Early life stress can elicit long-lasting changes in gene expression and behavior. Recent studies on rodents suggest that these lasting effects depend on the genetic background. Whether epigenetic factors also play a role remains to be investigated. Here we exposed the stress-susceptible mouse strain Balb/c and the more resilient strain C57Bl/6 to a powerful early life stress paradigm, infant maternal separation. In Balb/c mice, infant maternal separation led to decreased expression of mRNA encoding the histone deacetylases (HDACs) 1, 3, 7, 8, and 10 in the forebrain neocortex in adulthood, an effect accompanied by increased expression of acetylated histone H4 proteins, especially acetylated H4K12 protein. These changes in HDAC expression and histone modifications were not detected in C57Bl/6 mice exposed to early life stress. Moreover, a reversal of the H4K12 hyperacetylation detected in infant maternally separated Balb/c mice (achieved with chronic adolescent treatment with a low dose of theophylline that only activates HDACs) worsened the abnormal emotional phenotype resulting from this early life stress exposure. In contrast, fluoxetine, a drug with potent antidepressant efficacy in infant maternally separated Balb/c mice, potentiated all histone modifications triggered by early life stress. Moreover, in non-stressed Balb/c mice, co-administration of an HDAC inhibitor and fluoxetine, but not fluoxetine alone, elicited antidepressant effects and also triggered changes in histone H4 expression that were similar to those provoked by fluoxetine treatment of mice exposed to early life stress. These results suggest that Balb/c mice develop epigenetic modifications after early life stress exposure that, in terms of the emotive phenotype, are of adaptive nature, and that enhance the efficacy of antidepressant drugs.

Rationale A major challenge in the pharmacological treatment of psychotic disorders is the effective management of the associated cognitive dysfunctions. Novel concepts emphasize a potential benefit of partial agonists acting upon dopamine D2-like receptors in ameliorating these cognitive deficits, and pre-clinical studies suggest that D3-receptor-preferring compounds can exert pro-cognitive effects. Objective The objective of the study was to use acute phencyclidine (PCP) treatment to model the cognitive deficits of schizophrenia in mice, and to test the efficacy of the novel, dopamine D3-receptor-preferring drug cariprazine in ameliorating the severity of PCP-triggered cognitive deficits. Methods One group of wild-type or D3-receptor knockout mice was acutely treated with either saline or phencyclidine (PCP, 1 mg/kg). A separate group of mice was treated with cariprazine prior to PCP administration. Both groups were then tested in three cognitive tasks: social interaction/recognition and recognition memory, spatial working memory, and attention-set-shifting. Results PCP effectively disrupted social recognition and social recognition memory, spatial working memory, and extradimensional attention set-shifting. Cariprazine pretreatment significantly attenuated the emergence of these cognitive deficits in PCP-treated wild-type mice, but not in PCP-treated D3-receptor knockout mice. Conclusions In an animal model of PCP-induced cognitive impairment, cariprazine pretreatment significantly diminished PCP-triggered cognitive deficits, and studies on knockout mice show that dopamine D3 receptors contribute to this effect.

Early life stress can elicit profound changes in adult gene expression and behavior. One consequence of early life stress is a decreased expression of glucocorticoid receptors (GRs) in the frontal cortex and hippocampus. However, neither the time of onset nor the mechanism(s) leading to decreased GR expression during postnatal development are known. The present study used two inbred strains of mice that differ in their behavioral responsiveness to stress (Balb/c and C57Bl/6), exposed them to an established paradigm of early life stress (infant maternal separation), and measured their expression of frontal cortical and hippocampal GRs and the putative transcriptional activator of the GR gene, early growth response gene (egr)-1, at defined stages of postnatal development. In both strains, real-time RT-PCR experiments revealed that decreased expression of GR in adolescence and adulthood is, in fact, preceded by increased GR expression during early life stress exposure. Thus, the early life stress-induced disruption of the normal stress-hyporesponsive period during infancy is accompanied by increased GR expression. Moreover, chronic treatment with the antidepressant drug fluoxetine during adolescence or adulthood reversed the effect of early life stress on adult GR mRNA expression. In contrast to the strain-independent effect of early life stress on GR expression, however, changes in egr-1 expression occurred only in Balb/c mice, and unlike the biphasic developmental changes in GR mRNA expression, egr-1 mRNA was decreased throughout postnatal development. Moreover, there was no consistent overlap of anatomic regions affected by decreased GR and egr-1 protein expression. Thus, in Balb/c mice, changes in GR and egr-1 expression can independently contribute to the phenotypes resulting from early life stress exposure. These findings illustrate that the impact of early life stress on gene expression changes is modulated by the genetic background and that the persistent changes in GR and egr-1 expression that arise early during postnatal developmental are reversible by chronic fluoxetine treatment during adolescence and adulthood.

The serotonin 2C receptor (5-HT2CR), a Gq-protein-coupled neurotransmitter receptor, exists in multiple isoforms that result from RNA editing of five exonic adenosines that are converted to inosines. In the adult brain, editing of 5-HT2C pre-mRNA exhibits remarkable plasticity in response to environmental and neurochemical stimuli. Here, we investigated two potential mechanisms underlying these plastic changes in adult 5-HT2CR editing phenotypes in vivo: activation of phospholipase C (PLC) and alternative splicing of pre-mRNA encoding the editing enzymes ADAR1 and ADAR2. Studies on two inbred strains of mice (C57Bl/6 and Balb/c) revealed that sustained stimulation of PLC-a downstream effector of activated Gaq protein-increased editing of forebrain neocortical 5-HT2C pre-mRNA at two sites known to be targeted by ADAR2. Moreover, changes in relative expression of the alternatively spliced ''a'' and ''b'' mRNA isoforms of ADAR1 and ADAR2 also correlate with changes in 5-HT2CR editing. The site-specific changes in 5-HT2CR editing detected in mice with different ''a'' over ''b'' ADAR mRNA isoform ratios only partially overlap with those evoked by sustained PLC activation and are best explained by the increased editing efficiency of ADAR1. Thus, activation of PLC and alternative splicing of ADAR pre-mRNA have both overlapping and specific roles in modulating 5-HT2CR editing phenotypes.