ArticleNature neuroscience2012
Rac1 is essential in cocaine-induced structural plasticity of nucleus accumbens neurons.
Article in Nature neuroscience, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 124 papers.
What it found
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Who cites it
124 citing papers in PubMed, 192 citations in OpenAlex.
- The neuroimmune-glutamate hypothesis of addiction.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2026Review
- Voluntary Exercise and Hippocampal Memory Enhancement: Decoding the Molecular Blueprint.Journal of molecular neuroscience : MN · 2026Review
- Unique mushroom spine morphology signature in cocaine relapse ensembles in rat nucleus accumbens core.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Prefrontal circHomer1 regulates synaptic and behavioral adaptations induced by cocaine.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Intersectin1/cdc42 signaling regulates methamphetamine-induced neuronal remodeling in the hippocampus.Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2025Article
- Reducing astrocyte calcium in the nucleus accumbens core increases reward valuation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Split-Small GTPase Reassembly as a Method to Control Cellular Signaling with User-Defined Inputs.ACS chemical biology · 2025Article
- Phospho-CREB Regulation on NMDA Glutamate Receptor 2B and Mitochondrial Calcium Uniporter in the Ventrolateral Periaqueductal Gray Controls Chronic Morphine Withdrawal in Male Rats.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- ERK2 Signaling in the Nucleus Accumbens Facilitates Stress Susceptibility and Cocaine Reinstatement.Biological psychiatry global open science · 2025Article
- Targeting Tiam1 Enhances Hippocampal-Dependent Learning and Memory in the Adult Brain and Promotes NMDA Receptor-Mediated Synaptic Plasticity and Function.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- GluN2B-mediated regulation of silent synapses for receptor specification and addiction memory.Experimental & molecular medicine · 2025Article
- Synaptic Plasticity Linked to Ionotropic Glutamate Receptors After Nicotine Exposure.Current neuropharmacology · 2025Review
- Disrupting heroin-associated memory reconsolidation through actin polymerization inhibition in the nucleus accumbens core.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2024Article
- Standardized Parts for Activation of Small GTPase Signaling in Living Cells.Angewandte Chemie (International ed. in English) · 2024Article
- Cofilin linked to GluN2B subunits of NMDA receptors is required for behavioral sensitization by changing the dendritic spines of neurons in the caudate and putamen after repeated nicotine exposure.Behavioral and brain functions : BBF · 2024Article
- The Small G-Protein Rac1 in the Dorsomedial Striatum Promotes Alcohol-Dependent Structural Plasticity and Goal-Directed Learning in Mice.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2024Article
- Decoding cocaine-induced proteomic adaptations in the mouse nucleus accumbens.Science signaling · 2024Article
- Targeting the cytoskeleton as a therapeutic approach to substance use disorders.Pharmacological research · 2024Review
- Standardized Parts for Activation of Small GTPase Signaling in Living Cells.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2024Article
- Methamphetamine-induced region-specific transcriptomic and epigenetic changes in the brain of male rats.Communications biology · 2023Article
64 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
22 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Repeated cocaine administration increases the dendritic arborization of nucleus accumbens neurons, but the underlying signaling events remain unknown. Here we show that repeated exposure to cocaine negatively regulates the active form of Rac1, a small GTPase that controls actin remodeling in other systems. Further, we show, using viral-mediated gene transfer, that overexpression of a dominant negative mutant of Rac1 or local knockout of Rac1 is sufficient to increase the density of immature dendritic spines on nucleus accumbens neurons, whereas overexpression of a constitutively active Rac1 or light activation of a photoactivatable form of Rac1 blocks the ability of repeated cocaine exposure to produce this effect. Downregulation of Rac1 activity likewise promotes behavioral responses to cocaine exposure, with activation of Rac1 producing the opposite effect. These findings establish that Rac1 signaling mediates structural and behavioral plasticity in response to cocaine exposure.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.