Distinct Mu, Delta, and Kappa Opioid Receptor Mechanisms Underlie Low Sociability and Depressive-Like Behaviors During Heroin Abstinence Pierre-Eric Lutz, Gulebru Ayranci, Paul Chu-Sin-Chung, Audrey Matifas, Pascale Koebel, Dominique Filliol, Katia Befort, Abdel-Mouttalib Ouagazzal, Brigitte Kieffer To cite this version: Pierre-Eric Lutz, Gulebru Ayranci, Paul Chu-Sin-Chung, Audrey Matifas, Pascale Koebel, et al.. Distinct Mu, Delta, and Kappa Opioid Receptor Mechanisms Underlie Low Sociability and Depressive- Like Behaviors During Heroin Abstinence. Neuropsychopharmacology, Nature Publishing Group, 2014, 39 (11), pp.2694-2705. 10.1038/npp.2014.126. hal-02437506 HAL Id: hal-02437506 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02437506 Submitted on 14 Jan 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. Neuropsychopharmacology (2014) 39, 2694–2705 & 2014 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. All rights reserved 0893-133X/14 www.neuropsychopharmacology.org Distinct Mu, Delta, and Kappa Opioid Receptor Mechanisms Underlie Low Sociability and Depressive-Like Behaviors During Heroin Abstinence ,1,2 1 1 1 1 Pierre-Eric Lutz* , Gulebru Ayranci , Paul Chu-Sin-Chung , Audrey Matifas , Pascale Koebel , 1 1 1 ,1,3 Dominique Filliol , Katia Befort , Abdel-Mouttalib Ouagazzal and Brigitte L Kieffer* 1Translational Medicine and Neurogenetics, Institut de Ge´ne´tique et de Biologie Mole´culaire et Cellulaire, INSERM U-964, CNRS UMR-7104, 2 Universite´ de Strasbourg, Illkirch, France; McGill Group for Suicide Studies, Douglas Institute Research Centre, McGill University, Montre´al, 3 Que´bec, Canada; Douglas Institute Research Centre, McGill University, Montre´al, Que´bec, Canada Addiction is a chronic disorder involving recurring intoxication, withdrawal, and craving episodes. Escaping this vicious cycle requires maintenance of abstinence for extended periods of time and is a true challenge for addicted individuals. The emergence of depressive symptoms, including social withdrawal, is considered a main cause for relapse, but underlying mechanisms are poorly understood. Here we establish a mouse model of protracted abstinence to heroin, a major abused opiate, where both emotional and working memory deficits unfold. We show that delta and kappa opioid receptor (DOR and KOR, respectively) knockout mice develop either stronger or reduced emotional disruption during heroin abstinence, establishing DOR and KOR activities as protective and vulnerability factors, respectively, that regulate the severity of abstinence. Further, we found that chronic treatment with the antidepressant drug fluoxetine prevents emergence of low sociability, with no impact on the working memory deficit, implicating serotonergic mechanisms predominantly in emotional aspects of abstinence symptoms. Finally, targeting the main serotonergic brain structure, we show that gene knockout of mu opioid receptors (MORs) in the dorsal raphe nucleus (DRN) before heroin exposure abolishes the development of social withdrawal. This is the first result demonstrating that intermittent chronic MOR activation at the level of DRN represents an essential mechanism contributing to low sociability during protracted heroin abstinence. Altogether, our findings reveal crucial and distinct roles for all three opioid receptors in the development of emotional alterations that follow a history of heroin exposure and open the way towards understanding opioid system-mediated serotonin homeostasis in heroin abuse. Neuropsychopharmacology (2014) 39, 2694–2705; doi:10.1038/npp.2014.126; published online 2 July 2014 INTRODUCTION known that drug craving progressively increases over the several first weeks of abstinence and remains high for extended Drug abuse is a chronic brain disorder with devastating periods of time (Koob and Volkow, 2010). consequences for individuals and their social environment. Several causes contribute to interrupt drug abstinence. Natural history of the disease typically consists in a vicious External factors, such as life stress events and drug- cycle. Positive subjective effects are experienced during drug associated contexts (Koob and Volkow, 2010), are well- intoxication, which are followed by emotional and physical studied determinants for relapse. Another key factor, which signs of withdrawal when the drug is no longer available. These is less understood, is the alteration of emotional homeostasis in turn feed into a ‘preoccupation’ stage, where drug craving during the course of the