Haloperidol-Induced Immediate Early Genes in Striatopallidal Neurons Requires the Converging Action of cAMP/PKA/DARPP-32 and mTOR Pathways

• Published in: International journal of molecular sciences Vol. 23; no. 19; p. 11637
• Main Authors: Onimus, Oriane, Valjent, Emmanuel, Fisone, Gilberto, Gangarossa, Giuseppe
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.10.2022; MDPI
• Subjects: Adaptation; Adenosine; Animal models; Antipsychotics; D2R; DARPP-32 protein; Dopamine; Dopamine D2 receptors; EGR-1 protein; Genes; Glutamic acid receptors (ionotropic); Haloperidol; immediate early genes; Immediate-early proteins; Immunofluorescence; Intracellular signalling; Kinases; Life Sciences; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; N-Methyl-D-aspartic acid receptors; Neostriatum; Neurobiology; Neurons; Neurons and Cognition; Pharmacology; PKA; Protein kinase A; Proteins; Psychotropic drugs; Regulation; Spiny neurons; striatum; TOR protein; Transgenic mice; haloperidol; striatum; D2R; PKA; immediate early genes; mTOR; dopamine
• ISSN: 1422-0067; 1661-6596; 1422-0067
• DOI: 10.3390/ijms231911637

Antipsychotics share the common pharmacological feature of antagonizing the dopamine 2 receptor (D2R), which is abundant in the striatum and involved in both the therapeutic and side effects of this drug’s class. The pharmacological blockade of striatal D2R, by disinhibiting the D2R-containing medium-sized spiny neurons (MSNs), leads to a plethora of molecular, cellular and behavioral adaptations, which are central in the action of antipsychotics. Here, we focused on the cell type-specific (D2R-MSNs) regulation of some striatal immediate early genes (IEGs), such as cFos, Arc and Zif268. Taking advantage of transgenic mouse models, pharmacological approaches and immunofluorescence analyses, we found that haloperidol-induced IEGs in the striatum required the synergistic activation of A2a (adenosine) and NMDA (glutamate) receptors. At the intracellular signaling level, we found that the PKA/DARPP-32 and mTOR pathways synergistically cooperate to control the induction of IEGs by haloperidol. By confirming and further expanding previous observations, our results provide novel insights into the regulatory mechanisms underlying the molecular/cellular action of antipsychotics in the striatum.