Amygdala-hippocampus circuit regulates stress coping via mGluR5-dependent BDNF signaling

Abstract

Stress-related psychiatric disorders are underpinned by dysfunction in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus; however, the underlying circuit-specific mechanisms remain ill-defined. Here, we identified the basolateral amygdala (BLA)-to-ventral hippocampus (vHPC) circuit as a critical regulator of stress-coping behaviors. Although chronic social defeat stress reduced the mGluR5 expression in both the vHPC and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), our circuit-specific behavioral analysis revealed that the activation of the BLA-vHPC circuit produced a significantly greater improvement in coping behavior compared with the activation of the BLA-mPFC circuit. Subsequently, we mechanistically demonstrated that reduced mGluR5 in the vHPC directly impairs CREB-mediated brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) transcription, a molecular cascade tightly linked to passive coping. These findings reveal a novel circuit-specific molecular mechanism governing stress recovery, positioning the mGluR5-BDNF pathway as a highly specific and promising therapeutic target for future gene therapy interventions.