ArticleAlcohol, clinical & experimental research2025
Pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP)overexpression in the paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus alters motivated and affective behavior in female rats.
Article in Alcohol, clinical & experimental research, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Differences in ethanol drinking and nucleus accumbens opioid expression in male and female obesity-prone and obesity-resistant rats.Alcohol (Fayetteville, N.Y.) · 2026Article
- The pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide receptor and its splice variants: Unique roles in affective and motivated behavior.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2026Review
- The ventral hippocampus to paraventricular thalamus circuit regulates context-dependent hyperlocomotion through PAC1 receptor signaling in the chronic stress-induced PTSD mouse model.Translational psychiatry · 2026Article
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8 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundPituitary adenylate cyclase-activating polypeptide (PACAP) has been found to be involved in a wide range of motivated and affective behaviors. While the PACAP-38 isoform is more densely expressed than PACAP-27 in most of the brain, PACAP-27 is more highly expressed in the rodent paraventricular nucleus of the thalamus (PVT), where females also have greater expression than males. Notably, the role of PACAP-27 expression in cells of the PVT has not been explored.
methodsAdult, female Long-Evans rats were injected in the PVT with an adeno-associated virus (AAV) to increase expression of PACAP or a control AAV. They were then investigated for subsequent ethanol drinking and preference; sucrose drinking and preference; or locomotor activity in a novel chamber, behavior in a light-dark box, behavior in a novelty suppression of feeding test, locomotor activity in a familiar activity chamber, and behavior in a forced swim test.
resultsInjection with the PACAP AAV resulted in a specific increase in levels of PACAP-27. Rats injected with the PACAP AAV demonstrated reduced drinking and preference for ethanol under the intermittent-access procedure compared to those injected with the control AAV. In contrast, rats injected with the PACAP AAV showed no significant difference in drinking or preference for sucrose, or in any affective behavior tested, except that they spent less time swimming in the forced swim test.
conclusionsIn light of the low overall level of expression of PACAP-27 in the brain, the ability of PACAP-27 in the PVT to control ethanol drinking, with minimal effects on other motivated or affective behaviors, supports the idea that compounds related to PACAP-27 should be investigated as potential therapeutics for the treatment of alcohol use disorder.
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