ArticleBiological psychiatry2019
Heroin Cue-Evoked Astrocytic Structural Plasticity at Nucleus Accumbens Synapses Inhibits Heroin Seeking.
Article in Biological psychiatry, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 61 papers.
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Who cites it
61 citing papers in PubMed, 92 citations in OpenAlex.
- Cannabinoid use generalizes stress responses: involvement of astrocyte plasticity and activation of matrix metalloproteinases in the nucleus accumbens core.Molecular psychiatry · 2026Article
- Astrocyte TrkB.T1 Deficiency Disrupts Glutamatergic Synaptogenesis and Astrocyte-Synapse Interactions.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2026Article
- Cannabidiol Attenuates Heroin Seeking in Male Rats Associated With Normalization of Discrete Neurobiological Signatures Within the Nucleus Accumbens With Subregional Specificity.Biological psychiatry · 2026Article
- Remifentanil self-administration promotes circuit- and sex-specific adaptations within the prefrontal-accumbens pathways.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Remifentanil self-administration promotes circuit- and sex-specific adaptations within the prefrontal-accumbens pathways.Frontiers in cellular neuroscience · 2026Article
- Radixin in the nucleus accumbens core modulates amphetamine-induced locomotor activity based on context association.Psychopharmacology · 2025Article
- Reducing astrocyte calcium in the nucleus accumbens core increases reward valuation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Astrocytes Control Cocaine-Induced Synaptic Plasticity and Reward Through the Matricellular Protein Hevin.Biological psychiatry · 2025Article
- Morphine regulates astrocyte transcriptional dynamics in the ventral tegmental area by stimulation of glucocorticoid signaling.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Abstinence from cocaine self-administration promotes microglial pruning of astrocytes, which drives cocaine-seeking behavior.Cell reports · 2025Article
- Schizophrenia-associated 22q11.2 deletion elevates striatal acetylcholine and disrupts thalamostriatal projections to produce amotivation in mice.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Effect of an astrocyte calcium exporter on orbitofrontal cortex neuron excitability, astrocyte-synaptic interaction, and alcohol consumption.Neuropharmacology · 2025Article
- Supervised and unsupervised learning reveal heroin-induced impairments in astrocyte structural plasticity.Science advances · 2025Article
- PD-linked LRRK2 G2019S mutation impairs astrocyte morphology and synapse maintenance via ERM hyperphosphorylation.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Central amygdala astrocyte plasticity underlies GABAergic dysregulation in ethanol dependence.Translational psychiatry · 2025Article
- Early-life stress induces persistent astrocyte dysfunction associated with fear generalisation.eLife · 2025Article
- Molecular Rhythmicity in Glia: Importance for Brain Health and Relevance to Psychiatric Disease.Biological psychiatry · 2024Review
- Enhancing translation: A need to leverage complex preclinical models of addictive drugs to accelerate substance use treatment options.Pharmacology, biochemistry, and behavior · 2024Review
- Article
- Something to talk about; crosstalk disruption at the neurovascular unit during HIV infection of the CNS.NeuroImmune pharmacology and therapeutics · 2024Article
1 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundOpioid addiction is a critical medical and societal problem characterized by vulnerability to relapse. Glutamatergic synapses in the nucleus accumbens regulate the motivation to relapse to opioid use, and downregulation of glutamate transporters on astroglial processes adjacent to accumbens synapses contributes to heroin seeking induced by cues. However, it is not known how astroglial processes themselves respond to heroin cues or if changes in astroglial morphology are necessary for heroin seeking.
methodsMale Sprague Dawley rats (n = 62) were trained to self-administer heroin or sucrose and were reinstated by heroin-conditioned or sucrose-conditioned cues. Astroglial proximity to accumbens synapses was estimated using a confocal-based strategy, and the association between digitally isolated astroglia and the presynaptic marker synapsin I was quantified. To determine the functional consequence of astroglial morphological plasticity on cued heroin seeking, a morpholino antisense strategy was used to knock down expression of the actin binding protein ezrin, which is expressed almost exclusively in peripheral astroglial processes in the adult rat brain.
resultsAfter heroin extinction, there was an enduring reduction in synaptic proximity by astroglia. Synaptic proximity was restored during 15 minutes of cued heroin seeking but returned to extinction levels by 120 minutes. Extinction from sucrose self-administration and reinstated sucrose seeking induced no changes in astroglial synaptic association. Ezrin knockdown reduced astroglial association with synapses and potentiated cued heroin seeking.
conclusionsCue-induced heroin seeking transiently increased synaptic proximity of accumbens astrocytes. Surprisingly, the reassociation of astroglia with synapses was compensatory, and preventing cue-induced morphological plasticity in astrocytes potentiated heroin seeking.
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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.