Jenica D Tapocik, Estelle Barbier, Meghan Flanigan, Matthew Solomon, Alexandra Pincus, Andrew Pilling, Hui Sun, Jesse R Schank, Courtney King, Markus Heilig
Escalation of voluntary alcohol consumption is a hallmark of alcoholism, but its neural substrates remain unknown. In rats, escalation occurs following prolonged exposure to cycles of alcohol intoxication, and is associated with persistent, wide-ranging changes in gene expression within the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Here, we examined whether induction of microRNA (miR) 206 in mPFC contributes to escalated alcohol consumption. Following up on a microarray screen, quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (qPCR) confirmed that a history of dependence results in persistent (>3weeks) up-regulation of miR-206 expression in the mPFC, but not in the ventral tegmental area, amygdala, or nucleus accumbens...
March 26, 2014: Journal of Neuroscience