RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Amphetamine regulates gene expression in rat striatum via transcription factor CREB
JF The Journal of Neuroscience
JO J. Neurosci.
FD Society for Neuroscience
SP 5623
OP 5634
DO 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.14-09-05623.1994
VO 14
IS 9
A1 C Konradi
A1 RL Cole
A1 S Heckers
A1 SE Hyman
YR 1994
UL http://www.jneurosci.org/content/14/9/5623.abstract
AB Amphetamine is a psychostimulant drug of abuse that can produce long- lived changes in behavior including sensitization and dependence. The neural substrates of these drug effects remain unknown, but based on their prolonged time course, we hypothesize that they involve drug- induced alterations in gene expression. It has recently been demonstrated that amphetamine regulates the expression of several genes, including c-fos, via dopamine D1 receptors in rat striatum. Here we report that amphetamine induces phosphorylation of transcription factor cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) in rat striatum in vivo and that dopamine D1 receptor stimulation induces phosphorylation of CREB within specific complexes bound to cAMP regulatory elements. In addition, we show by antisense injection that CREB is necessary for c- fos induction by amphetamine in vivo. Since CREB has been implicated in the activation of a number of immediate-early genes as well as several neuropeptide genes, CREB phosphorylation may be an important early nuclear event mediating long-term consequences of amphetamine administration.