mGluR1/5 receptor densities in the brains of alcoholic subjects: A whole-hemisphere autoradiography study

Endogenous cannabinoids in amygdala and hippocampus in post-mortem brains of Cloninger type 1 and 2 alcoholics

“…There was a large negative correlation between AEA levels in hippocampus and previously published mGluR1/5 receptor concentrations (Kupila et al, 2012) in the hippocampal CA1 region (R=-0.88; Figure 2) in Cloninger type 1 alcoholics. This correlation was not seen in the control group or in type 2 alcoholics, and the difference between the three study groups was significant ( 2 =9.403, p=0.009).…”

“…In order to study the possible correlations of measured EC levels to the regulatory mGlu1/5 receptor system, Spearman correlations were calculated to determine direct correlations of EC levels to previously published mGlu1/5 receptor densities (Kupila et al, 2012). The differences in Spearman correlations between the subject groups were tested by Fisher's (z)-transformation of correlations to evaluate the overall differences, followed by a Tukey-type test to compare individual groups.…”

“…The main aim of the present study was to examine endocannabinoid profiles in the amygdala and hippocampus by measuring 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG), arachidonoylethanolamine (anandamide, AEA), dihomo--linolenoylethanolamine (LEA), docosatetraenoylethanolamine (DHEA), palmitoyl ethanolamine (PEA) and oleoyl ethanolamine (OEA) levels in post-mortem brain samples of type 1 and 2 alcoholics and a control group. Secondary aim of the present study was to determine possible correlations between EC levels and previously published mGluR1/5 densities from these same individuals (Kupila et al, 2012), because activation of mGluR5 has been associated with the release of ECs (Chavez et al, 2010).…”

“…Dysfunctional stress responses, including allostatic alterations in the function of the stress-mediating amygdala and stressinhibiting hippocampus, have been hypothesized to be one of the key neural changes in the pathology of addiction, which proceeds from a negative reinforcement of learning processes (Funk et al, 2006;Koob and Le Moal, 2008;Vendruscolo et al, 2012). Alterations in the stress systems of Cloninger type 1 and type 2 alcoholics have been reported, for example, as altered metabotropic glutamate receptor 1/5 (mGluR1/5) densities in the hippocampus (Kupila et al, 2012), altered serotonin transporter (SERT) densities in the amygdala (Storvik et al, 2007) and altered ratios between SERT densities in the amygdala and hypothalamus . Endocannabinoids (ECs) have been associated with alcohol dependence (Pava and Woodward, 2012), with the regulation of stress response (Ruehle et al, 2012) and with the modulation of stress-enhanced negative reinforcement learning (Campolongo et al, 2009;Ramot and Akirav, 2012).…”

Metabotropic glutamate receptor mGluR2/3 and mGluR5 binding in the anterior cingulate cortex in psychotic and nonpsychotic depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia: implications for novel mGluR-based therapeutics

“…33 One confound of postmortem studies in neuropsychiatric disorders, is the presence of comorbid substance abuse, especially alcohol and drug abuse, or at least substantially higher alcohol 43 and illicit drug 44 intake in patients with psychiatric disorders. While reliable quantitative patient histories were not available in the present study, mGluR1/5 densities in the prefrontal cortex may be affected by alcohol, 45 and mGluR2 gene expression was reported to be reduced in the ACC of patients with alcohol addiction. 46 Furthermore, there is a growing body of evidence suggesting that mGluRs may be involved in drug and alcohol addiction disorders.…”