• Oh Bin Kwon, Daniel Paredes, Carmen M Gonzalez, Jörg Neddens, Luis Hernandez, Detlef Vullhorst, and Andres Buonanno.
• Section on Molecular Neurobiology, Building 35, Room 2C-1000, The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892-3714, USA.
• Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 2008 Oct 7;105(40):15587-92.

AbstractNeuregulin-1 (NRG-1) is genetically linked with schizophrenia, a neurodevelopmental cognitive disorder characterized by imbalances in glutamatergic and dopaminergic function. NRG-1 regulates numerous neurodevelopmental processes and, in the adult, suppresses or reverses long-term potentiation (LTP) at hippocampal glutamatergic synapses. Here we show that NRG-1 stimulates dopamine release in the hippocampus and reverses early-phase LTP via activation of D4 dopamine receptors (D4R). NRG-1 fails to depotentiate LTP in hippocampal slices treated with the antipsychotic clozapine and other more selective D4R antagonists. Moreover, LTP is not depotentiated in D4R null mice by either NRG-1 or theta-pulse stimuli. Conversely, direct D4R activation mimics NRG-1 and reduces AMPA receptor currents and surface expression. These findings demonstrate that NRG-1 mediates its unique role in counteracting LTP via dopamine signaling and opens future directions to study new aspects of NRG function. The novel functional link between NRG-1, dopamine, and glutamate has important implications for understanding how imbalances in Neuregulin-ErbB signaling can impinge on dopaminergic and glutamatergic function, neurotransmitter pathways associated with schizophrenia.

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