The α-amino-3-hydroxyl-5-methyl-4-isoxazole-propionate (AMPA) receptor is an ionotropic glutamate receptor

involved in the neuroplasticity that accompanies acute and repeated drug administration. Changing surface expression is one means to regulate AMPA receptor function, and the present study tested the hypothesis that behavioral sensitization to the μ-opioid receptor agonist morphine is accompanied by changes in the subcellular distribution of AMPA receptors in limbic brain regions. To test this hypothesis, we used a protein cross-linking assay to assess cell surface and intracellular levels of GluA1 and GluA2 EGFR inhibitor subunits in the nucleus accumbens, medial prefrontal cortex and ventral pallidum. Repeated morphine treatment decreased surface expression of GluA1 in the medial prefrontal cortex without affecting levels of GluA2. In contrast, surface levels of GluA1 or GluA2 were unchanged in the nucleus accumbens and ventral PS-341 clinical trial pallidum, demonstrating that although AMPA receptors

in accumbal and pallidal regions are critical mediators of behaviors induced by repeated opiate exposure, these effects are not accompanied by changes in surface expression. The findings reveal that the involvement of AMPA receptor trafficking in opiate-induced behavioral sensitization is relegated to selective regions and that AMPA receptors in the medial prefrontal cortex may be particularly sensitive to these actions.

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“Fragile X syndrome (FXS) is characterized Sitaxentan by intellectual disability and autistic traits, and results from the silencing of the FMR1 gene coding for a protein implicated in the regulation of protein synthesis at synapses. The lack of functional Fragile X mental retardation protein has been proposed to result in an excessive signaling of synaptic metabotropic glutamate receptors, leading to alterations of synapse maturation and plasticity. It remains, however, unclear how mechanisms of activity-dependent spine dynamics are affected in Fmr knockout (Fmr1-KO) mice and whether they can be reversed. Here we used a repetitive imaging approach in hippocampal slice cultures to investigate properties of structural plasticity and their modulation by signaling pathways. We found that basal spine turnover was significantly reduced in Fmr1-KO mice, but markedly enhanced by activity. Additionally, activity-mediated spine stabilization was lost in Fmr1-KO mice. Application of the metabotropic glutamate receptor antagonist α-Methyl-4-carboxyphenylglycine (MCPG) enhanced basal turnover, improved spine stability, but failed to reinstate activity-mediated spine stabilization. In contrast, enhancing phosphoinositide-3 kinase (PI3K) signaling, a pathway implicated in various aspects of synaptic plasticity, reversed both basal turnover and activity-mediated spine stabilization.