Abstract
Drug addiction is envisioned to involve stepwise adaptive molecular events in brain regions comprising a reward pathway. This process is an experience-dependent plasticity, similar, in some ways, to forms of long-term memory. Like long-term memory, molecular studies on drug abuse have implicated changes in gene expression as having a key role in development of behaviors such as tolerance, sensitization and craving. Expression profiling with DNA microarrays offers a method for studying gene expression in a non-biased fashion on a genomic scale. Our laboratory has employed expression profiling with oligonucleotide arrays to study the complex sequence of gene expression changes occurring in the central nervous system during exposure to drugs of abuse. Our studies have identified patterns of gene regulation that show drug, behavioral, and brain region specificity. In particular, we have identified novel patterns of expression that differ between naive and cocaine-sensitized mice. The functional implication of these patterns of gene regulation will be discussed in terms of the mechanisms underlying development of long-term behaviors such as addiction.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 456-457 |
Number of pages | 2 |
Journal | American Journal of Medical Genetics - Neuropsychiatric Genetics |
Volume | 96 |
Issue number | 4 |
State | Published - Aug 7 2000 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Genetics(clinical)
- Psychiatry and Mental health
- Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience