QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s):
Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents

First published online May 2, 2008
Journal of Experimental Biology 211, 1623-1634 (2008)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2008
doi: 10.1242/jeb.014399

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Supplementary Material Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Kily, L. J. M. Articles by Brennan, C. H. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kily, L. J. M. Articles by Brennan, C. H. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Gene expression changes in a zebrafish model of drug dependency suggest conservation of neuro-adaptation pathways

Layla J. M. Kily¹, Yuka C. M. Cowe¹, Osman Hussain¹, Salma Patel¹, Suzanne McElwaine², Finbarr E. Cotter² and Caroline H. Brennan^1,*

¹ School of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Queen Mary, University of London, Mile End, London E1 4NS, UK
² Centre for Haematology, Institute of Cell and Molecular Science, Barts & The London, Queen Mary's School of Medicine, 4 Newark Street, London E1 2AD, UK

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: C.H.Brennan{at}qmul.ac.uk)

Accepted 11 March 2008

Addiction is a complex psychiatric disorder considered to be a disease of the brain's natural reward reinforcement system. Repeated stimulation of the `reward' pathway leads to adaptive changes in gene expression and synaptic organization that reinforce drug taking and underlie long-term changes in behaviour. The primitive nature of reward reinforcement pathways and the near universal ability of abused drugs to target the same system allow drug-associated reward and reinforcement to be studied in non-mammalian species. Zebrafish have proved to be a valuable model system for the study of vertebrate development and disease. Here we demonstrate that adult zebrafish show a dose-dependent acute conditioned place preference (CPP) reinforcement response to ethanol or nicotine. Repeated exposure of adult zebrafish to either nicotine or ethanol leads to a robust CPP response that persists following 3 weeks of abstinence and in the face of adverse stimuli, a behavioural indicator of the establishment of dependence. Microarray analysis using whole brain samples from drug-treated and control zebrafish identified 1362 genes that show a significant change in expression between control and treated individuals. Of these genes, 153 are common to both ethanol- and nicotine-treated animals. These genes include members of pathways and processes implicated in drug dependence in mammalian models, revealing conservation of neuro-adaptation pathways between zebrafish and mammals.

Key words: nicotine, alcohol, conditioned place preference, drug dependency, zebrafish, gene expression

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. M. Petzold, D. Balciunas, S. Sivasubbu, K. J. Clark, V. M. Bedell, S. E. Westcot, S. R. Myers, G. L. Moulder, M. J. Thomas, and S. C. Ekker Nicotine response genetics in the zebrafish PNAS, November 3, 2009; 106(44): 18662 - 18667. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]