disease. Abstinence, notably from induces drug-seeking behavior and precipitates relapse. opiate addiction, is characterized by symptoms reminiscent Escaping this vicious cycle requires that prolonged abstinence of anxiety and depression, including lowered mood and be maintained, possibly throughout life. In humans, it is well anhedonia (Grella et al, 2009). Further, in addicted individuals, the development of depressive symptoms is *Correspondence: Dr BL Kieffer, Douglas Institute Research Centre, associated with more severe clinical courses and lower social McGill University, 6875, Boulevard La Salle, Montre´al Que´bec H4H competence (Bakken et al, 2007). Antidepressant therapy has 1R3, Canada, Tel: +001 514 761 6131 ext. 3172, Fax: been used in this context, although with limited success +001 514 762 3033, E-mail: [email protected] (Nunes et al, 2004). Therefore, understanding long-term or Dr P-E Lutz, McGill Group for Suicide Studies, Douglas Institute Research Centre, McGill University, 6875, Boulevard La Salle, Montre´al, emotional consequences of drug abuse has major implica- Que´bec H4H 1R3, Canada, Tel: +001 514 761 6131 ext. 6103, Fax: tions for the management of opiate addicts. +001 514 762 3023, E-mail: [email protected]. Several animal studies have modeled prolonged with- Received 7 March 2014; revised 4 May 2014; accepted 21 May 2014; drawal from opiates. Data have shown decreased motivation accepted article preview online 30 May 2014 for natural reinforcers (Zhang et al, 2007), persistent Opioid receptors regulate emotions during heroin abstinence P-E Lutz et al 2695 preference for drug-associated cues (Aston-Jones and procedures followed ethical guidelines (EU 86/609/EEC and Harris, 2004; Sakoori and Murphy, 2005), and relapse IGBMC ethical comity). All mice used were 10-week old at tendencies up to 1 year (Wikler and Pescor, 1970). In the beginning of chronic heroin exposure. studies of emotional responses, opioid withdrawal was char- acterized by increased vulnerability to stress (Blatchford Morphine and Heroin Treatments et al, 2005), increased defensive behavior (Harris and Aston-Jones, 1993, 2001), and depressive-like behaviors that Morphine was administered twice daily (0800 and 1800 could be detected up to a few weeks following drug dis- hours) with escalating doses (20, 40, 60, 80, 100 mg/kg for continuation in rat (Anraku et al, 2001; Grasing and Ghosh, 5 days, followed by a single 100 mg/kg injection on day 6) 1998) or mice (Hodgson et al, 2009; Jia et al, 2013). We or saline solution as a control. The heroin regimen recently developed a model of morphine abstinence was identical, except that doses were divided by two (Goeldner et al, 2011; Lutz et al, 2011; Lutz et al, 2013b). (10–50 mg/kg, see Results). Housing cages contained only In this model, a 1-week intermittent chronic morphine saline-treated or only opiate-treated mice. regimen, followed by a 4-week abstinence period (no treatment), leads to the gradual emergence of social Fluoxetine Treatment avoidance and despair-like behavior, as well as dynamic adaptations within serotonergic (5-HT) circuits, including The 10 mg/kg fluoxetine dose was chosen based on pilot alteration of 5-HT bio-synthesis and 5-HT receptor- studies and our previous work (Goeldner et al, 2011). dependent feedbacks (5-HT1A receptor). Briefly, the amount of fluoxetine (Sigma-Aldrich, Lyon, Here we build on these initial studies and investigate France) supplemented to regular chow was based upon protracted abstinence from heroin, the diacetylated mor- initial body weight of animals and daily average food intake. phine derivative. Due to specific pharmacokinetic and For example, a 30-g mouse consuming 4 g/day (dry weight) pharmacodynamic properties, heroin reaches brain sites of chow supplemented with 0.3 mg fluoxetine received an faster than morphine and is metabolized into 6-monoace- approximate 10 mg/kg/24 h dose. tylmorphine and morphine (Andersen et al, 2009), which both activate mu opioid receptors (MORs) as their primary Behavioral Testing target. Heroin therefore shows stronger euphoric effects and addiction liability than morphine and represents the most See http://www.ics-mci.fr/service_neurobiology_behaviour_ abused opiate worldwide. We first characterize the time tests.html for additional information on our phenotyping course of emotional and spatial working memory deficits facility and procedures. Following repeated heroin injections, that develop along 7 weeks of heroin abstinence in mice. We mice were maintained