Social Isolation in Male Rats During Adolescence Inhibits the Wnt/β-Catenin Pathway in the Prefrontal Cortex and Enhances Anxiety and Cocaine-Induced Plasticity in Adulthood

CUESTA, SANTIAGO; FUNES, ALEJANDRINA; PACCHIONI, ALEJANDRA M.

Neuroscience Bulletin

Springer Singapore

Año: 2020 vol. 36 p. 611 - 624

1673-7067

In adult animals, it is well established that stresshas a proactive effect on psychostimulant responses.However, whether only a short period of stress duringadolescence can also affect cocaine responses later in lifeand what mechanisms are involved are unknown. Here, weshowed that 5 days of social isolation during rat adolescencehad a long-term impact on anxiety-like behaviors,cocaine-induced conditioned place preference, and theexpression of sensitization during adulthood. At themolecular level, social isolation decreased the activity ofthe Wnt/b-catenin pathway in the prefrontal cortex (PFC).Furthermore, after the expression of cocaine sensitization,isolated rats showed an increase in this pathway in thenucleus accumbens. Together, these findings suggest that,adolescent social isolation by altering the Wnt/b-cateninpathway in the developing PFC might increase the cocaineresponses during adulthood, introducing this pathway as anovel neuroadaptation in the cortical-accumbens connectionthat may mediate a stress-induced increase in vulnerabilityto drugs.