Epigenetics mechanisms involved in drug reward behavior.

BERNABEU R

Montevideo

Workshop; Latin American Training Program 2016. FROM MOLECULAR AND CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE TO COGNITION: CLUES TO UNDERSTAND BRAIN DISEASES.; 2016

Society for neuroscience

Nicotine is the principal addictivecomponent of tobacco that drives continued use despite users' knowledge of its harmfulconsequences. The focus of our research is to evaluate the behavioral effects ofnicotine by using a well established Pavlovian conditioned-place preference(CPP) task as a method to determine drug preference. Using this behavioral task,we currently investigate, at pharmacological and neurochemical levels, therewarding and relapsing effects of nicotine as well as the individualvulnerability to the drug. We are also interested in describing epigeneticfactors involved in the stages of reward and relapse in drug addiction, since emergingevidence suggests that epigenetic alterations to the genome, including DNA methylationand histone modification, are important mechanisms underlying addiction topsychostimulants. Recently, we identified three epigenetic molecules (CREB,HDAC2 and MeCP2) that participate in establishing nicotine-CPP. Moreover, wedemonstrated that the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor phenylbutyrate wasable to dramatically reduce the preference for nicotine. At present, we areanalyzing if other stimulants can potentiate nicotine preference and we areevaluating factors that can determine the individual vulnerability to nicotine consumption.