Using the Transcriptional Reporter of Intracellular Calcium (TRIC) to examine lasting ethanol-induced changes in neuroexcitability.

The transcriptional reporter of intracellular calcium (TRIC) is a genetic tool used to measure lasting changes in neuroexcitability. Both pan-neuronal and dopaminergic cells were examined with TRIC to test the hypothesis that ethanol exposure causes lasting changes in adult brain neuroexcitability. We found little to no impact on TRIC signal following acute and repeated ethanol vapor exposures. This work shows that TRIC may be useful in future investigations such as developmental or chronic drug exposure paradigms.