Monday, January 09, 2012

...and again on Orexin

It seems that Orexin has so many functions that I am so surprise that ORX KO mice seems almost normal to me.
Is this because of redundancy? Other systems take over when ORX is missing, or what?


Orexin-1 receptor signalling within the ventral tegmental area, but not the paraventricular thalamus, is critical to regulating cue-induced reinstatement of cocaine-seeking.:

Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2011 Jun;14(5):684-90
Authors: James MH, Charnley JL, Levi EM, Jones E, Yeoh JW, Smith DW, Dayas CV

Orexinergic signalling is critical to drug relapse-like behaviour; however, the CNS sites(s) of action remain unknown. Two candidate brain regions are the paraventricular thalamus (PVT) and ventral tegmental area (VTA). We assessed the effect of intra-PVT or -VTA administration of the orexin-1 receptor (OrxR1) antagonist SB-334867 on discriminative cue-induced cocaine-seeking. Animals received either PVT- or VTA-directed SB-334867 (0, 3 or 6 μg; 0, 1 or 3 μg, respectively) prior to reinstatement testing elicited by presenting cocaine-paired stimuli (S+). The effect of VTA-directed injections of SB-334867 (0 or 3 μg) on locomotor activity was also assessed. Intra-VTA, but not -PVT, SB-334867 dose-dependently attenuated S+-induced reinstatement (3 μg dose, p<0.01). Intra-VTA SB-334867 had no effect on locomotor activity. We conclude that OrxR1 signalling within the VTA, but not the PVT, mediates cue-induced cocaine-seeking behaviour. We hypothesize that blockade of VTA OrxR1 signalling may reduce nucleus accumbens dopamine in response to drug cue presentation.


PMID: 21447232 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]