title: Lack of β2-AR Increases Anxiety-Like Behaviors and Rewarding Properties of Cocaine.
abstract: It is well known that β-adrenoceptors (β-ARs) play a critical role in emotional arousal and stressful events, but the specific contributions of the β2-AR subtype to the psychological disorders are largely unknown. To investigate whether β2-AR are involved in anxiety-like behavior and reward to addictive drugs, we conducted a series of behavioral tests on β2-AR knock-out (KO) mice. β2-AR KO mice exhibited increased preference for the dark compartment and closed arm in tests of Light/Dark box and elevated plus maze, indicating that β2-AR deletion elevates level of anxiety or innate fear. β2-AR KO mice also showed decreased immobility in tail suspension test (TST), suggesting that β2-AR deletion inhibits depression-like behavior. Interestingly, β2-AR ablation did not change basal locomotion but significantly increased locomotor activity induced by acute cocaine administration. β2-AR KO mice showed enhanced place preference for cocaine, which could be attenuated by β1-selective AR antagonist betaxolol. Consistently, β2-AR agonist suppressed cocaine-conditioned place preference (CPP). These data indicate that β2-AR deletion enhances acute response and reward to cocaine. Our results suggest that β2-AR regulates anxiety level, depression-like behavior and hedonic properties of cocaine, implicating that β2-AR are the potential targets for the treatment of emotional disorders and cocaine addiction.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Huiwen
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Zhiyuan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Yiming
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xuming
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yin
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Bo
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Lan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Medical Neurobiology, School of Basic Medical Sciences and the Institutes of Brain Science, Collaborative Innovation Center for Brain Science, Fudan University Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
keywords: anxiety; cocaine; depression; reward; β2-AR