Glavonic Emilija, Dragic Milorad, Mitic Milos, Aleksic Minja, Lukic Iva, Ivkovic Sanja, Adzic Miroslav
Department of Molecular Biology and Endocrinology, "VINČA" Institute of Nuclear Sciences-National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, 11351 Belgrade, Serbia.
Laboratory for Neurobiology, Department of General Physiology and Biophysics, Faculty of Biology, University of Belgrade, 11158 Belgrade, Serbia.
Pharmaceuticals (Basel). 2024 May 22;17(6):669. doi: 10.3390/ph17060669.
Fear-related disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and anxiety disorders are pervasive psychiatric conditions marked by persistent fear, stemming from its dysregulated acquisition and extinction. The primary treatment for these disorders, exposure therapy (ET), relies heavily on fear extinction (FE) principles. Adolescence, a vulnerable period for developing psychiatric disorders, is characterized by neurobiological changes in the fear circuitry, leading to impaired FE and increased susceptibility to relapse following ET. Ketamine, known for relieving anxiety and reducing PTSD symptoms, influences fear-related learning processes and synaptic plasticity across the fear circuitry. Our study aimed to investigate the effects of ketamine (10 mg/kg) on FE in adolescent male C57 BL/6 mice at the behavioral and molecular levels. We analyzed the protein and gene expression of synaptic plasticity markers in the hippocampus (HPC) and prefrontal cortex (PFC) and sought to identify neural correlates associated with ketamine's effects on adolescent extinction learning. Ketamine ameliorated FE in the adolescent males, likely affecting the consolidation and/or recall of extinction memory. Ketamine also increased the Akt and mTOR activity and the GluA1 and GluN2A levels in the HPC and upregulated BDNF exon IV mRNA expression in the HPC and PFC of the fear-extinguished mice. Furthermore, ketamine increased the c-Fos expression in specific brain regions, including the ventral HPC (vHPC) and the left infralimbic ventromedial PFC (IL vmPFC). Providing a comprehensive exploration of ketamine's mechanisms in adolescent FE, our study suggests that ketamine's effects on FE in adolescent males are associated with the activation of hippocampal Akt-mTOR-GluA1 signaling, with the vHPC and the left IL vmPFC as the proposed neural correlates.
恐惧相关障碍,包括创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)和焦虑症,是普遍存在的精神疾病,其特征为持续的恐惧,源于恐惧习得和消退的失调。这些障碍的主要治疗方法——暴露疗法(ET),严重依赖恐惧消退(FE)原则。青春期是精神疾病易患期,其特征是恐惧回路的神经生物学变化,导致恐惧消退受损,且暴露疗法后复发易感性增加。氯胺酮以缓解焦虑和减轻创伤后应激障碍症状而闻名,它会影响整个恐惧回路中与恐惧相关的学习过程和突触可塑性。我们的研究旨在从行为和分子水平研究氯胺酮(10 mg/kg)对青春期雄性C57 BL/6小鼠恐惧消退的影响。我们分析了海马体(HPC)和前额叶皮质(PFC)中突触可塑性标记物的蛋白质和基因表达,并试图确定与氯胺酮对青春期消退学习影响相关的神经关联。氯胺酮改善了青春期雄性小鼠的恐惧消退,可能影响消退记忆的巩固和/或回忆。氯胺酮还增加了海马体中Akt和mTOR的活性以及GluA1和GluN2A的水平,并上调了恐惧消退小鼠海马体和前额叶皮质中脑源性神经营养因子(BDNF)外显子IV的mRNA表达。此外,氯胺酮增加了特定脑区的c-Fos表达,包括腹侧海马体(vHPC)和左侧眶下内侧前额叶皮质(IL vmPFC)。我们的研究全面探索了氯胺酮在青春期恐惧消退中的作用机制,表明氯胺酮对青春期雄性小鼠恐惧消退的影响与海马体Akt-mTOR-GluA1信号通路的激活有关,腹侧海马体和左侧眶下内侧前额叶皮质被认为是相关神经关联。