Multi-omics analysis reveals miR-7220-5p alleviates N2O addictive behaviors via NR2B/ERK/CREB signaling.

Abstract

Nitrous oxide use Disorder（NUD）has recently received increasing social concern for its sharp rise among young people. However, the underlying mechanisms of NUD remain largely unexplored, which obstructs treatment strategy development and may exacerbate the epidemic of N2O abuse. Thus, specifying the essential mechanisms and targets in NUD are desperately needed. Here we unveiled a series of molecular adaptations regarding N2O reward memory in Nucleus accumbens (NAc) of mice through multi-omics approaches comprising transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics approaches. Our miRNA transcriptomics and pull-down proteomics analyzes uncovered that miR-7220-5p regulated N2O-induced conditioned-place preference (CPP) and associated increase of dendritic spine density in NAc of male mice. Our pull-down proteomics and metabolomics analyzes revealed that miR-7220-5p modulated ERK signaling pathway by directly binding with NR2B receptor. In summary, our work confirmed that restoring miR-7220-5p expression in NAc protected against synaptic abnormality via the NR2B/ERK/CREB signaling, thereby attenuating CPP behaviors in NUD. Selective inhibition of NR2B or ERK signaling blocked the reward memory of N2O-CPP via NAc microinjection. Our study proposed a potential therapeutic strategy for NUD and provided comprehensive resources of biological data to support future investigations of NUD treatment.Significance Statement Nitrous oxide Use Disorder (NUD) has recently received tremendously increasing social concern for its sharp rise among young people. Although the neurological consequences and their etiologies of consuming N2O have been well elucidated, the underlying mechanisms of NUD remain largely unexplored, which obstructs the development of clinical treatment strategies and may exacerbate the epidemic of N2O abuse. Our work uncovered the role of miR-7220-5p/NR2B/ERK/CREB signaling against synaptic abnormality/CPP behaviors. Selective inhibition of NR2B or ERK signaling blocked the reward memory of N2O-CPP via NAc microinjection. Our study proposed therapeutic targets for overcoming NUD behaviors and the omics data provided comprehensive biological resources to support future investigations of NUD.