 6.5 years at beginning of experiment) were subjects for the present closing (Pei et al., 2007), thereby enabling greater diversity in experiments (n = 6 ethanol group, n = 4 control group). The channel kinetics and pharmacological profiles for these recep- drinking model and the animals behavior has been extensively tors. Kainate receptors are closely related to AMPA receptors analyzed elsewhere (Vivian et al., 2001; Grant et al., 2008). Six but constitute a separate family of ionotropic glutamate receptor adult male cynomolgus monkeys were quarantined for 2 months (iGluR) and have unique roles on synaptic transmission depend- and then transferred to the laboratory primate housing room and ing on receptor subunit composition and whether they are located assigned a cage within a quadrant rack as described previously. pre- or post-synaptically (Huettner, 2003; Plested and Mayer, Attached to one wall of each monkey’s home cage was an oper- 2007). ant panel that allowed access to all fluid and food requirements. The intoxicating and reinforcing effects of ethanol are mediated Monkeys were trained to operate the drinking panel in daily 60- in part by the effects on AMPA and kainate receptors (Valenzuela