Targeting the Maladaptive Effects of Binge Drinking on Circadian Gene Expression

Kolter Grigsby, Courtney Ledford, Tanvi Batish, Snigdha Kanadibhotla, Delaney Smith, Evan Firsick, Alexander Tran, Kayla Townsley, Kaylee Abril Vasquez Reyes, Katherine LeBlanc, Angela Ozburn

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

Previous studies (1) support a role of circadian genes in regulating alcohol intake, and (2) reveal that harmful alcohol use alters circadian rhythms. However, there is minimal knowledge of the effects of chronic alcohol processes on rhythmic circadian gene expression across brain regions important for circadian biology and alcohol intake. Therefore, the present study sought to test the effects of chronic binge-like drinking on diurnal circadian gene expression patterns in the master circadian pacemaker (SCN), the ventral tegmental area (VTA), and the nucleus accumbens (NAc) in High Drinking in the Dark-1 (HDID-1) mice, a unique genetic risk model for drinking to intoxication. Consistent with earlier findings, we found that 8 weeks of binge-like drinking reduced the amplitude of several core circadian clock genes in the NAc and SCN, but not the VTA. To better inform the use of circadian-relevant pharmacotherapies in reducing harmful drinking and ameliorating alcohol’s effects on circadian gene expression, we tested whether the casein kinase-1 inhibitor, PF-67046, or the phosphodiesterase type-4 (an upstream regulator of circadian signalling) inhibitor, apremilast, would reduce binge-like intake and mitigate circadian gene suppression. PF-67046 did not reduce intake but did have circadian gene effects. In contrast, apremilast reduced drinking, but had no effect on circadian expression patterns.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number11084
JournalInternational journal of molecular sciences
Volume23
Issue number19
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2022

Keywords

  • alcohol
  • circadian
  • gene expression
  • nucleus accumbens
  • suprachiasmatic nucleus
  • ventral tegmental area

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Catalysis
  • Molecular Biology
  • Spectroscopy
  • Computer Science Applications
  • Physical and Theoretical Chemistry
  • Organic Chemistry
  • Inorganic Chemistry

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