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Implication of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase in the Expression of Natural Reward: Evidence Not Found

Many studies have implicated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) in drug-rewarding properties. Yet, only few investigated whether ERK also mediates the naturally rewarding stimuli. In this study, we compared ERK activation in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) after cocaine reward and after positiv...

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Autores principales: Amaral, Inês M., Hofer, Alex, El Rawas, Rana
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8973696/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35368299
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.856675
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author Amaral, Inês M.
Hofer, Alex
El Rawas, Rana
author_facet Amaral, Inês M.
Hofer, Alex
El Rawas, Rana
author_sort Amaral, Inês M.
collection PubMed
description Many studies have implicated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) in drug-rewarding properties. Yet, only few investigated whether ERK also mediates the naturally rewarding stimuli. In this study, we compared ERK activation in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) after cocaine reward and after positive social interaction (SI) with a partner-reward in male rats. With our protocol, ERK phosphorylation in the NAc was not increased after cocaine reward. In addition, the interaction with a social partner did not alter ERK activation in the NAc. These results suggest that ERK in the NAc may not be involved in natural reward learning. SI in an alternative context to the one associated with drugs of abuse can abolish drug preference. Given that intra-NAc core ERK inhibition impaired the expression of cocaine preference, we wanted to investigate whether the protective effects of SI when an individual is allowed to interact with a social partner in an alternative context to the one associated with drugs during the learning phase are enhanced by ERK inhibition. For that, U0126 was bilaterally infused into the NAc core of rats conditioned with cocaine in one context and with SI in the opposite context before assessing the expression of reward-related learning. Intra-NAc core ERK inhibition was ineffective to impair the expression of drug reward as previously demonstrated, when a social partner was available in an alternative context. Thus, the effects of the pharmacological manipulations based on decreasing ERK activity are not cumulative to other treatments for drug addiction based on SI.
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spelling pubmed-89736962022-04-02 Implication of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase in the Expression of Natural Reward: Evidence Not Found Amaral, Inês M. Hofer, Alex El Rawas, Rana Front Behav Neurosci Behavioral Neuroscience Many studies have implicated extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) in drug-rewarding properties. Yet, only few investigated whether ERK also mediates the naturally rewarding stimuli. In this study, we compared ERK activation in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) after cocaine reward and after positive social interaction (SI) with a partner-reward in male rats. With our protocol, ERK phosphorylation in the NAc was not increased after cocaine reward. In addition, the interaction with a social partner did not alter ERK activation in the NAc. These results suggest that ERK in the NAc may not be involved in natural reward learning. SI in an alternative context to the one associated with drugs of abuse can abolish drug preference. Given that intra-NAc core ERK inhibition impaired the expression of cocaine preference, we wanted to investigate whether the protective effects of SI when an individual is allowed to interact with a social partner in an alternative context to the one associated with drugs during the learning phase are enhanced by ERK inhibition. For that, U0126 was bilaterally infused into the NAc core of rats conditioned with cocaine in one context and with SI in the opposite context before assessing the expression of reward-related learning. Intra-NAc core ERK inhibition was ineffective to impair the expression of drug reward as previously demonstrated, when a social partner was available in an alternative context. Thus, the effects of the pharmacological manipulations based on decreasing ERK activity are not cumulative to other treatments for drug addiction based on SI. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-03-18 /pmc/articles/PMC8973696/ /pubmed/35368299 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.856675 Text en Copyright © 2022 Amaral, Hofer and El Rawas. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/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) and the copyright owner(s) 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 Behavioral Neuroscience
Amaral, Inês M.
Hofer, Alex
El Rawas, Rana
Implication of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase in the Expression of Natural Reward: Evidence Not Found
title Implication of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase in the Expression of Natural Reward: Evidence Not Found
title_full Implication of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase in the Expression of Natural Reward: Evidence Not Found
title_fullStr Implication of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase in the Expression of Natural Reward: Evidence Not Found
title_full_unstemmed Implication of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase in the Expression of Natural Reward: Evidence Not Found
title_short Implication of Extracellular Signal-Regulated Kinase in the Expression of Natural Reward: Evidence Not Found
title_sort implication of extracellular signal-regulated kinase in the expression of natural reward: evidence not found
topic Behavioral Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8973696/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35368299
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2022.856675
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