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The role of orphanin FQ/nociceptin in neuroplasticity: relationship to stress, anxiety and neuroinflammation

The neuropeptide, orphanin FQ/nociceptin (OFQ/N or simply, nociceptin), is expressed in both neuronal and non-neuronal tissue, including the immune system. In the brain, OFQ/N has been investigated in relation to stress, anxiety, learning and memory, and addiction. More recently, it has also been fo...

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Autores principales: Mallimo, Elyse M., Kusnecov, Alexander W.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3792366/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24155687
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2013.00173
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author Mallimo, Elyse M.
Kusnecov, Alexander W.
author_facet Mallimo, Elyse M.
Kusnecov, Alexander W.
author_sort Mallimo, Elyse M.
collection PubMed
description The neuropeptide, orphanin FQ/nociceptin (OFQ/N or simply, nociceptin), is expressed in both neuronal and non-neuronal tissue, including the immune system. In the brain, OFQ/N has been investigated in relation to stress, anxiety, learning and memory, and addiction. More recently, it has also been found that OFQ/N influences glial cell functions, including oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and microglial cells. However, this latter research is relatively small, but potentially important, when observations regarding the relationship of OFQ/N to stress and emotional functions is taken into consideration and integrated with the growing evidence for its involvement in cells that mediate inflammatory events. This review will first provide an overview and understanding of how OFQ/N has been implicated in the HPA axis response to stress, followed by an understanding of its influence on natural and learned anxiety-like behavior. What emerges from an examination of the literature is a neuropeptide that appears to counteract anxiogenic influences, but paradoxically, without attenuating HPA axis responses generated in response to stress. Studies utilized both central administration of OFQ/N, which was shown to activate the HPA axis, as well as antagonism of NOP-R, the OFQ/N receptor. In contrast, antagonist or transgenic OFQ/N or NOP-R knockout studies, showed augmentation of HPA axis responses to stress, suggesting that OFQ/N may be needed to control the magnitude of the HPA axis response to stress. Investigations of behavior in standard exploratory tests of anxiogenic behavior (eg., elevated plus maze) or learned fear responses have suggested that OFQ/N is needed to attenuate fear or anxiety-like behavior. However, some discrepant observations, in particular, those that involve appetitive behaviors, suggest a failure of NOP-R deletion to increase anxiety. However, it is also suggested that OFQ/N may operate in an anxiolytic manner when initial anxiogenic triggers (eg., the neuropeptide CRH) are initiated. Finally, the regulatory functions of OFQ/N in relation to emotion-related behaviors may serve to counteract potential neuroinflammatory events in the brain. This appears to be evident within the glial cell environment of the brain, since OFQ/N has been shown to reduce the production of proinflammatory cellular and cytokine events. Given that both OFQ/N and glial cells are activated in response to stress, it is possible that there is a possible convergence of these two systems that has important repercussions for behavior and neuroplasticity.
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spelling pubmed-37923662013-10-23 The role of orphanin FQ/nociceptin in neuroplasticity: relationship to stress, anxiety and neuroinflammation Mallimo, Elyse M. Kusnecov, Alexander W. Front Cell Neurosci Neuroscience The neuropeptide, orphanin FQ/nociceptin (OFQ/N or simply, nociceptin), is expressed in both neuronal and non-neuronal tissue, including the immune system. In the brain, OFQ/N has been investigated in relation to stress, anxiety, learning and memory, and addiction. More recently, it has also been found that OFQ/N influences glial cell functions, including oligodendrocytes, astrocytes, and microglial cells. However, this latter research is relatively small, but potentially important, when observations regarding the relationship of OFQ/N to stress and emotional functions is taken into consideration and integrated with the growing evidence for its involvement in cells that mediate inflammatory events. This review will first provide an overview and understanding of how OFQ/N has been implicated in the HPA axis response to stress, followed by an understanding of its influence on natural and learned anxiety-like behavior. What emerges from an examination of the literature is a neuropeptide that appears to counteract anxiogenic influences, but paradoxically, without attenuating HPA axis responses generated in response to stress. Studies utilized both central administration of OFQ/N, which was shown to activate the HPA axis, as well as antagonism of NOP-R, the OFQ/N receptor. In contrast, antagonist or transgenic OFQ/N or NOP-R knockout studies, showed augmentation of HPA axis responses to stress, suggesting that OFQ/N may be needed to control the magnitude of the HPA axis response to stress. Investigations of behavior in standard exploratory tests of anxiogenic behavior (eg., elevated plus maze) or learned fear responses have suggested that OFQ/N is needed to attenuate fear or anxiety-like behavior. However, some discrepant observations, in particular, those that involve appetitive behaviors, suggest a failure of NOP-R deletion to increase anxiety. However, it is also suggested that OFQ/N may operate in an anxiolytic manner when initial anxiogenic triggers (eg., the neuropeptide CRH) are initiated. Finally, the regulatory functions of OFQ/N in relation to emotion-related behaviors may serve to counteract potential neuroinflammatory events in the brain. This appears to be evident within the glial cell environment of the brain, since OFQ/N has been shown to reduce the production of proinflammatory cellular and cytokine events. Given that both OFQ/N and glial cells are activated in response to stress, it is possible that there is a possible convergence of these two systems that has important repercussions for behavior and neuroplasticity. Frontiers Media S.A. 2013-10-08 /pmc/articles/PMC3792366/ /pubmed/24155687 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2013.00173 Text en Copyright © Mallimo and Kusnecov. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Mallimo, Elyse M.
Kusnecov, Alexander W.
The role of orphanin FQ/nociceptin in neuroplasticity: relationship to stress, anxiety and neuroinflammation
title The role of orphanin FQ/nociceptin in neuroplasticity: relationship to stress, anxiety and neuroinflammation
title_full The role of orphanin FQ/nociceptin in neuroplasticity: relationship to stress, anxiety and neuroinflammation
title_fullStr The role of orphanin FQ/nociceptin in neuroplasticity: relationship to stress, anxiety and neuroinflammation
title_full_unstemmed The role of orphanin FQ/nociceptin in neuroplasticity: relationship to stress, anxiety and neuroinflammation
title_short The role of orphanin FQ/nociceptin in neuroplasticity: relationship to stress, anxiety and neuroinflammation
title_sort role of orphanin fq/nociceptin in neuroplasticity: relationship to stress, anxiety and neuroinflammation
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3792366/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24155687
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fncel.2013.00173
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