title: S-adenosylmethionine modifies cocaine-induced DNA methylation and increases locomotor sensitization in mice.
abstract: Several studies suggest that individual variability is a critical component underlying drug addiction as not all members of a population who use addictive substance become addicted. There is evidence that the overall epigenetic status of a cell (epigenome) can be modulated by a variety of environmental factors, such as nutrients and chemicals. Based on these data, our aim was to investigate whether environmental factors like S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) via affecting epigenome could alter cocaine-induced gene expression and locomotor sensitization in mice. Our results demonstrate that repeated SAM (10 mm/kg) pretreatment significantly potentiated cocaine-induced locomotor sensitization. Using mouse nucleus accumbens (NAc) tissue, whole-genome gene expression profiling revealed that repeated SAM treatment affected a limited number of genes, but significantly modified cocaine-induced gene expression by blunting non-specifically the cocaine response. At the gene level, we discovered that SAM modulated cocaine-induced DNA methylation by inhibiting both promoter-associated CpG-island hyper- and hypomethylation in the NAc but not in the reference tissue cerebellum. Finally, our in vitro and in vivo data show that the modulating effect of SAM is in part due to decreased methyltransferase activity via down-regulation of Dnmt3a mRNA. Taken together, our results suggest that environmental factors that affect the NAc-cell epigenome may alter the development of psychostimulant-induced addiction and this may explain, at least partly, why some individuals are more vulnerable to drug addiction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacology, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia.
authors.forename: Kaili
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Anier
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Zharkovsky
authors.forename: Anti
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kalda
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000187:drug effects*; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003042:Cocaine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D019970:Cocaine-Related Disorders / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism / Q000523:psychology; D018899:CpG Islands; D004248:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D019175:DNA Methylation / Q000187:drug effects*; D000090205:DNA Methyltransferase 3A; D015536:Down-Regulation; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects*; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D008297:Male; D051379:Mice; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000187:drug effects*; D009714:Nucleus Accumbens / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000378:metabolism; D016716:PC12 Cells; D011401:Promoter Regions, Genetic; D051381:Rats; D012436:S-Adenosylmethionine / Q000494:pharmacology*; D013997:Time Factors; D014158:Transcription, Genetic / Q000187:drug effects; D000097584:DNA Methyltransferase 3B
chemical_list: D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D003042:Cocaine; D004248:DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases; D000090205:DNA Methyltransferase 3A; D012436:S-Adenosylmethionine; D000097584:DNA Methyltransferase 3B; C000715535:Dnmt3a protein, mouse