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Early Life Stress, Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Alcohol Use Disorders

Stress is a major driving force in alcohol use disorders (AUDs). It influences how much one consumes, craving intensity and whether an abstinent individual will return to harmful alcohol consumption. We are most vulnerable to the effects of stress during early development, and exposure to multiple t...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Holgate, Joan Y., Bartlett, Selena E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4588139/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26136145
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci5030258
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author Holgate, Joan Y.
Bartlett, Selena E.
author_facet Holgate, Joan Y.
Bartlett, Selena E.
author_sort Holgate, Joan Y.
collection PubMed
description Stress is a major driving force in alcohol use disorders (AUDs). It influences how much one consumes, craving intensity and whether an abstinent individual will return to harmful alcohol consumption. We are most vulnerable to the effects of stress during early development, and exposure to multiple traumatic early life events dramatically increases the risk for AUDs. However, not everyone exposed to early life stress will develop an AUD. The mechanisms determining whether an individual’s brain adapts and becomes resilient to the effects of stress or succumbs and is unable to cope with stress remain elusive. Emerging evidence suggests that neuroplastic changes in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) following early life stress underlie the development of AUDs. This review discusses the impact of early life stress on NAc structure and function, how these changes affect cholinergic signaling within the mesolimbic reward pathway and the role nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) play in this process. Understanding the neural pathways and mechanism determining stress resilience or susceptibility will improve our ability to identify individuals susceptible to developing AUDs, formulate cognitive interventions to prevent AUDs in susceptible individuals and to elucidate and enhance potential therapeutic targets, such as the nAChRs, for those struggling to overcome an AUD.
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spelling pubmed-45881392015-10-08 Early Life Stress, Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Alcohol Use Disorders Holgate, Joan Y. Bartlett, Selena E. Brain Sci Review Stress is a major driving force in alcohol use disorders (AUDs). It influences how much one consumes, craving intensity and whether an abstinent individual will return to harmful alcohol consumption. We are most vulnerable to the effects of stress during early development, and exposure to multiple traumatic early life events dramatically increases the risk for AUDs. However, not everyone exposed to early life stress will develop an AUD. The mechanisms determining whether an individual’s brain adapts and becomes resilient to the effects of stress or succumbs and is unable to cope with stress remain elusive. Emerging evidence suggests that neuroplastic changes in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) following early life stress underlie the development of AUDs. This review discusses the impact of early life stress on NAc structure and function, how these changes affect cholinergic signaling within the mesolimbic reward pathway and the role nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) play in this process. Understanding the neural pathways and mechanism determining stress resilience or susceptibility will improve our ability to identify individuals susceptible to developing AUDs, formulate cognitive interventions to prevent AUDs in susceptible individuals and to elucidate and enhance potential therapeutic targets, such as the nAChRs, for those struggling to overcome an AUD. MDPI 2015-06-30 /pmc/articles/PMC4588139/ /pubmed/26136145 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci5030258 Text en © 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Holgate, Joan Y.
Bartlett, Selena E.
Early Life Stress, Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Alcohol Use Disorders
title Early Life Stress, Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Alcohol Use Disorders
title_full Early Life Stress, Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Alcohol Use Disorders
title_fullStr Early Life Stress, Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Alcohol Use Disorders
title_full_unstemmed Early Life Stress, Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Alcohol Use Disorders
title_short Early Life Stress, Nicotinic Acetylcholine Receptors and Alcohol Use Disorders
title_sort early life stress, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors and alcohol use disorders
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4588139/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26136145
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci5030258
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