IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v11y2020i1d10.1038_s41467-020-14458-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A specific prelimbic-nucleus accumbens pathway controls resilience versus vulnerability to food addiction

Author

Listed:
  • Laura Domingo-Rodriguez

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF))

  • Inigo Ruiz de Azua

    (University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
    Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research)

  • Eduardo Dominguez

    (The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology)

  • Eric Senabre

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF))

  • Irene Serra

    (Instituto Cajal, CSIC)

  • Sami Kummer

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF))

  • Mohit Navandar

    (Johannes Gutenberg University)

  • Sarah Baddenhausen

    (University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)

  • Clementine Hofmann

    (University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
    Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz)

  • Raul Andero

    (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB)
    CIBERSAM
    Unitat de Neurociència Traslacional, ParcTaulí Hospital Universitari, Institut d’Investigació i Innovació ParcTaulí (I3PT), Institut de Neurociències, UAB)

  • Susanne Gerber

    (Johannes Gutenberg University)

  • Marta Navarrete

    (Instituto Cajal, CSIC)

  • Mara Dierssen

    (The Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology
    Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM))

  • Beat Lutz

    (University Medical Center of the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
    Leibniz Institute for Resilience Research)

  • Elena Martín-García

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
    Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB))

  • Rafael Maldonado

    (Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF)
    Hospital del Mar Medical Research Institute (IMIM))

Abstract

Food addiction is linked to obesity and eating disorders and is characterized by a loss of behavioral control and compulsive food intake. Here, using a food addiction mouse model, we report that the lack of cannabinoid type-1 receptor in dorsal telencephalic glutamatergic neurons prevents the development of food addiction-like behavior, which is associated with enhanced synaptic excitatory transmission in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and in the nucleus accumbens (NAc). In contrast, chemogenetic inhibition of neuronal activity in the mPFC-NAc pathway induces compulsive food seeking. Transcriptomic analysis and genetic manipulation identified that increased dopamine D2 receptor expression in the mPFC-NAc pathway promotes the addiction-like phenotype. Our study unravels a new neurobiological mechanism underlying resilience and vulnerability to the development of food addiction, which could pave the way towards novel and efficient interventions for this disorder.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura Domingo-Rodriguez & Inigo Ruiz de Azua & Eduardo Dominguez & Eric Senabre & Irene Serra & Sami Kummer & Mohit Navandar & Sarah Baddenhausen & Clementine Hofmann & Raul Andero & Susanne Gerber & , 2020. "A specific prelimbic-nucleus accumbens pathway controls resilience versus vulnerability to food addiction," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 11(1), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-14458-y
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-14458-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-14458-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-020-14458-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:11:y:2020:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-020-14458-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.