2. Academic Validation
  3. Dorsal BNST DRD2+ neurons mediate sex-specific anxiety-like behavior induced by chronic social isolation

Dorsal BNST DRD2+ neurons mediate sex-specific anxiety-like behavior induced by chronic social isolation

  • Cell Rep. 2023 Jul 14;42(7):112799. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112799.
Chaowen Zheng 1,  Lei Wei 2,  Boyi Liu 3,  Qingxiu Wang 2,  Yanwang Huang 3,  Shangyi Wang 4,  Xiangning Li 5,  Hui Gong 6,  Zuoren Wang 7
Affiliations

Affiliations

  • 1 Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Mitochondrial Biology and Medicine, Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology and Core Facilities Sharing Platform, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, China.
  • 2 Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China.
  • 3 Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
  • 4 Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
  • 5 Research Unit of Multimodal Cross Scale Neural Signal Detection and Imaging, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI, Suzhou 215000, China.
  • 6 Research Unit of Multimodal Cross Scale Neural Signal Detection and Imaging, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, HUST-Suzhou Institute for Brainsmatics, JITRI, Suzhou 215000, China; CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Science, Shanghai 200031, China.
  • 7 Institute of Neuroscience, State Key Laboratory of Neuroscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200031, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China; School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China. Electronic address: [email protected].
PMID: 37453056 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2023.112799
Abstract

The dorsal bed nucleus of stria terminalis (dBNST) is a pivotal hub for stress response modulation. Dysfunction of dopamine (DA) network is associated with chronic stress, but the roles of DA network of dBNST in chronic stress-induced emotional disorders remain unclear. We examine the role of dBNST Drd1+ and Drd2+ neurons in post-weaning social isolation (PWSI)-induced behavior deficits. We find that male, but not female, PWSI rats exhibit negative emotional phenotypes and the increase of excitability and E-I balance of dBNST Drd2+ neurons. More importantly, hypofunction of dBNST Drd2 receptor underlies PWSI-stress-induced male-specific neuronal plasticity change of dBNST Drd2+ neurons. Furthermore, chemogenetic activation of dBNST Drd2+ neurons is sufficient to induce anxiogenic effects, while Kir4.1-mediated chronic inhibition of dBNST Drd2+ neurons ameliorate PWSI-induced anxiety-like behaviors. Our findings reveal an important neural mechanism underlying PWSI-induced sex-specific behavioral abnormalities and potentially provide a target for the treatment of social stress-related emotional disorder.

Keywords

CP: Neuroscience; anxiety; chronic stress; dBNST; dopamine receptor; neural plasticity; social isolation.

Figures
Products