A Complex Gene Program Initiates Brain Changes in Response to Cocaine

martyb writes:

A complex gene program initiates brain changes in response to cocaine:

The lab of Jeremy Day, Ph.D., at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, has used single-nucleus RNA sequencing approaches to compare transcriptional responses to acute cocaine in 16 unique cell populations from a portion of the brain called the nucleus accumbens, or NAc. This molecular atlas is a previously unachieved level of cellular resolution for cocaine-mediated gene regulation in this region," said Day, an associate professor in the UAB Department of Neurobiology.

The atlas was just the beginning of a major study, published in the journal Science Advances, that used multiple cutting-edge technologies to describe a dopamine-induced gene expression signature that regulates the brain's response to cocaine.

These results mark a substantial advance in our understanding of the neurobiological processes that control drug-related adaptations," Day said. They also reveal new information about how transcriptional mechanisms regulate activity-dependent processes within the central nervous system."

The approaches used in this study, Day says, may also help dissect the role of similar gene programs that mediate other types of behavior, memory formation or neuropsychiatric disorders.

Read more of this story at SoylentNews.