• Shelly Sooyun Song, Byeong Jun Kang, Lei Wen, Hyo Jin Lee, Hye-Ri Sim, Tae Hyong Kim, Sehyoun Yoon, Bong-June Yoon, George J Augustine, and Ja-Hyun Baik.
• Department of Life Sciences, Molecular Neurobiology Laboratory, School of Life Sciences and Biotechnology Korea University, Seoul, South Korea.
• Front Behav Neurosci. 2014 Jan 1;8:336.

AbstractLong-lasting, drug-induced adaptations within the nucleus accumbens (NAc) have been proposed to contribute to drug-mediated addictive behaviors. Here we have used an optogenetic approach to examine the role of NAc medium spiny neurons (MSNs) expressing dopamine D2 receptors (D2Rs) in cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization. Adeno-associated viral vectors encoding channelrhodopsin-2 (ChR2) were delivered into the NAc of D2R-Cre transgenic mice. This allowed us to selectively photostimulate D2R-MSNs in NAc. D2R-MSNs form local inhibitory circuits, because photostimulation of D2R-MSN evoked inhibitory postsynaptic currents (IPSCs) in neighboring MSNs. Photostimulation of NAc D2R-MSN in vivo affected neither the initiation nor the expression of cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization. However, photostimulation during the drug withdrawal period attenuated expression of cocaine-induced behavioral sensitization. These results show that D2R-MSNs of NAc play a key role in withdrawal-induced plasticity and may contribute to relapse after cessation of drug abuse.

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